Lamb steak with Parsnip Crisps and Chard.

Season the lamb and marinate overnight in olive oil, garlic, thyme, bay and lemon juice.
Peel the parsnip and with a potato peeler or mandolin cut into thin strips - place in an oven proof dish roll in oilve oil season and sprinkle with chopped thyme or parsley place into a hot (180 -200 degrees) oven. Gently turn a few times while they cook (they take around 10-12 mins depending on thickness and go from cooked to burnt very quickly so keep an eye on them!).
Griddle the lamb in a hot pan and leave to rest.
Cut the stems from the chard and place in steamer. Place the leaves on top and steam until cooked. Squeeze any excess water from the leaves and dress in butter/oil and a dash of lemon juice.

Mediterranean Salad

Nice easy and quick this one and can be prepared well in advance.
Slice your veg of choice I used courgettes, aubergine, red pepper, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and baby artichokes.
Slice up all the veg (except the chokes) and brush with oilve oil and season. Cook in batches on a hot griddle and place in a covered bowl, they will keep warm and continue to cook in the steam. Only the aubergines have to be cooked throughly as all the others are just as nice partialy cooked.
Remove the tough outer leaves from the chokes and peel the stalks. Chop off the tough tops and place in a pan of salted water with lemon added to stop them discolouring. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until cooked. Drain and dress with a dash more lemon and oilve oil and leave to cool.
When cooled cut the chokes into halves or quarters and griddle.
Dress all the veg with olive oil and a dash of good vinegar, season with salt and pepper and add chopped fresh parsley and some dried oregano and serve.
Asparagus (griddled or steamed) and fennel would also work very well.

Beef and Mushrooms Braised in Guiness with Roasted Roots.

Dust the diced beef with plain flour and colour in a casserole, remove the coloured meat and set aside.
Finely chop some carrots, onions and celery and soften in oil/butter in the same casserole. Return the cooked beef and add some guiness enough to just cover the meat and veg.
Cover and transfer to a med / low oven and cook as long as slow as you can  - the longer and slower you do this the better it will be esp with cheaper more fatty cuts of beef.
About an hour before serving remove from the oven and add chopped mushrooms.

For the roasted roots i used some home grown salsify and artichokes with some bought potatoes and carrots, but you can use any - parsnips also go well, but the shop had sold out!
I par boiled the potatoes in salted water for 5 mins or so, while they were boiling i chopped a few carrots in half and cleaned and chopped the chokes (the trick is to get them all to a size that they will be ready at the same time so carrots and chokes larger than the potatoes). Put in a roasting tin with oil and chopped rosemary and put in the oven.
About half an hour before they are ready peel the salsify and par boil for a few mins in salted water with some lemon juice added to stop it browning.
Let it dry for a min or two before adding to the roasting tin.
When all the veg is cooked serve.

Rosemary Poached Pears.

Peel the pears and place in a saucepan cover with water add sugar to taste, a sprig or two of rosemary and a slice of lemon (best to keep it to one slice so as not to over power the rosemary).
Bring to a gentle boil and turn off the heat and place the lid on the saucepan and poach for 10mins (less if using soft pears or small ones).
The resulting pears have a very subtle hint of rosemary and can be served as a desert (you can reduce the poaching liquid after removing the rosemary and lemon and use as a syrup), or served cool with a salad - they are great with smoked salmon and chicory, or with cheese.

http://www.lavenderandlovage.com/2014/03/march-challenge-for-cooking-with-herbs.html

Blackberry Mousse

A little late for picking blackberries now as we are well past Michelmas, but if you have any saved or frozen then...
Wash about 1/2 kilo of Blackberries and place the best ones to one side for decoration later.
Put the rest into a pan with a dash of water and heat gently until they release their juices.
While that is cooking prepare some gelatine (either leave or powder).
Mash the blackberries in the pan and pass them through a fine sieve into a bowl pushing through as much juice and pulp as you can with a wooden spoon.
Pour the juice into a clean pan and add a some lemon juice (about 1/2 a lemon)- bring to a simmer them remove from the heat and stir in the gelatine. Set aside to cool.
Mix 3 eggs in a bowl with 100g of caster sugar until mousse like and while continuing to whisk slowly add the cooled juice and then 150ml of eith creme fresh double or soured cream or a comb of either.
Pour into glasses and put in the fridge to set.
Before serving decorate with the reserved blackberries.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes with Blue Cheese

A Mark Hix recipe this one, and makes a great starter.
Get a selection of different types of tomatoes - cutting the larger ones into half or quarters.
Place on a roasting tray, drizzle with olive oil, scatter over some thyme and season with salt & pepper.

Place in an oven on 120 degrees - that's gas mark 1-2 for 2-3 hours until the toms are about half their original size.
I also used tiny cherry toms and added them half way through cooking.
Remove from the oven transfer to a plate - scatter with blue cheese - I used Stilton but Blue Vinny, Basque Blue or any good blue will do.
Scatter over some torn Basil and serve.
They also store well when cooled in kilner type jars - just cover with more olive oil.

Onion Tarts

Slowly fry sliced onions in a little butter, some olive oil and thyme. The slower you cook the onions the nicer these tarts will be - I cooked mine for a good 40-50mins.
While the onions are cooking roll out and cut some pastry to size for the dish / dishes that you are using - blind bake them for 10/15 mins if you wish.
Beat enough eggs to fill your tarts and combine with some sour cream or creme fresh and season with salt & pepper.
Finaly assemble the tart by adding the cooked onion, crumbling in a cheese of your choice and filling with the egg mixture and bake in a pre-heated oven til cooked.
I used three different cheeses for the tarts pictured - one is with Morbier, one Comte and the last one a good french goats cheese.

I also made a beetroot and goats cheese tart with some left over pastry & onion mixture. Just add some balsamic vinegar to the onion and boil a beetroot - slice and arrange on top of the onion with some goats cheese and bake (no egg mixture on this one).

If you are feeling really ambitious assemble the beetroot in the dish first put the onion mixture on top of that - then top with the pastry tucking into the sides of the dish, bake and turn out for a beetroot tarte tatin.