Traditional Roast Lamb with Roast Potatoes & Leeks in White Sauce

Lamb is not exactly a stranger to my table, but more often than not it'll be a shoulder that ends up gracing it rather than other cuts. There's something about a shoulder's combination of flavour, price and overall ease of cooking that hits the spot for me. But the other day at the butchers the legs of lamb looked too good to overlook, so I had to give one of them a try.

I usually like my lamb well done, and that's great for shoulder, but it's not really a great way to cook leg in my opinion. Leg doesn't have the fat content of the shoulder, so it's all too easy to create something dry and not so palatable when roasting a leg for a long time - generally speaking you're better off aiming for something pinker. That was my plan this Sunday, so after consulting the usual battery of cookbooks I decided on half an hour hot (220ºC) and then 15 mins per pound cool (160ºC)  for my 5 lb leg of (very well hung) Lamb. Nothing too special about this one - just coated in a very light layer of olive oil, well seasoned with salt & pepper and resting on 3 good sprigs of rosemary and a few cloves of garlic.

The meat out of the wrapping

The meat ready for the oven

As I was aiming for something very traditional this time around I decided to serve this with really crunchy roast potatoes and leeks in white sauce, and old favourite that I've grown up with. This time around I even got to use some of my Dad's leeks from Essex, as I managed to bring some back from there after Christmas. I braise the leeks just in butter for a good hour or so on a very low heat to get them really tender. Then I sprinkle in some flour and let that cook a little, before adding milk, salt & black pepper, and cooking until it thickens up - probably another 15 mins or so. This time around a little left over double cream went in as well, just to give that extra special something.

For the potatoes I reckon the secret it to get them really dry before they go in the hot oil/fat. I always parboil when I'm doing 'proper' roast potatoes, and do this well ahead of when they need to go in so that they can steam and dry out. A good shake in the colander is enough to give you a rough texture to pick up the fat - I normally use beef dripping, but didn't have any today, so used some of the fat from the lamb pan which was lightly flavoured with the rosemary and garlic from there. Ten minutes in the hot oven first gets the oil good and hot, then in go the potatoes (carefully!), a few turns to cover and then in for about an hour, depending how well browned you like them.

Parboiling potatoes

Finally there's the gravy to make. I rested this leg for half an hour in the end, to ensure it would be nice and juicy, and whilst it was sitting resting deglazed the pan with some wine and stock and cooked down the juices with a little flour to thicken.

Making gravy

Preparing the plates

All in all pretty happy with how this turned out. The potatoes & lamb were probably a little over done for my tastes, but lovely all the same. That's the price you have to pay, though, for nipping down the pub for a swift pint whilst your Sunday roast cooks :-)

Finished dish

P.S. These videos were all shot with my new Nexus One phone from Google - not bad I think, better quality than my previous phone that's for sure.

Back to the best - the glorious Fore Rib of Beef

When it comes to roasting beef, I find only one cut will do these days, and is has to be rib. We can argue over whereabouts on the cow it comes from, but the combination of flavour and texture you get from this joint just leaves everything else in the shade. And it must be on the bone. Most people agree it has more flavour, and what else are you going to make your stock out of (you do make your own stock now don't you? :-).

Now my butcher only had a limited choice (as usual I give them no notice - well often I don't know what I want till I get there) so it was 2 ribs off some monster cow - 5.5kg of meat!


Now that's a big roasting pan but it only just fits. Nothing special here - just season well with lots of salt & black pepper. I go for Hugh F-W's recipes for roasting these days, so this fella went in for 30 mins at about 220°C and then down to 150°C for 9 mins per 500g, although I actually did mine for 90 minutes. Then half hour rest. To be honest it was still a bit overcooked for me - here's the beast once it had come out - note this is with the top half taken off already to make it easier to carve (the other half is in the foil wrapping):


And finally on the plate:

That's with my own recipe yorkshire puddings, beef dripping roasted potatoes, lightly boiled cabbage and steamed carrots. The carrots came out particularly well!

One day I'll share the yorkshire pudding recipe (if like me you like them eggy and with a good bit of squidy batter you'll love it), but I'm in a bit of a rush right now. I will try and share what I did with the leftovers though soon - that's worth a post in itself!

Update Christmas 2010: My Yorkshire Pudding Recipe