Lamb cutlets, mint salsa and roast pumpkin mash

So for the past couple of weeks John has been making 'joke' comments about wanting a crown roast. You know the type of thing,
Sal "what should we eat?"
John "a crown roast with thrice baked potatoes, truffles and greens tossed in verjuice" (said in his poshest 'Pru & Trude' voice)

So yesterday I saw these lovely organic lamb racks at the supermarket and I couldn't go past them. I didn't really know what to do with them then and there, so just made up this dish with what we had at home. Well John was well impressed, declaring it to be perhaps the best meal I had ever made, high praise indeed! Personally I think he just has a short food memory, but it was pretty tasty, the minty salsa was much better than I expected.

Ingredients

* Lamb rack (size will depend on how many you are cooking for I had just under 500g for 2 peeps)
* Olive oil, salt and pepper to season
* Butternut pumpkin chopped (again, amount depends on peeps)
* splosh of cream
Salsa
* 1 lebanese cucumber (diced finely)
* almost a cup of mint leaves
* 2 spring onions
* 1/2 an avocado
* 1 tbs olive oil
* 2 tbs balsamic
* 1 tsp sugar

Method
* Start with pumpkin by tossing in olive oil and season with salt and pepper, place in moderately hot oven (200deg) to roast for about 45 mins
* After about half and hour turn the oven down to 170-180 so it is not too hot for the lamb
* With the lamb rack just trim it of any big obvious fatty bits, rub olive oil into it then season with salt and pepper.
* When the pumpkin is roasted and soft, take from oven but keep warm, before serving mash with fork and add a splash of cream if you need a bit more moisture, but you may not need anything.
* Place lamb in (now slightly cooler)oven, and you'll need to cook it for about half and hour for each 500g of meat to have it lovely and moist

Salsa-as I said was a bit of an experiment but lovely, and this is what I did
* Chopped cucumber finely, added finely chopped spring onion
* Stir through olive oil and balsamic (I have pretty good olive oil and divine balsamic and seriously think this is the most important thing for these kind of cold dishes)
* As I was chopping the mint I sprinkled a pinch of sugar over the leaves, then stirred them through the rest of the mixture (adding a leeeetle more sugar at the same time)
* The finely diced avocado was a bit of an after thought so that went in at the very end, but a fine addition

A surprise little bit of gourmet for a thursday night in the burbs. Easy and tasty, Enjoy!