We were parked outside Michel's Patisserie on Monday when I decided to dash in and buy a take away coffee while I waited for Bryan. I came out carrying coffee and munching on a Pasteis de Nata, a Portuguese custard tart. It was so good I decided to go back in and buy a lemon tart to serve to our neighbours who were coming for dinner last night. It was every bit as good as I expected.
Slow roasted lamb was the main event of the evening. In the past I've always cooked my lamb (with lots of garlic, rosemary and lemon) by roasting at 230C degrees for half an hour and then turning the oven down to 160C degrees for about 2 hours. Recently I'd slow roasted a piece of pork for 9 hours and it was delicious. I wanted to do something similar with the lamb but 9 hours at home was not going to fit with my plans. I'd heard of a method of slow roasting for 5 hours at 120C degrees and thought I might try that.
Sam, my favourite San Francisco blogger, had roasted a lamb and mentioned the HFW sizzle and slow method. So a quick email to Sam for the technicalities and I had my combination. A little input from Hugh, a little from Sam and a little from me.
I used slivers of garlic, anchovies and rosemary to flavour the 2 1/3kg leg of lamb, drizzled it with olive oil, the juice of a lemon and a sprinkling of Maldon salt, then onto a rack in a pan with a little water covering the bottom of the pan. The oven was preheated to 230 C degrees when the lamb went in. After about 45 minutes the lamb had a nice golden crust. I turned the oven down to 100C for 1 hour and then back up to 120C for the last 3 hours, then rested the lamb for 20 minutes before carving. I added a few splashes of red wine to the juices in the pan for a gravy. Brilliant.
Don't forget to send your A Taste Of Yellow entries to me before 7th May - atasteofyellowATgmailDOTcom
