Stuffed Leg Of Lamb cooked in Guinness

St Patricks Day and a stuffed leg with a drop of the Black Stuff

I had been considering doing something for St Pat’s day (Sunday 17 March) so where better to start than with a piece of lamb and a bottle of Guinness. Now getting the lamb in Germany is difficult but is easier than getting the Guinness, I popped into my local Turkish butcher (the best place to get lamb in Germany) and staring me in the face was a nice piece of the top end of the leg, it was just over 1 kg with the bone in, so would do me for two meals.

I then had to traipse the supermarkets and Getränkemarkts (off licences) and was giving up hope of finding a few bottles of Guinness, when I thought about a small one just around the corner from my house, I could have saved myself a lot of heart searching if I had thought of it first.

So it was to be stuffed leg of lamb in an onion and Guinness confit sauce, served with French beans and Champ. Well that is what it should have been, but though I had bought the potatoes I had forgotten the scallions, but I had bought some young leeks so these made a fine substitute.

The quantities can be upped to suit  the number eating, but this would have done two just fine.

1kg of fillet end of a leg (you can get your butcher to debone it, but doing it yourself isn’t difficult)

¼ packet of sage and onion stuffing

250ml marigold vegetable stock

1 large shallot (diced)

3 cloves of garlic (crushed and diced)

3 sprigs of rosemary

6 large leaves of fresh sage

2 large onions

Small handful of freeze dried soup vegetables (or fresh if you have them)

Salt and pepper

Olive oil for frying and sautéing

2 bottles of Guinness

So first debone your piece of lamb, slit along the length of the bone, open it out and work your knife along the bone releasing the flesh, (you could use the bone to make stock, but as I had some I didn’t need too)

 

Make your sage, rosemary and onion stuffing, I used a packet with additional shallots, sage and rosemary. I made up a cup of vegetable stock, added this to the packet sage in a bowl and left to soak while I chopped the herbs and sautéed the shallot and garlic, added these and allowed to swell.

Open the meat out skin side down on a board and butterfly it, by making small incisions so that the piece of meat is flat, salt and pepper the meat and I put a sprig of rosemary into the centre.  I then filled the centre with the stuffing and rolled, binding together with kitchen twine, pinning another sprig of rosemary under the twine.

 

Switch the oven on and set to 220°C.
In the mean time I had finely sliced the onions and another couple of garlic cloves, heated a couple of table spoons of Olive oil into my trusty cast Iron casserole (one of the best buys from Aldi ever) and slowly softened the onions allowing them to take on a little colour. 

 

Removed from the casserole and added some more oil, heated up high and browned the lamb all over, turn the heat down and return the onion and garlic to the casserole. 

 

Add a bottle of Guinness and the vegetables, lid on and into the oven for 20mins, then turn the oven down to 180°C and forget about it for 1 to 1½ hrs, by this time the lamb will be melting (this is not a rare cooked leg of lamb, that is for another day), the onions and Guinness turned into a fantastic confit, I now removed the meat covered and set aside to rest.

I added 400ml of beef stock, just because I had some, but it could have been any stock or wine or more Guinness. This made a fantastic rich sauce,

 

I had boiled some potatoes, sautéed some finely sliced young leeks, mashed the potatoes with a good knob of butter and a slug of milk, and added the softened leeks.

I had also steamed some green French beans, so there it was St Patrick’s Day stuffed leg of lamb, oops nearly forgot open up that other bottle and pour yourself a glass of the Black Stuff (wine just doesn’t go with this)

 

Lambs shanks St. Patrick

I had been thinking about what to do for St Patrick’s day (it was on the Saturday, but I didn’t fancy anything heavy on Saturday evening so decided to make lamb shanks on the Sunday. It was made Irish by doing it in Guinness and serving with champ and cabbage and bacon.

I had popped into my local Turkish shop, the one with the lady butcher, I had a look and they had loads of lamb and mutton, but I couldn’t see any lamb shanks, on inquiring, she went into the butchery place at the rear and came back with four. She said, take all four and I’ll give you a special price. I said, ok, what are they going to cost? She said €20 for the four. What a bargain they weighed in at over 2 kg. (Though until a couple of years ago they would have cost only half that)!

Ingredients:

4 lamb shanks

1 large carrot

1 piece of celeriac

White of a leek

1 large onion

1 sprig of parsley

1 sprig of mint

½ l of stock (what ever you have at hand, chicken, lamb or vegetable)

1 can of Guinness

Splash of port

Bouquet garni (Thyme, marjoram, sage)

1 tsp of rosemary needles

2 bay leaves

1 piece of mace

2 cloves

4 garlic cloves

100g of bacon chopped into lardoons (I used ready prepared speck)

Salt and pepper mixed

Next day, I was going angling so was up early (though as I am always up early this was nothing new).

Rubbed the shanks all over in the salt and pepper mixture

Diced and sliced the vegetables, nothing pretty as it was to add to the stock and be cooked for a good few hours

I softened the speck and onion in a little oil in a large frying pan at the same time browning the shanks in my skillet.

Popped 3 garlic cloves or it may have been 4, into the bottom of my large 6½ litre SC put ½ of the bacon and onion mixture into the SC along with the vegetables, then in went the herbs and spices.

Pour in the stock, then the rest of the onions and speck.

Pour in the Guinness and the slug of Port, lid on and out fishing.

A little aside, I got to the lake, paid for my day ticket (maximum 10 fish), got a nice pitch and sat about chatting to a few of the others that had been even earlier, many had about their limit. I got a bite almost straight away, out came a nice Lachsforelle oh ho, this is going to be a good day thought I. Alas just then the heavens opened up and it poured down. It looked as if it would be a long one, so I took my fish to the station and had it gutted and cleaned. The owner said, you not staying? I said no, it looks as if it will be quite a long rain spell, he then gave me a voucher for ½ a days fishing saying pop back in a couple of weeks. Now I thought that was a nice gesture, he didn’t have to but he is just a very nice man.

So as I had a bit of time to spare I decided to go to the Steinhorster becken a set of lakes that had been set up as a relief against flooding on the river Ems, this has been turned into a nature reserve, but it was still pouring down and even the birds didn’t feel like flying in this weather.

I next popped down the Ems a little further to the Rietberg wet lands, here the rain had let up and I was able to have a good view of the geese and herons in the wet meadows and take a few photos.

Next it was home, out of my wet clothes, pealed the spuds and celeriac, into salted water and then the spitzkohl (pointy cabbage). Everything ready for later, phoned a taxi and went out for a pint or three as one does on a rainy Sunday.

Returned home to the smell of delicious lamb wafting through the apartment.

Popped the spuds and cabbage on. Diced a leek, and some bacon, softened this in a little oil, removed a couple of ladles of stock from the SC put it into a small sauce pan and reduced it until it was thick and glistening.

Mashed the spuds with loads of butter and cream, 1 table spoonful of mustard and S&P to taste. Stirred in the chopped spring onions and there it is Champ.

Mixed the blanched cabbage with the leek and bacon, added a teaspoon of fennel seeds adjusted the seasoning and that was it ready to go.

The finished meal.

The cabbage, leek and bacon to the left the lamb shank in the middle with fantastic Guinness sauce and to the left the Champ.

Guten Appetit