Monday, January 08, 2007

Emil's lamb

Bang goes the diet - but we did have a salad to start .....


2.5kg leg of lamb on the bone
6 cloves of garlic, sliced
6 sprigs of thyme, cut into 2cm pieces
2 tablespoons of olive oil
4 medium onions chopped coarsely
6 medium tomatoes (900g.) peeled, seeded, chopped coarsely
(or 2 cans of chopped tomatoes)
2 bay leaves
1/3 cup (80ml) brandy
2 cups (500ml) dry white wine
8 medium (1.6kg) wshed potatoes, peeled, quartered
1 cup (250ml) chicken stock


1. Trim fat off lamb. Pierce lamb 12 times with a sharp knife, press one slice of garlic and one piece of thyme into each cut. Reserve remaining garlic and thyme. Rub salt and pepper all over lamb.

2. Preheat oven to moderate.

3. Heat half the oil on the hob in a large flameproof baking dish, add lamb, turn frequently until browned all over to seal, remove from dish.

4. Heat remaining oil in same dish, cook onion, reserved garlic and thyme until soft, but not coloured. Add tomato, cook, stirring, until softened. Add bay leaves, brandy and wine, bring to a boil.

5. Return leg of lamb to dish. Roast, uncovered, in moderate oven about 30 minutes. Add potatoes to same dish and roast for about an hour or until lamb is cooked as desired and potatoes are tender. Spoon pan juices over lamb occasionally during cooking.

6. Remove lamb from dish, cover with foil, stand 15 minutes.

7. Meanwhile, strain the cooking juices into medium saucepan, reserve tomato mixture and cover to keep warm. Skim any fat from top of juices in saucepan. Add chicken stock to saucepan, bring to a boil and boil, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until reduced to 1.5 cups (375ml).

8. Serve lamb with potato, tomato mixture and sauce.

Emil carved it at the table - I say carved but it fell off the bone, it was absolutely gorgeous.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sounds lovely. Nice to use thyme instead of Rosemary. Yum. Another year, another diet down the tubes!! There's always next year! :-) x

axx said...

Back on track now ....

..... for the time being