Stuffed Leg of Lamb
| Recipe By: | Jane-Anne Hobbs |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Cooking Time: | 3 hours 10 minutes |
| Prep Time: | 30 minutes |
Ingredients
- 1 kg deboned leg of lamb
- 4 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
- 10 anchovy fillets, roughly chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled
- 2 Tbsp olive oil, to drizzle
- 500 ml dry white wine
- 30 g (250ml) curly parsley
- 100 g slivered almonds,toasted
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small garlic bulb, halved
- 50 g walnuts
- 90 g basil leaves, finely chopped
- 3 cup verjuice
- olive oil, to drizzle
- salt and milled black pepper
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Cooking Instructions
- Heat the oven to 150 ºC. Open up the deboned leg of lamb and place it skin-side down on a board. Make a few shallow slashes in the thicker parts of the meat so the whole piece lies fairly flat. Season with plenty of milled black pepper.
- Strip the rosemary leaves off their twig, roughly chop them and place them in the jug attachment of a stick blender. Add the anchovy fillets, garlic cloves, 30ml (2Tbsp) of the olive oil and 30ml (2Tbsp) of the wine. Whizz to a paste. If you don?t have a jug blender, pound everything to a paste using a mortar and pestle.
- Add the parsley and press the pulse button a few times so the leaves are coarsely chopped, but nowhere near a purée. Set aside.
- Toast the slivered almonds by tossing them in a dry frying pan over a medium-low heat until golden. Tip the garlic/parsley paste into the hot pan and fry, stirring, for 1 minute, or just long enough to take the sting out of the garlic.
- Spread this warm mixture over the lamb, pressing it into the slashes. Gather the lamb into a ball shape (you may need another pair of hands) and truss it into a neat sphere with long piece of kitchen string, crossing it over top and bottom and turning the ball with every truss, as you do would if you were wrapping a parcel. The string trussing the lamb should look like the spokes of a wheel (click here for detailed instructions and photographs). Pull the string fairly tight as you go, and fasten it with a bow under the lamb. Season the lamb with salt and pepper.
- Heat the remaining 45ml olive oil in a large pan and brown the lamb over a very high heat on all sides to create a rich golden crust. Tilt the pan to pour away any excess fat, then stand back and pour in the remaining wine, stirring briskly to deglaze.
- Place the lamb and all its liquid into a roasting pan and roast, uncovered, for 3 hours at 150 ºC, or until the lamb is very tender. Remove from the oven and rest, lightly covered with foil, for 30 minutes.
- NB: One hour before the end of the roasting time, wrap the bulb of garlic in tin foil and place it on an oven rack below the lamb.
- Now make the sauce. Boil the kettle. Put the walnuts in a bowl and cover them with boiling water. Set aside for 10 minutes.
- Fill a large bowl with cold water and add a handful of ice cubes. Set aside. Put the basil leaves in a big colander over the sink and pour half a kettle of boiling water over them. Immediately plunge them into the iced water.
- Remove the roasted garlic bulb from the oven and squeeze the soft pulp into the jug attachment of a stick blender. Drain the basil leaves and walnuts and pat dry on kitchen paper. Add these to the jug along with the verjuice and olive oil.
- Whizz to a thick, fairly coarse paste. If the blades are reluctant to turn, add a few more drops of verjuice and olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Remove the string from the lamb and carve it into thick slices. Arrange these on a platter and strain over the warm pan juices. Serve hot with the basil sauce and a big bowl of boiled baby potatoes.
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