Recipe Room  »  Milk-fed lamb roasted with tuscan potato chunks & mashed peas

Milk-fed lamb roasted with tuscan potato chunks & mashed peas

Ask your butcher to find lamb fed exclusively on milk, checking that the diet of the ewe is free from all drugs and hormones.  Unless you intend to spit-roast your milk-fed lamb whole, it may be wise to ask your butcher to bone it into individual joints when you place your order.

You’ll then end up with two legs, two shoulders, a saddle, two racks (with chine bones removed for easier carving). Be sure the butcher saves you all the bones for the stock you need to make.  

‘Tuscan chunks’ are simply chunks of potato roasted in my favourite rustic Italian manner – infused with rosemary and with well-crisped garlic cloves, skins on and slightly crushed.

Minted, mashed peas make the perfect, traditional accompaniment.

Method

The day before you plan to eat, peel and coarsely crush one of the heads of garlic.Pick ¾ of the rosemary leaves from the stalks and coarsely chop. Rub garlic and rosemary all over jointed lamb, then cover with plastic film and refrigerate overnight.

Meanwhile, make a stock using the saved lamb bones and by following instructions for chook, game, veal or beef and leave to simmer overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 200°C. Cut unpeeled potatoes into large, bite-sized cubes. Pour olive oil into a baking dish with depth of about 2 mm, roll potato around in it before seasoning well with salt and pepper and sliding dish into oven for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, separate remaining garlic cloves, leaving the skins on and pick remaining rosemary leaves from stalks. Using a fish slice, toss potato, scraping well from bottom of tray, and return to oven for a further 15 minutes. Scatter in garlic cloves, then toss with potato and return to oven for a further 6 minutes.

Remove from oven, sprinkle over rosemary, then toss again and leave for reheating later. Leave oven on.

Choose two baking dishes large enough to accommodate all joints comfortably. Line each dish with a thin layer of olive oil, then stand them over a full flame. When hot, carefully lower in each piece of lamb, skin side down, with the larger legs and shoulders in one dish and the racks, saddle and kidneys in the other. Season well.

Turn pieces over when deep golden and swiftly season again.

Transfer dishes to hot oven and cook for the following times: kidneys, 8 minutes; racks, 12 minutes; saddle, 15 minutes; shoulders, 20 minutes and legs, 30 minutes.

As each piece is cooked, remove from oven and keep warm, tipping fat from dish directly onto potato. Leave oven on.

While meat is resting, make the mashed peas.

In a small dry frying pan, toast cumin seeds over a low flame until fragrant, then cool and grind. Peel and cut onions into rough dice. Peel and crush garlic. Heat olive oil in a saucepan and sauté onion until lightly caramelised.

Add garlic, wine, peas,water, castor sugar and ground cumin. Continue cooking gently for 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add mint leaves, then remove from heat and purée using a food processor or hand blender, and season to taste. Keep warm.

While the peas are cooking, make the sauce. Stand one of the baking dishes over a moderate flame and pour in wine and lamb stock to deglaze, rubbing congealed juices well with a wooden spoon, then remove from heat.

Stand other dish over flame and deglaze with juices from first pan. Add tomato paste, vinegar and any juices from resting joints.

Simmer to a saucing consistency, then check seasoning and strain. Keep sauce warm while carving lamb.

Return potato to oven for 8-10 minutes for a final crisp while carving lamb. The most awkward joint to carve is the shoulder, with its slightly triangular bone structure hidden inside, so stick as close to the bone as you can. The rest is fairly straightforward.

Cut lengthways down saddle, slightly off-centre, to remove loins on each side (about 2 cm in diameter and 10 cm long), then slice it diagonally. Turn saddle over to remove the tiny fillet that you will be able to feel with your fingers.

Slice cutlets off from top to bottom, using each bone as a guide for your knife. While cutting through leg, change angles with each muscle so that you are cutting against the grain (if the meat appears striped, carve the other way). Simply split the kidneys pair and serve to your favourite or discreetly eat them all yourself!

Scrape any tasty juices from your chopping board into the sauce, then quickly reheat in a small saucepan.

Serve lamb and its sauce on mashed peas with crisped potato and garnish some steamed asparagus if desired.