Roast leg of lamb with sauce soubise

Roast Leg of Lamb

Take your leg of lamb out of the fridge well in advance to come up to room temperature.  Massage with olive oil, season well and place in a roasting tray.  Squeeze over just a small amount of lemon juice.

The only way I now have confidence roasting large joints to be served pink is with a thermometer that is inserted into a thick part of the joint, not too close to a bone, and that stays in the joint in the oven with a wire connecting to a display outside.

Roast for 20 minutes at 220C then remove from the oven.  Add a knob of butter to the tray which will melt, then baste the meat with this mixture of oil and butter.  After basting remove excess fat from the tray to a mug (seems illogical but works) for later bastings, if desired.  Add a large glass of dry white wine to the tray, a whole head of garlic, sliced across horizontally and both cut surfaces facing down, and several sprigs of rosemary.

Place the roast back into a lower temperature oven, say 180C, to finish cooking.  When the thermometer display reads 58C, remove the tray from the oven and the joint from the tray onto a plate to rest for 20 minutes.  The temperature will continue to rise considerably in the centre of the joint, and perfectly pink is around 65C.

Re-place the tray into the oven for five minutes for some additional crusting of the garlic.  Then place on a hob to scrape together all juices into a sauce.  Add a tiny splash of water if required and you may like to transfer the tray contents into a small saucepan to reduce, and by simmering emulsify, before serving.

Mint Sauce

Simmer 50ml of water and 1 (proper) teaspoon of caster sugar in a very small saucepan for 1 minute.  Pour into a serving bowl.  Add 2 tablespoons of very finely chopped fresh mint and 1 teaspoon of red wine vinegar.  Stir well and leave to cool.

Sauce Soubise

Simon Hopkinson's lovely sauce soubise recipe is available here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/all-the-tricks-of-the-trade-625970.html?pageToolsFontSize=200%25

Redcurrant Jelly

As well.  Home-made if you are very lucky.