I love to cook. But what I love even more is feeding people. No, I am not that kind of feeder, but what is better than sharing a meal with friends and family? Having been to a few fantastic roasts with friends lately, I thought it was about time to repay the favour and invited some of my nearest and dearest over for a Sunday feast.
Now, sometimes we have all day to slave over a stove, but sometimes we don't, and sometimes, we simply don't want to. So if that is the case, but you want to serve up something gorgeous and tender and full of flavour, I'd highly recommend this super easy dish. A tiny bit of prep before, pop it in the oven, then head off to the pub for a few hours (5 1/2 in this case), while it looks after itself.
Yes, the potatoes, carrots, yorkshires and gravy may require a little more of your attention, but not a lot really, and with a bit of planning a prep before hand, it really won't matter how many gin and tonics you've had. Honest.
Now, since the lamb takes the longest to cook, it would make sense to get this done first, but I had lots to do that day so started to prep first thing in the morning and it would have been a really long roast if I had put it in then.
whole bulb of garlic
bunch of fresh rosemary
butter
olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
I went for good old Delia's recommendation of the Desiree potato, though you could also go for a King Edward or Romano. Desiree are usually used for mashing, but this fluffy quality is actually what makes these the best to use for deliciously crunchy roast potatoes.
Chop into decent sized chunks and boil for 10 minutes. You'll know when they are ready to come out of the pan when you scrape one with a knife and a fluffy trail is left behind.
Drain, put back in the pan, lid on and shake. Really shake.
This fluffy edge you are creating is what will hit the hot fat and turn your potatoes into wonderful crispy, crunchy, golden roasties.
At this point I put the potatoes to one side, ready for later, and moved onto the lamb.
2kg shoulder of lamb
a generous bunch of fresh rosemary
1 whole bulb garlic
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
Pre heat oven to 160 degrees C / gas mark 3
Take a large, sharp knife and score in both directions across the fat on the top side of the shoulder of lamb. Drizzle olive oil all over and season with the sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
The whole garlic bulb can be broken up into it's individual cloves, skin on, and wedged into the deep scores you have just created. Lastly, lay on top your whole sprigs of fresh rosemary, tightly wrap the roasting tin in foil and pop in the oven.
You can leave this now until 1 hour before serving, when you can remove the foil to crisp up the skin.
Now for the Yorkshire puddings. These actually benefit from having the batter made in advanced. See, even more reason to wait patiently in the pub while the meal at home is slowly getting better and better.
140g plain flour
4 eggs
200ml milk
sunflower oil
Flour goes in to a large mixing bowl, and here you create a well in which to crack the eggs. Using a whisk, very slowly and carefully begin to mix the eggs, gradually incorporating the flour from the edge, bit by bit. This is a sure fire way to avoid lumpy batter. Nothing worse.
Once all mixed in, you'll want to slowly pour in the milk whilst continually whisking. If all goes to plan, it should be the consistency of double cream, maybe a little runnier.
I like to pour the batter into a jug as it makes pouring to the baking tray later on a whole lot easier. For now, put it in the fridge, ready for later.
I can't resist anything caramelised, sticky and sweet, which is why I love to roast my carrots in honey. The addition of fresh thyme and a splash of balsamic vineger ties it all together very nicely.
carrots
honey
fresh thyme
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
Cut the carrots into halves or quarters lengthways, depending on how big they are to start off with. Mine were already long skinny ones, so only needed cutting in half. Put in a pan of boiling water and simmer for 5 minutes.
Drain the water and let the carrots dry of the steam in the colander for a good 10 minutes before you attempt to do anything else with them. If you get excited and rush ahead, they'll have too much moisture and you'll end up with soggy, rather than sticky carrots. Be patient.
Once drained, cooled and dried, placed in a baking tray and toss in a mixture of the honey, balsamic and olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and the fresh thyme, and put aside.
Next, choose which ever activity you so wish to pass your time, but whatever it is, you can leave all this for the next 4 hours.
On your return, you'll want to take the foil off the lamb and move it to the top oven, also on 160 degrees C, and turn the main oven right up to 190/200 degrees depending on your oven.
Take a heavy based baking tray and melt 50g butter and a good glug of olive oil by putting it in the oven. Once melted, take it out and but you want to keep the fat really hot, so pop it on top of the stove. The fluffy potatoes can now be added. I do this one by one, tossing them in the hot fat to make sure they are coated all over. Thow in some garlic cloves and rosemary and put back in the oven for about 45mins. The carrots can follow the potatoes in about 10.
15 minutes before serving, take out the lamb and cover with foil and a tea towel to let it rest.
Meanwhile, pour a little sunflower oil into each dip in a muffin tray and put into the oven to get hot. Again, the fat needs to be really hot. After 5 minutes of heating, take out the tray and quickly pour the batter mixture into each dip. Return to the oven. And don't you dare think about opening the oven door until they are done. You don't want flat Yorkshire's now do you.
All that's needed now is to put on a pan of green veg, and to finish off the gravy with some red wine, lamb stock, a little plain flour and some redcurrant jelly.
Now. Unfortunately, at this point I got a bit carried away with the serving, and then the eating that I never managed any photos of the lamb after its 5 1/2 hours in the oven. I'm hoping that the fact I became distracted by eating it will say enough about how it turned out.
We devoured the roast with a lovely Rioja, followed by my good friends home made meringues and semi-fredo, topped off with a cheeseboard. Oh, and some truffles. I didn't eat much the following day.
While I didn't manage a photo of the lamb that day, I did have plenty left over, which turned into some fantastic sandwiches that saw me through to Wednesday. Seeded bread, cold roast lamb, leaves, mayo, mint sauce and redcurrant jelly.
I'll try and remember to take a few snaps before I devour it next time.
