Roast Lamb
The boneless lamb I picked up last week turned out a treat on Friday night. I always used to think roasts were the arcane result of grandmother magic but over the years I’ve found they’re not so hard. You just have to have a go in the first place, and you soon develop a feel for it.
Seasoned with the usual mix of rosemary, mixed herbs, garlic and pepper. Whole peppercorn if you have it works well too. Thyme too but I didn’t have any handy, d’oh. I hit upon a neat trick - slice the garlic into thick slivers and mix them with the other spices in a bowl. Stab the holes in your roast and push the garlic in, the other herbs stick to the garlic and go along for the ride. Drizzled the lot with extra-virgin olive oil and rubbed it in a bit.
I’m a big fan of slow roasting if you have the time. First I bunged it in the oven for 80 minutes at 160′C, then put in the larger potatoes. Fifteen minutes later the smaller potatoes and the rest of the veg. Another 15 minutes, then I nudged the temp up to 180′C for the last hour. So just under three hours for a 2.7kg roast.
Juicy and packed with flavour. Let me tell you, it took a lot less time than that for the four of us to demolish the thing. Everyone had seconds! And the raspberry chocolate pudding for desert? Scrumptious, Lorna! By the way, one of my favourite parts of cooking roast is that the leftover makes such great sandwiches too. None of this pre-processed ham crap, it’s the good old fashioned real thing.