Recipe For The Best Lamb In The World, Ever

Today I’d like to share a recipe for making the most delicious roast lamb. I made this on Sunday and damn, it was good.

Here’s what you need – a half leg of organic lamb, a bottle of white wine, a chicken stock cube, a couple of onions, a handful of mixed herbs, a few cloves of garlic, a few glugs of olive oil, and a handful of plain flour.

First of all, wash and chop your herbs. I fumbled around the garden in the dark and picked some rosemary, thyme, and mint. I also picked some ivy, but decided it probably wouldn’t be that appetising. Then peel and chop the garlic:

Chop the onions, and then gently fry over a low heat in some olive oil until soft and golden brown:

Turn up the heat slightly, and add the leg of lamb to the pan – brown on all sides, pour in some white wine, sprinkle with plain flour, and cook in the pan for a few more minutes, turning the lamb regularly to cover it in the flour:

Put the lamb and the onions in an deep ovenproof dish. Press the chopped herbs and garlic on top of the lamb. Add 500ml of chicken stock, and then pour in enough wine to cover most of the lamb. I poured the rest of the wine into a large Habitat wine glass, but that’s down to personal choice:

Cover with foil, and cook for three to four hours at around 160 degrees Celsius. Peel back the foil every 30 minutes and spoon the wine-stock mixture over the top of the lamb. Take the foil off for the last 30 minutes to allow the lamb to brown on top.

Effectively you are kind of poaching the lamb in delicious liquid, which keeps it super-moist. Cooking it on a low heat for a long time makes it very tender – and removing the foil for the final 30 minutes makes the top nice and crispy.

Seriously, this is the best roast lamb recipe ever – I’ve made it many times now (Andre loves lamb) and it’s pretty much idiot-proof. It’s also a great recipe to make for guests, because you can leave it in the oven for as long as required – the longer, the better – so if people are running late, it doesn’t cause a problem with your meal timing-wise.

I served the lamb with rosemary roast potatoes, caramelised carrots, minted green peas, cauliflower cheese, and gravy made from the wine-stock-lamb liquid. Someone was quite keen to eat the leftovers:

No such luck, my boy! Andre once made the mistake of handing Enrique what he thought was a leftover lamb bone – a lamb bone that I thought was going to feed us for the next three days on account of how much meat was left on it – and what Enrique thought is unrecorded by history,  but was probably the dog equivalent of WHOOPEE! So that dog has had quite enough lamb, thank you very much.

Back tomorrow with more tales from the Nest!

Comments

[mrYen]

I think this is another one of your recipes i will be trying! The Jam roly poly was sooo good and the best bits were the bits that burst out while cooking : P

[Alice]

I am new to your blog, wondered over from Passmenteries. I'm also Alice, and formerly from Manchester, now living in Brussels.
This recipe looks very like a wonderful meal I had in London at a place whose name escapes me...melt in the mouth tender. I am filing this for Sunday dinners to come!

[Simply The Nest]

Mr Yen, I'm so pleased to hear the roly poly was a success! It's the best pudding ever, right? OK so now you need to make the lamb AND the roly poly - they both cook on a low heat, so you could easily stick them in the same oven...

And hello Alice-from-Manchester, thank you for visiting my blog! I actually remember reading the lovely Passementerie's thoughts on possible wardrobe options for you - I do hope you acquired that fabulous French Connection coat :-) And you look as if you are having a splendid time renovating your apartment in Brussels, I will be checking in regularly on your blog to see how you are getting along!