You can use this recipe to either make a delicious roast lamb or a saucy lamb pie. It's the perfect dish to serve the family on cold, wintery nights.
Ingredients and Method
Ingredients
1 half leg of lamb (1.2 - 1.7kg)
6 large onions sliced lengthways
4 large whole garlic cloves
4 celery stalks diced into blocks
2 large rosemary sprigs
2 large sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
2 whole cloves (optional)
500ml chicken & veg stock
100ml Sauvignon Blac white wine (optional)
50ml olive oil
10g sea salt
Method
Preheat the oven to 170 on the fan setting.
Slice onions in half lengthways, then slice onions lengthwise in medium slices (about 1cm thick). Place in a large roasting tray at least 5-6cm deep.
Add celery, garlic, herbs, bay leaves, cloves, stock and wine then place lamb on top. Drizzle generously with olive oil and sprinkle with salt
Cover with tin foil, shiny side down and folded tightly around the edge of the roasting tray. Use two overlapping pieces of tin foil if your foil is not wide enough to completely wrap over the sides of the baking tray. You want to keep all the juices inside while the meat cooks
Place in oven. Roast for 40min/500g of lamb or until the lamb pulls off the bone when pulled with a fork. Meat should still hold together and not flake apart.
Take the meat off the bone, pull gently apart with a fork to make chucks of meat, set aside & cover.
Pour the remaining contents of the roasting tray through a strainer into a medium saucepan and bring to a rolling boil on medium heat to reduce the liquid and intensify the flavour. Boil for 20-30min until you are happy with the flavour. While the liquid is boiling, take what remains in the strainer & using a teaspoon, remove the bay leaves, herb stalks and cloves then blitz the garlic, onions and celery together until smooth. If you do not have a blitzer or food processor you can push the soft vegetables through a sieve to make a soft paste.
Mix the soft paste with the reduced liquid to make your gravy and season to taste.
To warm the meat, put it in the roasting tray, pour some gravy over the meat and put in the oven until warmed through. Transfer to a serving dish and spoon some gravy over it.
