Slow Roast Leg of Lamb

Serves 6

For that full, rich flavour and convenience on the day we are slow roasting the lamb. The secret is the wet greaseproof paper. Put the lamb in the oven early, while you go about your business. Remove a perfectly browned but still succulent lamb from the oven at mealtime. Anchovies can be reduced to ½ a tin if you have a very conservative audience. The meat is much easier to carve, if you remove the bones from the cooked lamb first.

Recipe Category

Meat – Lamb

Products in this recipe

Garlic Pepper Seasoning, Liquid Beef Stock

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You will need

Seasoning paste

olive oil
1 leg lamb ± 2.5 kg with shank attached
2 t (10 ml) Ina Paarman’s Garlic Pepper Seasoning
50 g tin anchovies in oil
2 T (30ml) butter
1 x 25 g Ina Paarman’s Liquid Beef Stock
2 cloves of garlic
1 t (5 ml) Ina Paarman’s Garlic Pepper Seasoning

For roasting

2 – 3 onions, skin on and roughly cut up
a handful of fresh thyme
2 whole heads of garlic, cut in half through the waist
2 – 3 cloves
2 cups (500 ml) white wine, use a wooded chardonnay or chenin blanc

Gravy

1 t (5 ml) potato flour or cornflour
1 T (15 ml) cold water
1 T (15 ml) lemon juice
a pinch of sugar
1 T (15 ml) butter

Method

Slash a criss-cross pattern on both sides of the lamb and cut through the membrane about 2 mm deep.
Rub the lamb all over with a little olive oil and Garlic Pepper Seasoning. Mash together all the seasoning paste ingredients adding the oil from the anchovies. Rub into the leg of lamb.
Leave to stand at room temperature. Can be done the night before, but then refrigerate.
Position the oven rack one shelf below the middle and preheat the oven to 150°C. Build a platform in a roasting pan with the onions, thyme, garlic and cloves. Place the prepared leg on top. Pour the wine in on the side. Wet two lengths of baking paper long enough to hang over the sides of the pan. Cover the leg with the sheets of wet baking paper, tucking it under the lip of the pan all round, or tie it around the pan with string.
Place in the oven to bake slowly for ± 4½ hours.
Make a gravy with the pan juices, thickened a little with potato or cornflour mixed with water. Add lemon juice and a pinch of sugar, stir in a knob of butter. Taste, add a little water if too concentrated.