It’s autumn, the weather has turned, it’s time for roast dinners.
I like preparing a roast. It’s a pottering about the house task. You can stick the tunes on as you peel spuds, have a brew while everything cooks, the smell is amazing and if you can crack good gravy everyone thinks you are a goddess. What’s not to love?
There are times when you want the quick and easy version and this is it. This feeds a family of six.
- A leg of lamb
- 2kg of waxy potatoes
- 6 large carrots
- 1 bulb of garlic
- olive oil
- salt
- pepper
Have the oven heating at 200° fan/220° standard.#
Wash the potatoes and carrots. No peeling here. If the potatoes are small/medium sized chuck them in a large roasting tin whole. Chop the carrots into inch sized chunks and add them to the roasting tin. Add a good glug of olive oil and make sure everything is coated well. Place the lamb on top of the veg. You can stud it with garlic if you wish by sticking a sharp knife into the meat and placing cloves of garlic into the wholes but if you feeling really lazy just cut a bulb of garlic in half across the middle. Rub the fat of the meat with the bulb and then stick that in the roasting tin too. Season well and whack it in the oven.
After an hour turn the oven down to 150°/170° and then keep your eye on it for another 30 minutes to an hour depending on your oven.
Once it’s done you can make a quick gravy by deglazing the pan with red wine and adding a little flour to thicken it but if this is a lazy Sunday the trick is to add the pan juices to gravy granules which gives it a bit more flavour.
I make cauliflower cheese to go with it but it stands up on it’s own. Serve with a relaxed attitude, love and tunes.
photo credit: Gabriel Garcia Marengo