The Sunday roast a leg of Lamb

Roast leg of lamb

2.2kg of leg of lamb

1 leek white only

2 carrots

1 large piece of celeriac (or stalk of celery)

1 onion

A couple of tomatoes (I used 4 small ones, the last of Linda’s balcony harvest)

10 cloves of garlic cut 2 into 15-20 slithers

 5-6 salted anchovy filets in oil cut into 15-20 slithers

Bunch of mixed herbs

2 stalks of rosemary (picked into sprigs)

1 tsp. capers

400 ml of vegetable stock

100 ml of red wine

Remove the lamb from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature, trim any excess fat.

Roughly dice the carrot, leek, celeriac, onion put this into a deep roasting tin, peel the remainder of garlic cloves, ¼ the tomatoes and put into the roasting tin,

 

 

With a small sharp knife make small slits in the leg of lamb (15-20 depending on the size and how much you like garlic) push a slither of garlic, anchovy and a sprig of rosemary into each slit. 

 

 Chop the capers and add to the roasting tin, add the herbs (you can remove some of the thyme leaves and sprinkle over the  leg of lamb) 

 

 

 

Put the oven on to 225°C to heat.

Make your stock and add the wine, pour the whole lot into the roasting tin. Put the studded leg on top and drizzle all over with olive oil, give it a good grinding of salt and pepper.

Into the oven (rare 12 min per 450g – medium rare(pink) 15 min per 450g), cook at 220-225°C for 20 minutes and then reduce to 180° until it is cooked, if you used a meat thermometer for rare you are looking for 60° at the centre and for pink 65 - 70°.

 

I cannot help you for anything else, I only cook well done meat in a casserole, stew or Eintopf. I always use a meat thermometer when roasting, it takes the guess work out of the roasting process. There are two main types a round analog one with a long steel probe, this gives the oven temperature as well as the internal meat temperature, these are very cheap and well worth the few pounds – Euros investment. Then there are the digital ones, you can pay a hell of a lot of dosh for a real good one (I have an engineering one with about 5 different functions including measuring high temperature flue gasses) but even a simple one is very good and can be used for measuring freezer temperatures as well as oven temperatures

I keep a jug of water to add to the base of the pan in case it is evaporating too quickly (keep having a peek).

Remove the leg of lamb put it into a dish and cover with aluminium foil to rest, the resting process is as critical to good joint of meat as the rest of the cooking procedure, as it allows the juices that have been driven to the centre of the piece of meat to slowly permiate outwards making for a juicy, succulant joint

 

 

Pour the roasting tin liquids and vegetables through a sieve, into a sauce pan, pushing as much of the liquid out of the vegetables as possible.

Add another slug of red wine if you want a stronger tasting sauce, bring to a rapid boil and reduce by half, add 2 tsps. of redcurrant jelly to the sauce and thicken with a buerre manié (made by mixing butter and flour together at a ratio of 50/50).

When it is thickened to your liking, strain once again into a sauce boat. Serve with the lamb.

Traditionally roast lamb is served with mint sauce and we are very traditional.

A jolly good plate of meat.








The accompaniments, Yorkshire puddings, roast vegetables (parsnips, potatoes, beetroot and kohlrabi), glazed carrots and Brussel sprouts.

Linda Has also made a Damson crumble for pudding, I only had a tiny little bit honest Gov.