A tourist in my own city

Roast leg of Lamb, this one was for easter.

This Recipe for roast leg of lamb isn’t quick, but its so good, all the fat renders out over the cooking time, leaving just meat that pulls apart and the bones pull out perfectly cleanly.

Ingredients:

Leg of Lamb, the one pictured was around 2.5kg, bone in.

2 heads of garlic

100ml olive oil

1 lemon

1 bunch rosemary and thyme

A few mint leaves

pinch of saffron

200ml white wine

200ml stock of choice (I mixed chicken and veg)

Salt and pepper

The Marinade: I left the lamb in this over night..

Take half the garlic, rosemary, thyme, the mint leaves and saffron, along with the juice and zest of the lemon and the oil and blitz together in a mini food processor. Blend until u have almost a paste and smear all over the lamb, making sure you really work it in well. cover and put into the refrigerator over night.

Now this is going to be in the oven for a long time so start early if its for lunch! In all your looking at about 7 hours.

Pre-Heat oven to 180 Degrees C

Take the other half of the garlic, rosemary and thyme, stab holes into the meat and stick a few sprigs/cloves into these holes, and the rest use as a trivet for the meat. Put the White wine and stock into the pan & season the Lamb well.Then Put the Lamb in the hot oven.

After 30 mins take the lamb out and drop the temp. to 130, Take a sheet of parchment paper slightly bigger than the pan and scrunch it up under the tap so it’s wet (this will make it soft). Then cover the lamb with this so its like a blanket, follow this with a couple of very tight layers of foil, so no steam can get out. Return the lamb to the oven for 6 hours.

After 5 and a half hours take the foil and parchment off and turn the oven up to 180.

During the cooking, DON’T PEAK AT THE LAMB, You will let all the steam out.

Then when you remove the Lamb let it rest for at least 45 minutes, you can remove the juices for the gravy once its out, just ensure u recover well.

Gravy:

I simply strained the juices into a sauce pan, reduced it by half and then added about 100ml of red wine and 60 ml of port and a tablespoon of quince jelly (a cranberry would work fine) . This makes a very rich sauce that you don’t need a huge amount of.