Perfect Roast Lamb with Homemade Mint Sauce

all ready to rock & roll

Roasted to perfection

The first rule of perfect roasted lamb is to find the best quality meat, lovingly prepared for the oven from a butcher you can trust. 

If you can obtain locally reared lamb....perfect.   If you use a supermarket just check where it's come from.  There's nothing wrong with New Zealand lamb but the carbon footprint is high....why buy foreign meat when the best you can buy is all around us

Cheap meat is usually means poor quality.   This boned out leg of lamb came from just across the border in North Wales....wonderful sheep rearing country. It's naturally full of mountain grass flavour....I like to help it along making it even more flavoursome by roasting over a bed of vegetables.....these in turn with the meat juices & a little red wine will make a fabulous gravy.

This should serve 6 good portions

I used a large....roughly 4½lbs in weight (before the bone was removed) and securely tied.

I didn't manage to secure the bone....if you can all the better

It weighed approx 3½lb perhaps a little more after boning out 

2 carrots chopped....just wash no need to peel

2 sticks of celery chopped

1 large onion chopped

4 tomatoes quartered

3 or 4 cloves of garlic left whole

few sprigs of fresh rosemary

a few parsley stalks

a glass or so of good red wine

2 cups of water

salt & pepper

For the gravy a few teaspoons of slated cornflour to thicken, a dsp redcurrant jelly

For the mint sauce

a big bunch of mint leaves.....I used spearmint and apple mint ....stalks removed

2 spring onions (scallions) and the green part

caster sugar to taste

red wine vinegar just a glug

boiling hot water

Chop the mint & spring onions finely

pour over a little boiling water

then a tbsp or so of red wine vinegar

add sugar to taste ....I used around 3 or 4 tsps

Leave to infuse for an hour or so

This is a thick sauce....we almost use it like another vegetable

The meat:-  Weigh your meat.....it needs to roast for 20 minutes per 1lb  ...500gms for well done 

If you like your meat a little pink then reduce the time to around 15 mins per lb after the first 20 minute blast

heat the oven to 220c/400f/gas mark 6

Place all the chopped vegetables in the bottom of a roasting tray if you have the lamb bone add to the tray also

Season the meat all over with sea salt & black pepper

Tuck the rosemary into the  meat strings as I have in the photo

Place the meat on top of the vegetables....the fatty part facing upwards

Add 2 cups of water to the roasting tray

Roast uncovered for 20 mins then turn the oven down to 180c/350f/gas 4 for the remainder of the time

If you're a purist or unsure then check with a thermometer....it should read 80c/170f in the centre when thoroughly cooked 

I like my meat a little pink ..... so I roasted my 3½lb joint for....an initial 20 mins at 200c then around an hour at 180c.  A total of 1½ hours

Remove the meat from the oven....wrap well in tin foil and leave to rest for at least 15 minutes while you make the gravy

The gravy.

there should still be some liquid left in the roasting tray with the vegetables

Add the glass of wine to this and place on a medium heat of the stove top

Scrap around the tray, scooping up all the juices and stuck on meaty bits

Add the redcurrant jelly and a couple of teaspoons initially of the slated cornflour

If the gravy looks to thin add a little more

Strain into a jug through a sieve squeezy and pushing out all the liquid from the vegetables as you do so. Discard the vegetables

Reheat the sieved gravy.....check for seasoning and adjust as necessary

Serve with your favourite vegetables.

We enjoyed ours with new potatoes, broad beans, peas, carrots and broccoli from the garden