Description:
Desciption text here
Ingredients:
- 1.8-2kg leg of lamb, on the bone, trimmed
- 2 x 50g tins of anchovies in olive oil, drained, each one cut into three
- a bunch of rosemary, the soft variety rather than spiky
- 4-5 large cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
- 75g softened butter
- a little salt and plenty of pepper
- 1/2 bottle dry white wine
- juice of a lemon
- watercress, to garnish
Method:
- Pre-heat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7.
- Using a small, sharp knife, make about twenty incisions across the top of the lamb,
especially deep down into the most fleshy, top part of the leg. Using your little
finger, widen the incision to allow you to insert a slice of garlic, a piece of
anchovy and a small sprig of rosemary.
- Place the joint in a roasting tin and pour the wine around it. Smooth the butter
all over the top of the lamb. Salt very lightly and grind over plenty of black
pepper on both sides. Squeeze over a little lemon juice and drop the remaining
sprigs of rosemary into the bottom of the tin. Put into the oven and roast for
20 minutes.
- Now turn the oven temperature down to 180C/gas mark 4. Roast the lamb for a
further hour or so, depending upon how you like your lamb cooked: these timings
should offer very nice pink meat, once rested.
- Baste from time to time with the winy juices.
- Once ready, remove the joint from the oven [switch it off and leave the door
ajar, transfer to a carving dish, cover with foil and - after about 5 minutes -
return it to the waning heat of the oven to rest, still with the door ajar.
- Taste the juices in the roasting dish and see if any further salt is needed
[there shouldn't be]. During the roasting process the wine will have reduced
somewhat and mingled nicely with the meat juices [there will be more juices
surrounding the meat in the oven, once fully rested] and the butter.
- To serve, remove the lamb from the oven and add the juices from the carving dish
to the oven tray.