Minty lamb roast
I used to cook something similar to this whilst at university. It lasts at least two meals even with these measures and there is enough left over for a tasty sandwich too! It was so tasty, in fact, that I used to finish most of it in one. That’s probably why went up a trouser size!
Ingredients:
- ~1 kg lamb. On the bone is better, but you can do without if you want.
- 20 g butter.
- Fresh mint.
- A handful of garlic cloves.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Roast potatoes.
- Some red wine.
- Some flour.
Method:
The great thing about this recipe is that most of the ingredient measures are off the cuff. Add in as much or as little as you want. That way you can customise it just to you taste.
In a bowl mix the butter with the salt and pepper until smooth and paste like. Separately peel the garlic and run them through a grater. This way they come out fine and the tasty garlic juice comes out. Chop the mint into fine slices capturing the juice. Add this to the butter and mix well.
Pre heat an oven to 200 °C and whilst you’re doing that stab your lamb all over with 1 cm knife incisions. Then take your garlic mint butter paste and spread all over with your hands making sure you stick some in the incisions that you’ve just made. When this cooks it will flavour the lamb and give it a great taste. If you have any left over then shove it in the centre of the lamb. Place this in a roasting tray and cover with foil for twenty minutes.
The foil will stop the butter from burning too quickly but after twenty minutes it is time to take it off. Remove the foil and leave the lamb cooking for another twenty minutes. The outside of the lamb will brown nicely. After this time put in your roast potatoes to cook. This can be fresh or frozen - it’s all good.
The spuds will take about 35 minutes to cook but we want to let the lamb sit for about 15 minutes so leave both the spuds and the lamb in the oven together for a further twenty minutes. The lamb will have had about an hour in the oven and should be crispy on the outside and pink in the middle.
I prefer my meat with a little blood so if this isn’t for you then extend the cooking times accordingly.
After a 15 minute rest outside the oven, the potatoes that are still in the oven should be ready. Whilst you wait for this to happen, pour out the fine selection of juices that by now will have collected in the roasting tray into a pot and simmer. Add a mixture of butter and flour until the sauce thickens. Add red wine to taste and season with salt and pepper to your liking. You might also have some mint and garlic that has dropped off. Save these and add to the sauce. This will eventually become your gravy after it reduces.
After all that your meal is ready to serve. Cut the lamb into a slices and serve with the roasted potatoes and the gravy. I suppose you should also have some vegetables too.
Enjoy.