This is the easiest Sunday roast you’ll ever make. It takes minutes to prepare and then all you have to do is wait 5 hours while it becomes meltingly tender in the oven. No carving required as you can easily pull the meat apart with a spoon. Delicious!
Leg of Lamb à la Périgourdine – to serve 6
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 20g butter
- 2kg leg of lamb, skinned
- 2 tbsp brandy
- 6 garlic cloves
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 leek, trimmed and chopped
- 1 fresh thyme sprig, chopped
- 1 celery stick, chopped
- 1 clove
- 1 bottle dry white wine
Heat the oil and butter in a roasting tin, add the lamb and turn until browned all over.
Add the brandy, heat for a few seconds, then ignite and cover with a big saucepan lid or baking tray to extinguish the flames.
Put the garlic around the lamb, add the onion, leek, thyme, parsley, celery and clove, season with salt and pepper and pour in the wine.
Cover tightly and roast for 5 hours. Carefully transfer to a warm serving dish, throw away the garlic and serve with the gravy.
Serve with some nice greens.
Wine Suggestion: Stick to something Italian with a bit of acidity and tannin – either a Sangiovese or a Cabernet Sauvignon would work well. We drank a Rosso Di Montalcino which was lovely.
(Original recipe from Silver Spoon, Phaidon 2005).
This looks like a fantastic recipe. I will give it a go before this year’s lamb turns to mutton. The image on your blog (Dun Laoghaire) caught my eye. I grew up just off Seapoint Avenue and was out walking and photographing in the harbour yesterday. My late father brought me fishing for the first time 49 years ago on the end of the West Pier. There were fish in the bay back then. Keep up the good work.
Hi Conor. Thanks for saying hello – it’s really nice when people make connections. We’ve been tempted to change the image a couple of times and make it more food related but we like it too much. We’ve seen a few happy fishermen this year with mackerel spoils from the bay so there might be a few fish left in there yet. Lovely to hear from you. J & J