Roast Lamb Leg
Prep time: 3 hours
Cook time: 4-5 hours (ideally, if you butterfly the leg, you can cook it much quicker to keep the colour, around 20 minutes on each side before wrapping in foil and allowing to rest)
Ingredients:
For the Lamb:
1 Leg of lamb (for the dish on the show I used a leg of black border lamb)
200g N’duja
5 cloves of garlic
2 stalks of fresh rosemary
1 bunch of fresh thyme
A handful of dried Calabrian oregano
1 bunch of fresh parsley
A palm-full of Pine nuts
Lemon zest of one lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper
For the potatoes:
600-700g Roasting potatoes (rough 5cm dice)
200ml duck fat
10 sprigs fresh Rosemary
5 cloves of garlic
For the kale:
1/2 red chilli
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
150g salted butter
1 clove of garlic minced
500g kale
Method:
Start by making small incisions all across the leg with the tip of the knife. Into these openings place a slice of garlic
Finely chop all the herbs, grate the lemon zest and mix with the nduja to create a paste, season with a little salt and pepper. If the mix is quite thick, thin it out a little with the olive oil
push the nduja/herb paste into the incisions over the garlic (do this to each one)
Set the remaining paste to one side
Place the leg of lamb onto the hot grill and brown all over. Lower the heat, remove the lamb after about 20 minutes and wrap in baking paper and foil. Return to the cooler BBQ and cook on a low heat (around 60-70) for 4-5 hours.
While the meat is cooking take the remaining nduja paste, place into a pestle and
mortar with the fine nuts and parsley and work into a paste, top with a little olive oil
When the lamb is soft and falling away from the bone, shred the meat from the bone onto a plate (keep the bone on the plate) and drizzle over the nduja/herb sauce, finish with a little more chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon.
For the potatoes:
Put the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Add a handful of salt and bring to the boil.
When it comes to the boil, leave to simmer for 4-5 minutes then strain into a sieve or colander. Leave to cool slightly and drip any excess water away for at least 5-6 minutes.
Meanwhile, in another suitable oven dish or tray, place the duck fat, garlic and rosemary and heat in the oven at around 180°C for 5-6 minutes. When the fat is hot, take the dish out from the oven and carefully remove the rosemary and garlic. This will have nicely scented the fat.
Add the potatoes, making sure they are all distributed evenly.
Roast for about 1-1 1/2 hours, shaking and moving them around every now and then to ensure even roasting.
For the kale:
Blanch the kale for 8 minutes in boiling salted water and place into a saucepan with a slice of the chilli butter. Mix well and season to taste.
Unwrap the lamb and slice. Serve with the kale, potatoes and lamb juices.
