#2 and #52 Completed – The roasting of the lambs (cert: parental guidance)

This might sound rather arrogant but I’ve been quite pleased with my culinary skills over the past couple of years.

My time at uni gave me great opportunity to work on various dishes and I converted a notebook that I used to document my time at a climate change conference in Copenhagen into my home-made cookbook. I filled it with various sweet and savoury recipes that I rather enjoyed. Influences include a variety of online and paper-based recipe compendiums but the most significant has to go to my genius former flatmate Benno whose humble talent never ceased to impress during our final year of studies.

This is where the arrogance dwindles. I have one grave confession to make. Confidence in cooking a roast is lacking. I would have no idea what to do if I was thrust a joint to serve up with veg for a traditional Sunday fayre. Yes, I’ve contributed to plenty of roasts in my time but always stuck to that which delights me the most. Tends to be the honey-glazed parsnips.

Time to change this unfortunate situation.

So, here we go. First things first: Location. Opted for Bruges just because it fitted in well and guaranteed me a Sunday where I will be around a suitable kitchen.  This also very much determines my recipients – my parents. I felt it was only fair to cook them something hoping that it might go a tiny step to restoring the equilibrium of being cooked for. Obviously, there never was an equilibrium and never will be but I’m sure they will always appreciate the effort.

Next we gotta choose what to do. Turns out the Sunday I had elected for was Easter Sunday so we went for the traditional leg of lamb plus roasties. Sadly, we couldn’t find any of the Welsh stuff so we’d brought in a kiwi offering.

With all this sorted in advance, Sunday morning came, Mum and Dad were off to church in Ostend and it was all down to me to get things going. Using a mix of internet forums and websites here the recipe is…

Al’s Lamb and Veg

1. Pre-heat oven to 230 degrees centigrade.
2. Chop up potatoes, carrots and parsnips and steam the potatoes and carrots for 10 minutes.
3. Take the leg of lamb and stab the top about 50 times before marinading it (with a mix of butter, juice of half a lemon, 6 cloves of garlic, a load of chopped up rosemary stalks).
4. Put the lamb in the middle of a large baking tray and chuck on the veg around the sides with some more rosemary and a roughly diced onion.
5. Cook for 30 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, chop up the leeks and prepare to steam in the same dish as the other veg.
7. Take the lamb out of the oven and scrape the veg off that tray and onto another. The juices from the lamb will have given it a bit of a rustic glaze.
8. Season the veg and drizzle with olive oil before returning the veg tray and the lamb tray to the oven on a reduced temperature of 150 degrees centigrade.
9. Cook for 50 minutes.
10. Once done and the meat is cooked, remove the lamb from the oven and from the tray and cover up with foil and a towel to maintain as much heat as possible.
11. While the veg is keeping warm in the oven, begin steaming the leeks.
12. Also, at the same time, begin heating up the juices and bits on the lamb tray to develop a gravy. Once all the juices and bits have loosened themselves, transfer to a smaller pan to make things easier.
13. Add a teaspoon or two of plain flour, a wee glug of red wine, and half a stock cube. Keep stirring away on a little heat so it thickens up a bit.
14. Once the leeks are done, serve.

And, now is where I can tick off another one of my 61things: learning to carve a joint of meat.

I have to draw in the master of such ceremonies for this occasion, my father. As I was growing up, you could tell a Sunday lunch was imminent by hearing the shinking noise of the knives coming from the steam-engulfed, Radio 4-bellowing kitchen. It was time to learn what was going on.

Dad began by showing me how to sharpen using his impliments – a sharpening and a honing steel. He was teaching me to draw the blade inwards on a diagonal until I started to feel an edge develop. I struggled with getting this but I’m sure years of experience will get me there.

Next, the carving begins. Dad boasts a less orthodox technique than those described by some celebrity chefs. Basically, from the top cut down the middle of the joint at a 90 degree angle to the bone of the leg. Cut straight down until you reach the bone. Then, begin cutting down again, roughly a centimetre to the side and aim to finish at the point of the leg you cut to last time. This way it should detatch all the meat in that particular slice.

If that didn’t make 100% sense to you then my description was probably as successful as my carving attempt. I ended with rough chunks of carcass instead of impressive slices. But, I’m sure it didn’t affect the taste too much, so I’ll keep working on that one too.

5 minutes later, the three of us were assembling at the table, chaperoned by a glass of Fleurie with the first roast I had cooked by myself. And I think it wasn’t too bad.

Real liked the veg, as per usual. I liked how they were a bit rustic and had an amazing natural glaze from the lamb juices dripping on them. Don’t steam the parsnips – really didn’t need it. I’d also maybe try and spike up the gravy a bit.

Finally, it goes real well with crab apple jelly. If you can source some, go for it. If you can’t, contact my mum.

So, the arrogance has not quite been restored as I’ve proved I’m not a natural at the carving mallarchy. However, I was devastated to realise just how simple a roast is.

It’s game of time rather than cooking skills. And if more cuisine is the same, I have no good reason to not give it a go.