Roast Leg of Lamb

The day after the freezer arrived I went off and spent 700euros at Makro to fill it. It didn't work, it was only half full. The issue was that I didn't have a big enough car. So I went back the next day and filled the other half.

I bought a 2.4kg leg of lamb. Lamb is a juicy, fatty meat that is good for roasting, currying, BBQing (when sliced in to steaks), and of course, is a key ingredient of Shepherds Pie if you can't get fresh sheperd.

I dreamed of making a beautiful roast lamb lunch that would convince these Belgium gastro-people that British cooking can be good.

Well, I never go around to that. The Saturday Night Party normally meant we were serving breakfast at 16:00 hours, and we were all too hung over to cook something that required extended concentration.

18 months after I bought the leg of lamb, I decided to roast the bloody thing.

You may think looking at this that the amount of garlic is over powering. It isn't roasting lightens the flavour of garlic a great deal, producing a softer sweeter result. Never the less, if you think 12 cloves is too much, reduce the number to 9 or 6. You will taste the difference, and there is a fair chance your guests will notice the varying intensity. Well, I say 'notice', it depends on how closely you follow the rest of the recipe.

Here's what I did.

Roast Leg of Lamb, with Celeriac puree and thumped baked potatos.

1 2.4kg leg of lamb *
12 fresh twigs or Rosemary
12 peeled cloves of garlic
400g of Celeriac Puree *
100g of home made, unsalted garlic and parsely butter.
at least 2 bottles of wine, one of which needs to be red.
4 large potatos
'Hair' the video.

1. Defrost the lamb, slowly, over night. Don't microwave defrost this, you risk cooking parts and it can be a great cause of food poisoning.

2. Open the bottle of red wine and check it's quality. A thin tasteless wine will give a thin tasteless sauce. Check the quality by drinking it, two glasses should be enough to be able to tell. If you have friends over, get their opinions, but make sure you have two glasses left in the bottle.

3. Heat the oven to 180 degrees centrigrade, bring out the butter and let it get to room tempurature. YOU can microwave defrost this.

4. Carefully choose your potatos. They should be of even size (the size of a balled fist) and shape, kind of oval and should have a properly formed, fairly thick skin. If they are flat and white, they are butter beans, not potatoes. Small and green, they are peas. If they make your eyes water when you sniff them, you either have onions or a bad allergy, see a doctor just to be sure.

5. Wash your potatos removing any crumbly brown stuff that might be sticking to them, Then rub them with sea salt, and skewer with metal skewers.

6. Stab the defrosted leg of lamb evenly all around the shape, making 24 deep holes. Evenly distribute the cloves of garlic all over them. Grease up the sticks of rosemary with the soft butter and put them in the other holes.

7. rub rosemary leaves all over the outside, then rub with more garlic, then rub with the butter. Chase any guests you have around the kitchen with your greasy smelly fingers until they pour you another glass of wine.

8. Put the leg of lamb in a baking tray, surround with the potatos. Set the timer to two hours. Put it in the oven. This is the moment to put on the 'Hair' video and start on the other bottles of wine your guests brought over.

9. When the buzzer goes of you will discover you are significantly affected by alcohol. Do the following! Microwave your celeriac puree until piping hot (3 minutes at 500w, stir, 3 minutes at 750w, stir, 1 minute at 750w, serve).

10. Take out the lamb. Turn the oven off,. Put in all the plates and serving dishes you will be using. Leave theoven door slightly ajar. We want the plates hot, but not too hot.

11. Take to potatos and cross on top. Bash them on opposite side so the fluffy stuff comes out of the top. Salt and pepperise them. Put them in the potato dish in the oven.

12. Take the lamb out of the baking tray and put to one side. Throw the red wine in to the baking tray and heat directly over the hottest ring on your cooker. Add a small knob of butter and some cornstarch (a teaspoon)...or don't, it is not vital. Stir and allow to bubble. When reduced pour in to a gravyboat using a seive to get rid of anything gross.

13. Slice the lamb and reassemble on the serving dish, put the baked potatos

14. Put it all on the table, distribute wine, eat.

I'll tell you about the celeriac puree next time.