Roast leg of lamb with gravy
Gabriel Gate
Jon Faine
Degree of difficulty:
You need:
a 1.5kg leg of lamb, trimmed
2 cloves garlic, peeled and quartered
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon chilli paste, optional. I used a little chilli jam
1 tablespoon thyme, finely chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 carrot, coarsely diced
1 onion, coarsely diced
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup water
2 teaspoon cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp white wine
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Serving Suggestion:
Serve with roast vegetables and a steamed green vegetable or a salad. Roast the vegetables in a separate oven tray.
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Using the tip of a small blade, make 8 small cuts into the lamb at regular intervals, ensuring that the cuts are deep enough for the garlic slivers. The garlic must not protrude from the meat.
Mix the olive oil with the chilli paste and thyme, and brush the lamb all over with the mixture. Season with black pepper and place on a rack sitting in a roasting tray. Roast lamb for about 50 minutes, turning it 2 or 3 times during cooking so that it cooks evenly.
After 20 minutes of cooking, add the diced carrot and onion to the tray.
When the meat is done, remove from the oven. Place on a dish, cover with foil and leave to rest for about 10 minutes before serving.
To make your gravy, drain as much fat as possible from the tray. Keep the onions and carrots in the tray. Place on medium heat and stir in tomato paste. Add wine and boil to reduce the juices by half. Add the water, bring to the boil and whisk in the cornflour mixture. Add any meat juices from the plate and season the gravy with salt and pepper.
Strain gravy into a small saucepan and keep warm. Discard the carrots, onions and herbs.
Slice meat and serve with the gravy and parsley.