Slow roast leg of lamb with cinnamon, fennel & citrus - oh my word!

You've probably gathered by now that there's not many foodstuffs on this earth that I won't try - at least the once.  However, if you were to ask me what is my favourite type of roast meat, I would be hard pressed to pin it down to just the one.

After all, there's gorgeous roast chicken - who doesn't like roast chicken?  There's roasted gammon ham - so delicious with creamed leeks and new potatoes.  What about a superb roasted rib of beef?  So savoury and flavoursome.  Roast turkey, too - cooked with love and care, it is a perfect companion to bread sauce and Brussels sprouts.  Then, there's a beautiful roast leg of lamb, with mint sauce - need I say more?

For this last Sunday's dinner, we had originally planned to have a piece of salmon, which hubby was going to roast in a spicy glaze.  All these good intentions flew out of the window the minute I saw that Tesco were offering a leg of lamb at half price - £10 instead of £20, effectively.  When would we be able to lay our hands on an entire leg of lamb for that sort of price again?  Probably not for a long time - and it would fit perfectly into hubby's programme of roast dinners that he has embarked upon.

By heck and it was a mighty leg of lamb, too.  It only just fitted into our teensy tiny freezer - where it stayed until Saturday.

There'll be a few dinners out of this one!

The advent of this leg of lamb demanded the reconvening of the Menu Planning Committee (over a cup of coffee and several Jack Russells, of course), where we decided what in the world we were going to do with it.  Should we go the traditional route and roast it plainly then serve it with mint sauce, onion sauce and roast vegetables?  Or should we investigate some rather more exotic uses for the lamb?

In researching how long it would take to cook, I tripped over an intriguing recipe from BBC Good Food's Sarah Cook for slow roast lamb, with cinnamon, fennel and citrus.  Now the minute I mentioned cinnamon, hubby was hooked - but the addition of the word "fennel" had him salivating.  So, we'd decided.  Now, all that was left was to decide on what to serve with the lamb.

Again, we ultimately changed our minds over this, but the original plan was to serve it with roasted Jersey Royal potatoes with sea salt & rosemary, accompanied by a Spring Vegetable Thoran - which was a midly curried recipe from Anjun Anand.

Hubby had something of a change of heart about the Thoran once half-way through cooking the lamb and quite rightly so, in my opinion.  He felt that the two dishes might argue as to which was the star of the show, when in truth the lamb should be the hero of the hour.  I think he was absolutely right, and although the Thoran had been a good idea at the time, we hadn't the benefit of smelling the lamb cooking when we'd been planning the accompaniments.

All dressed in its rub and ready to roast

So the vegetables took a bit of a step down and we settled for steamed Jersey Royals, along with steamed broccoli, green beans and asparagus.  Hubby made a divine lamb gravy, using the pan juices, which we would have missed the opportunity of having, otherwise.

We had a bit of a problem where marinating the lamb was concerned, however.  It was supposed to be marinated overnight in orange and lemon juice, but we hadn't a bowl, dish or tray that was big enough for the lamb, but that would fit into our small fridge.  Even our freezer bags weren't big enough, or we could have put it all together in a freezer bag to marinate.   As a consequence, our lamb missed out on being marinated overnight, but - scout's honour - it didn't seem to make one jot of difference.

The lamb is roasted for four and a half hours in total.  To say that we had our tongues hanging out of our heads by serving time, is putting it mildly.  The aromas that were coming from the oven were just mouthwatering.

Much, much gorgeousness!

The served lamb was just divine.  No other word for it.  It was soft, flavoured gently with the earthy cinnamon, the freshness of the fennel and the tangy citrus and just melted in your mouth.  Honestly, I can't remember the last time I had such beautiful, gorgeous, sublime roast lamb.  Even the might of a dab of mint sauce wasn't enough to swamp out the flavours.  I was in little roast dinner heaven.

You, too, could be in this roast dinner nirvana - the very next time you lay your hands on a leg of lamb.  Do it - I can't recommend it highly enough.

SLOW ROAST LAMB WITH CINNAMON, FENNEL & CITRUS

Ingredients :

1 leg of lamb
zest and juice of one lemon
zest and juice of one orange
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp clear runny honey
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp ground cumin
3 garlic cloves, crushed.

Method :

1.  Put the lamb into a large (very large!) food bag or container with all the juice and marinate overnight.

2.  The following day, take the lamb out of the fridge an hour before you want to cook it.

3.  Pre-heat the oven to 200degC(fan)/400degF/Gas7.

4.  Remove the lamb from the marinade and reserve the marinade.  Pat dry, rub with half the oil and roast for 20-30 minutes or until browned.

5.  Remove the lamb and reduce the oven temperature to 140degC(fan)/325degF/Gas3.

6.  Mix together the zests, remaining oil, honey, spices and garlic with plenty of seasoning.  
7.  Line a baking tray with foil and place a large sheet of baking parchment on top.  Place the lamb into the middle and rub all over with the spice paste.

8.  Pull up the sides of the foil/paper and drizzle the marinade into the parcel, before sealing by scrunching and folding the silver foil.

9.  Roast for 4 hours until very tender.  Rest in a warm place for 30 minutes (still wrapped).

10.  Unwrap and carve to serve.

Printable version
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Beef Olives - just in time for Sunday lunch!

You should have seen son & heir's face when he asked what was for dinner on Sunday and was told "Beef Olives".  It went from "Beef - YES!" to "olives - NO!" in seconds.  I had to temper his disappointment quickly by telling him that actually, the name "Beef Olives" has no involvement with his hated ingredient, the olive.  He cheered up a lot after that - and thoroughly enjoyed the end result, as we all did.  Hubby really excelled himself (considering he was outside of his comfort zone) with this one.

I had a quick look online to see if I could determine a little bit about the history of the name "Beef Olives", and from Historic Foodways' "History is Served" pages, found this : 

"The British term for wrapping meat around a stuffing, browning it and finishing it in a brown sauce is called an “olive,” although there are no olives in it.  Perhaps the word referred to the final “olive-like” shape the meat took when it was tied up and cooked.  Beef, veal and even fish olives have been part of the British cuisine since the 16th century".

Well that was news to me.  I considered the dish to be very much a seventies creation - but it seems it goes way back into the mists of time.  I can see the correlation between an olive and the shape of the rolled meat - although you have to think more of the elongated shape of the wild olive, rather than the round, fat, cultivated olive.

Anyway, I shall turn this blog post over to hubby now, so that he can tell you how he did it, in his own words :

The making of Beef Olives is a fairly straightforward thing.

This was my first attempt at them, drawing on both childhood memories and various cook books.  None of the processes involved are in the slightest bit complex but the thing I hadn't anticipated was the time needed to complete each stage - especially the flattening (is that the technical term) of the beef itself.  To avoid timing issues, I heartily recommend leaving half a day spare or perhaps preparing the beef in the morning.

From the dim recesses of my memory I can recall eating both stuffed and un-stuffed Beef Olives. I've given here, the recipe for the Olives that we had last Sunday but I can see a lot of scope for alternative stuffings - I think we're might try a blue cheese based one next.

The beef that I used in our dish comprised three 200g braising steaks from our local butcher.  To prepare them, I cut each steak into three equal pieces and then placed each piece on a chopping board before laying a sheet of clingfilm on top and then beating enthusiastically with a meat mallet and a rolling pin.  I used the mallet to do the heavy work and the rolling pin to ensure that the meat was the same thickness all over.

Be warned that this process takes a *long* time and requires a fair amount of effort.  The decision to use braising steak in this recipe was based on the fact that it looked nice in the butchers display.  In fact, pretty much any kind of beef can be used, with the combination of tenderising and long slow cooking rendering the beef very soft in the finished dish.

The recipe below is how I prepared the dish on the day.  On reflection, I think I would add an extra stage to the preparation of the Olives, so feel free to add this if you like the sound of it!  After stuffing, rolling and securing each Olive, I would flash fry them before placing in the roasting dish.  This would colour the outside of the Olives and help to boost the 'beefiness' of the flavour.

I have also seen another variation that I'd like to try.  This involves taking each beaten sheet of beef and then painting the entire surface with a thin layer of mustard and then a layer of stuffing.  The whole thing is then rolled up like a Swiss roll before being secured and cooked as normal.

Anyway, on with the show. 

BEEF OLIVES    (makes 9 olives)

Ingredients :
For the Stuffing :
3 rashers smoked streaky bacon
50g breadcrumbs
3 largish chestnut mushrooms, chopped fine
half a tsp fresh sage
half a tsp fresh thyme
half a tsp fresh parsley

3 x 200g beef braising steaks
1 red onion
1 clove garlic
1 glass red wine
600 ml good beef stock.

Method :

1.  Cook the bacon until crispy and then chop into tiny bits.

2.  Add the mushrooms to the bacon, breadcrumbs and herbs in a frying pan.  Ideally, fresh herbs should be used and in quantities to your own taste.  The amounts listed here are simply a guide.  Fry the mixture in a little olive oil until the breadcrumbs turn golden and then set aside to cool completely.

3.  Beat the beef into a thin sheet, 2mm thick or so, and then repeat with each chunk of braising steak.  

4.  The Olives can now be assembled.  This is done by taking a tablespoon (or more if you like) of the stuffing and spreading it across a sheet of beef.  Roll the beef tightly around the stuffing and then secure it with two cocktail sticks or by tying with kitchen string.  The finished Olive should be about the size of a large sausage.  The Olives can now be placed into a large, deep roasting dish or lasagne dish.

5.  The next stage is to prepare the stock.  In a saucepan, gently saute the chopped red onions and garlic until soft.  Once done, turn up the heat to a good sizzle and then add the red wine. Allow the wine to reduce by half and then add the beef stock.

6.  All manner of other ingredients can be added at this point.  Think mustard, or mushroom ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, redcurrant jelly,  horseradish - whatever takes your fancy really. Simmer this mixture for a few minutes before pouring over the beef until the liquid reaches about two thirds up the Olives.

7.  Now cover the dish with a lid or a sheet of foil and place into an oven, pre-heated to 160degC for at least 90 minutes.  Take the dish out of the oven after 45 minutes and rotate each Olive before returning to the oven.  After ninety minutes, remove the foil lid and return the dish to the oven for another 10-15 minutes.

8.  Make gravy from the meat juices and stock in the roasting dish.  This can be done the hard way, by reduction and the addition of gravy browning, or the easy way, with gravy granules - no, I'm not telling which way I chose!

Serve with roast potatoes, a selection of vegetables, Yorkshire Puddin', English mustard and good old Horseradish sauce!

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Gammon, pot roasted in Cola

I was having trouble, just then, working out whether to call this "Gammon, pot roasted in cola" or "Pot roast cola gammon" or even "Cola braised Gammon ham".  It's a tricky one.

Either way, what it was trying to convey is that this blog post is all about a boneless smoked gammon joint, that was cooked in a saucepan of cola drink, celery, onion and carrots.  You can make your own mind up as to what to call it.  I call it yummy - but a terror to clean up afterwards!

I had been pondering over what to cook the bacon joint in - or whether to just pop it in the oven and roast it - for some time before hubby mentioned that we had a spare bottle of cola that I could use, if I wanted.  Having already made a ham cooked in cola (albeit a much bigger one, the Christmas before last), I thought it would be interesting to see how it translated to a much smaller piece of meat.

Has definitely succumbed to the "cola" effect!

The joint I had was around 800g, so just a little fellow - but just enough for a Sunday dinner, with a little left over for sandwiches the next day.

As is my habit, I soaked the gammon overnight to reduce its salt content.  It smelled lovely when it went into its chilly bath (I just used water, as I was only interested in getting rid of the salt, rather than getting additional flavours into the meat) and I was quite hopeful of a good dinner the following day.

I roughly chopped up the two carrots, an onion and two sticks of celery and used them to create a trivet upon which to put the meat, as I've known the bottom of a piece of meat become quite scorched when cooked this way.  In went the gammon and I poured the cola in until just covering the top of the meat, whilst still leaving a gap at the top of the saucepan.  I didn't want it boiling over - not with cola involved in it, anyway!

I left the gammon chuckling away on a low simmer for approximately an hour and a half.

What I didn't think about though, was that as the pot simmered the steam gathered under the lid and ever so slightly lifted it.  Enough for a splurt of cola/steam mix to decorate the top of my cooker, the buttons on the front of the cooker, the saucepan, the worktop to the side - and anything else that wanted to get in the way, with a sticky dark brown goo that was extremely hard to remove.  Oh - and the goo that had managed to creep in between the saucepan and the hot plate and then burn, was virtually welded on.  *sigh*  I'll have to think of a better plan, if I'm going to do this again in future.

I had used a big jam cauldron for the Christmas piece that I cooked in this way, and it obviously didn't have the same effect between steam and lid, as this hadn't happened then.

Served with roast potatoes & parsnips, creamed leeks, cabbage and carrots - delicious!

Still, the end result was worth all the mopping up and cleaning.  The ham emerged looking pleasingly dark and, when cut, demonstrated a lovely distinction between the cola-flavoured outside and the pink, succulent inside.  Between the soaking and the cooking, the ham had wound up delightfully moist and very acceptably mild in flavour.  There wasn't a very distinctive difference in flavour between the inner and outer, which is nice because you don't really want a strong cola influence in your roast dinner.

Roasties close up - no dribbling, now!

I had used the gorgeous Greenvale Farmfresh Jelly Potatoes for my roasties and can report that they are utterly perfect when used in this way.  I par-boiled them - at which they behave impeccably, not collapsing, or dissolving, or remaining bullet-like - and roasted them for the prescribed 45 minutes at 200degF.  The end result was a perfect, crispy, gently potato flavoured roastie, which we all agreed was one of the nicest roast potatoes we'd had in a very long time.

Next on the list for these potatoes is to try them in potato salad, after which I'm sure will come some mashed potato.  I can't see son & heir letting me get away without mashing them, for very much longer!

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A nice bit of Brisket!

Roast beef on a Sunday.

Apart from the rib of beef that I roasted for Christmas dinner, I honestly can’t remember the last time I had a piece of beef on an “ordinary” Sunday.

However, since I discovered my local butcher, beef has appeared on our menu-planning list as a regular event – but until this last weekend, not as a roasting joint.

It all began when I stopped roasting chickens and started pot roasting (or poaching) them instead.  I had such marvellous results that I’ve sworn never to roast a chicken again.

Since then, I’ve also done a pot roast with a gammon joint, again with a great deal of success.

I was reading through some of the food blogs that I follow, when up popped an entry regarding a pot roasted brisket.  Mmmmn, that sounded good.  However, I didn’t take it any further (other than mentally marking it, if ever a piece of brisket came my way) and life continued.  Right up until I saw, in the butcher’s window, a notice saying “Special Offer : 1kg rolled brisket : £3-something”.  Well, it didn’t exactly say “£3-something”, it’s just that I can’t exactly remember how much it was, other than the £3 bit.

Two things struck me about this.  Firstly, that the price was only around 50p more expensive than my usual target for the meat for a Sunday meal.  Secondly, that 1kg of brisket is one heck of a lot of meat, even allowing for shrinkage in the cooking.

It’s amazing how I find that I can remember a recipe, but I can’t remember the name of my next door neighbour (who shall be forever known as “Flossy next door”).  Immediately, I remembered the pot roasted brisket recipe, which sounded not only a great way to cook the beef, but about the only way of ensuring as little shrinkage as possible.

When Sunday dawned, I will admit to being a little bit nervous about cooking this gorgeous great hunk of beef, as it was just too good to ruin.

I started off by searing the outside of the beef on all sides – quite apart from the gorgeous smell it gives off, I do think that it adds flavour and colour which just pot roasting (which is little more than poaching) would provide alone.

Then, I added water and a stock cube and the following : two carrots, an onion and two sticks of celery – all quartered.  Plus two cloves of garlic, a big handful of fresh parsley and a bay leaf.

I then brought the liquid up to the boil, and put the whole lot in the oven for 2 hours, after which I turned the beef and put it back in the oven for another hour.

Not only was the beef the kind of texture that you could cut with a spoon, but also it tasted utterly divine.  I served it with roasted potatoes, parsnips and cauliflower with green beans – but the unexpected advantage is the stock.  If you try this recipe out, please please make your gravy from the stock.  You’ll probably never have had gravy like it before.  I’ve two pots of it in the freezer, just waiting for the next piece of brisket.

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Ham Pot Roast

The Gammon is hiding under the creamed leeks
see the slices, peeping out all pinkly, there?

Sunday, to me, demands something a bit special in the meal department.  There's no real reason why - it's not as though we starve for the remaining six days, so need to stock up for leaner times ahead.  I suspect that it's just a hangover from my upbringing when we would always have a roast on a Sunday, with a special dessert.  When people came round to eat with us, wine was served - and at Christmas, we had the Mother and Father of all roasts, with fruit or tomato juice to drink beforehand, a starter, then the Roast Turkey with all the trimmings, together with three choices of dessert - all followed by sweetmeats such as Turkish Delight, glace fruits, chocolate eclairs and nuts, served with a sweet dessert wine or liqueurs.  I take my hat off to my Mum and my Aunt - and in earlier days, my Nanna - who slaved over hot stoves for days beforehand doing all the baking and then got up before we'd gone to bed to put the Turkey in the oven.

All this, has resulted in it not being Sunday unless there's a roast on the table.

So, this Sunday (and because they're on special offer at the supermarket), we pushed the boat out and got a gammon joint.  Not, regrettably, one of the "real" gammon joints (we're saving up for one for Christmas), but one of the rolled, munched up and stuck back together again, gammon joints.  It may not have been your pukka thing - but it sure tasted good!

Considering I'd had such success with pot roasting chickens, I thought I'd step it up a gear and pot roast the gammon.  I thought that at least, that way, it wouldn't shrink as terribly as they often do when just plain roasted and it would stand a chance of staying succulent and moist.

The recipe was one of my own, gleaned from various recipes I'd read during my research.  I wanted it to be a veggie-based broth it was cooked in, rather than a spice-based broth.  Even though I'm just hopping up and down to use my new Star Anise, I thought I'd stay on the veggie side and see how we got on.

So, as we were having creamed leeks, I used the leek tops and two onions cut into quarters, plus a hoary old carrot that was looking for a home.  All these, combined with the cider, made a glorious stock that was just beyond tasty when made into gravy.

I served the Gammon with the creamed leeks, which were easily made by sweating the sliced leek in butter and, when softened, a large tablespoon of creme fraiche and some Worcestershire Sauce is added.  Mix it all together, add some seasoning and there you have it - creamed leeks.  I'd planned to serve some Chantenais carrots and swede batons, but discovered some Brussels sprouts in the veggie drawer, so they got included too.  With roast potatoes and roast parsnips, together with the ubiquitous Yorkshire Puddings, it was the kind of dinner that Sundays were made for.

GAMMON HAM POT ROAST

Ingredients :

1.5kg gammon ham joint

2 onions, quartered

Any other veg., like leek tops, carrot, celery

300ml dry cider

4 tbsp clear honey

1 tsp ground coriander

3 heaped tsp English mustard powder

Method :

Lay the vegetables into the bottom of a large lidded oven-proof saucepan or casserole.

Nestle the joint into the vegetables and pour over the cider.

“Paint” spoonfuls of the honey/mustard mixture over the joint.

Bring to the boil on the stove top and then place, covered, into a pre-heated oven at 170deg C for 2 to 2½ hours.

When done, remove the meat and put it to rest, covered in foil in a warm place, for around 20 minutes.

Pour the juices from the pan into a smaller saucepan, add cornflour or gravy granules to thicken for gravy.

Delicious!