A slow-roast sensation

Cuisine:

Course: Main

Serves: 6

Cooking time: 5 hours

SLOW ROAST LEG OF LAMB

Ingredients:

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp fennel seeds

1 bottle white wine

6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

Few springs rosemary or thyme

80ml olive oil

Salt and pepper

1 leg of lamb, approximately 2.5kg

3 carrots peeled and very roughly chopped

2 onions, peeled and quartered

3 leeks, roughly chopped

2 fennel, roughly chopped

2 heads garlic, cut in half horizontally

If you have time, dry roast the cumin and fennel for a few minutes in a dry frying pan, until they start to smell really good. Shake them about then crush them with a pestle and mortar – or in a cup with one end of a rolling pin – and mix with the wine, garlic, rosemary, olive oil and lots of salt and pepper. Marinate the lamb in this, preferably overnight, turning occasionally.

When you are ready to cook, preheat the oven to 150 degrees/gas mark two and let the lamb come up to room temperature while the oven is heating.

Place the vegetables in the bottom of a large roasting tray. Lay the lamb on top, pour the marinade over it, cover with tin foil and roast for about four hours.

Remove the foil and roast for another 30 minutes. Baste the lamb as much as you can and then leave it to rest for at least 30 minutes somewhere warm, before slicing thinly and serving with the spuds.

You can make a really good gravy by deglazing the roasting tray with some boiling water and then adding some more wine and a spoonful or two of redcurrant jelly, then straining and discarding the veg. Add some more water if the juices are too thick, or a little flour mixed into a paste with an equal amount of butter to thicken it. Simmer gently until it thickens up, then taste and season as required.

ROAST HERB POTATOES

Ingredients:

1 kg small potatoes

1 red onion, peeled and sliced

6 cloves garlic, peeled

4 big sprigs rosemary

6 sprigs sage

6 sprigs thyme

120ml white wine

100ml olive oil

Salt and pepper

2 tsp fennel seeds

Method:

Cut each potato into two or three relatively thin slices (about five millimetres) and chuck them into a large roasting tin. Add all the other ingredients and using your hands – or cheffy wrist action – toss very well so everything gets well coated and mixed. Cover with foil and bake (at 150 degrees/gas mark two, same as the lamb, to keep things simple) for about 30 minutes.

Half-way through, you may flip them over and move them about to stop them sticking and ensure the wine and olive oil keeps coating the spuds.

After half an hour, remove the foil and, using a masher, lightly crush the spuds. You don’t want to mash them, just smash them up a bit. Add more salt, pepper and some extra olive oil. Toss them around a bit more, then turn the oven up to 180 degrees/gas mark four and bake for another 20 minutes until they are tender and starting to crisp.