Slow Roasted Leg Lamb Nigella Recipes

HERBED LEG OF LAMB

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4.
• Sit the lamb in a large roasting tin, skin-side up, and use the tip of a sharp knife to make many incisions all over the skin.
• Put the oregano, rosemary, garlic, lemon and orange zest, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons orange juice, olive oil and salt in a bowl and blend using a stick blender (alternatively, use a small food processor). Spoon this over the lamb and rub in well. Leave at room temperature for 45 minutes.
• Pour ½cm freshly boiled water into the bottom of the roasting tin and roast for 1 hour 40 minutes. Check after an hour to add more water if needed and cover with foil if the meat is beginning to catch. Just before the time is up, remove the lamb from the oven and check it is done to your liking, either using a probe and the temperatures listed in the tips below or piercing with a knife and taking a peek.
• Remove the cooked lamb from the oven, cover loosely with foil, and rest for 15-30 minutes, checking every now and again, before transferring to a board to carve.

SLOW COOKED LEG OF LAMB

Steps:

• Heat oven to 120C/fan 100C/gas ½. Put your largest lidded casserole on the hob and brown the seasoned leg of lamb on all sides - do this very thoroughly until it is a good dark brown as it will not brown during the cooking. (If you don't do it now, it will end up beige.) If the lamb sticks, add a drizzle of oil - legs of lamb differ. Allow 10 mins on a high heat and put on the cooker fan to remove the smoke. Pour away any fat that has collected in the bottom of the pan.
• Throw in the vegetables, followed by the wine and stock. Season and bring to the boil, then clap on the lid and put in the oven. Bake for 7 hrs, turning twice. After 5 hrs the meat will be cooked and offer no resistance to the knife.
• There is no need to rest the meat when cooked in this way, but to finish the sauce, transfer the meat and vegetables to a serving dish. Strain the sauce into a jug and pour or blot away the fat with kitchen paper. Pour the sauce into a pan then boil the liquid hard to reduce by a quarter, by which time it will be rich and flavoursome. Adjust seasoning, add the Armagnac if you wish, and serve alongside the lamb, which should be served with a spoon, a la cuillère as the French call it.