This was a bit of an experiment attempting to get that slow roasted lamb tenderness in much less time.I mixed a Greek slow roasted
lamb recipe I know with a stuffed lamb and because I didn’t have white wine I
used champagne instead, I think it turned out blooming marvellously! I tend to
use whatever boneless piece of meat I can get reduced in the and have
thrown in the freezer, this one is a shoulder.
Gremolata is a mixture parsley, lemon zest and garlic. The
lamb I used weighed 700g and I fed three people with it, though it could have
easily fed four.
Ingredients
Small bunch parsley (about 15 sprigs)
2/3 cloves garlic
Zest of ¾ lemon
Boneless joint of lamb
130 g (half a bag) of spinach
White onion
Lemon
100ml chicken stock
½ glass champagne
Finely chop parsley and garlic (I find a mini chopper a
lifesaver here!) and mix with lemon zest. Tada! You’ve made gremolata!
Preheat the oven to 180 (I have a fan oven, adjust
accordingly)
Dice the onion and soften in a pan on medium heat. Keep
stirring! You do not want the onion to brown and the slower it cooks the
sweeter the flavour. Once its nearing translucency remove from pan.
Put the spinach in this pan and wilt, then squeeze in a colander
or sieve to get rid of as much moisture as possible.
Chop up spinach and mix with the gremolata and onion (if my
mini chopper is otherwise occupied I’ll use a pair of scissors in a smallish
bowl to chop the herbs spinach and mix it all up).
Unroll lamb and spread a thin layer of the mix over it
Roll back up and secure with string of pre-soaked bamboo or
wooden skewers (this stops them burning in the oven, use this technique for the
barbecue too.)
Slice half a lemon into wedges and place in the baking tray
with 100ml hot stock and half a glass of champagne (or white wine). Put in the oven for 15
minutes, then turn oven down to 140 and cover lamb with foil (baking paper will
also work here, you just need to tuck it properly around). Cook for a further
40 minutes (adjust according to weight and as you can see from the picture, I like my lamb pink, for more well done I'd add up to 20 more minutes here) before turning the oven up for the last
10 minutes of cooking to 180.
Allow lamb to rest (under foil/baking paper and lots of tea
towels) for at least 10 minutes before carving. It will keep the heat and it makes
such a difference to the amount of juice the meat retains.
This looks amazing. What did you serve it with?
ReplyDeleteI have may overdone it a bit on the side dishes but I served it with...
DeleteRoasted cubed potatoes, roasted cherry tomatoes and onions in balsamic vinegar, mashed sweet potato and also a couple of broiled potatoes that I had done with the lamb. We were very full!
This was amazing! The lamb was wonderfully tender and tasty. I even dreamed I was eating this meal again last night... Good work Charley!
ReplyDelete