I write to you today for a number of reasons. 1) my kitchen smells simply divine from a leg of lamb slow cooked with rosemary and garlic from early this morning and the recipe, although maybe too late for Easter Dinner now, still needs to be shared. 2) because Lynas Food outlet have Spring sales on through March – April and you won’t want to miss out. 3) it’s Easter Sunday, I’m chilling with my dog on my lap, glass of red, belly full of lamb… and if I don’t distract myself, I know I will end up going back into the kitchen to nibble on the remainder of said lamb. I’ve already over-indulged myself on chocolate eggs!
Slow Cooked Leg of Lamb
I’m going to start off by telling you how all this came about. A few days ago, when the weather was quite horrid, I battled my way through the traffic up to Lynas Food Outlet in Belfast. Their Spring sales had begun, which are running through March to April with some fantastic produce at knock down prices. I was there to pick up an Easter pack gifted to me, filled with meaty goodies: a leg of lamb; pork butt; brisket; sausages; and freshly packed veg. As a family, we always sit down to a good roast on Sundays. Normal Sundays means dinner is served at 6pm but on special occasions, such as today, it’s lunch that is the main course. Lamb is traditional to serve on Easter for us, and when I informed my family that I had a huge leg of lamb (2.4kg) locally sourced and on the bone (a lot of supermarkets the bone is cut), they expressed their excitement for Sunday lunch much more than usual!
I slow cooked this in my fan oven at 120c for 5 hours; filling the house with the most salivation inducing smells. If this was a cartoon, everyone would be lifted off the ground and proceed to float towards the source of the aroma, noses twitching. I stuck to the classic method of studding the lamb with garlic and rosemary. As I had a collection of ailing lemons in the fruit bowl, I decided to use them too – a little greek inspiration in a Northern Irish kitchen.
Really this roasted leg of lamb can be enjoyed for any Sunday dinner – not just Easter!
Easy Slow Cooked Leg of Lamb With Rosemary and Garlic
Ingredients
- leg of lamb (mine was 2.4kg)
- 10 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced in 2
- Handful of sprigs of rosemary
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ½ lemon peel, from the squeezed lemon
- 1 tsp garlic powder ( if you havent got powder use 1 garlic clove crushed)
- 2 tablespoons marjoram
- handful of fresh thyme leaves, roughly chopped
- large pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper
- handful rosemary sprigs
- 300ml of dry white wine
- 250ml chicken stock
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 140c 120c (fan)
- Prep the lamb by making 20 incisions with a knife and stuff the garlic cloves and sprigs of rosemary into each one.
- In a small bowl, mix the oil, fresh lemon juice, lemon peel, garlic powder, marjoram, thyme leaves and season with salt and pepper.
- Rub the mixture all over the lamb
- Place sprigs of rosemary around the tin and pour in the white wine and chicken stock (or any stock of your choice) into the roasting tin and sit the lamb on top.
- Cover with tinfoil and roast for 4 1/2 hours. Remove tinfoil and roast for a further 30 minutes. Remember to check if the meat is drying out. If so, add some more stock or wine to top it up.
- Remove the lamb from the oven and let is rest for 10 minutes.
- Serve with your choice of sides.