Jamie Oliver's 4 hour slow roast lamb
I saw this recipe on Jamie Oliver's At Home series and thought to myself: we'll have this on Saturday night!! So here is what I remember of the program.
It uses shoulder of lamb, which, because of the time spent cooking at a very low heat, will be tender and just fall off the bone when the dish is done.
Cooking does not get much simpler (and tastier) than this!
We have a large selection of slow roast recipes that are similar to this one.
Ingredients
Printable 🖨 shopping 🛒 list & 👩🍳 method for this recipe
- 1.5 kg shoulder of lamb on the bone
- 1 whole garlic bulb
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Lots and lots of fresh of rosemary stems.
- Olive oil for drizzling
For the hot caper and mint sauce
- 1 tablespoon plain flour
- 2 big handfuls of freshly picked mint leaves
- 4 tablespoons capers
- 1 pint of chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
Mise en place
- Preheat the oven to its hottest setting.
Just out of the oven, resting for a while...
It's 4pm and we're ready to roast
Hot mint and caper sauce
Method
- With a sharp knife, score the skin of the joint every 2.5 cm (1"). Cut about halfway through the fat.
- Using plenty of salt and pepper, season the lamb on both sides, ensuring you get plenty into the slashes you have made.
- Smash the garlic bulb to separate all of the cloves and place half of them, unpeeled, in the base of a suitable sized roasting tray.
- Distribute most of the rosemary stems evenly into the base of the tray.
- Sit the meat, skin-side upwards, into the roasting tray and place the remaining garlic cloves on the top of the skin, together with the remaining rosemary stems.
- Drizzle 3 or 4 tablespoons of olive oil over the skin of the lamb.
- Cover with 2 layers of tin-foil and fold the edges over the edge of the roasting tin to ensure a good seal.
- Check that the oven has reached its highest temperature and place the joint in the oven on the top shelf and immediately turn the oven down to 160° C (325° F - gas 3)
- Leave to roast slowly for 4 hours.
- After 4 hours, remove the lamb, together with the garlic, and put the meat on a preheated plate. Cover loosely with a piece of foil and leave to rest for a while before carving and serving with the sauce.
To make the hot mint and caper sauce
- Discard most of the rosemary and any excess oil, leaving just the lovely caramelised juices from the roasting.
- Heat the roasting tray on the hob and add a tablespoon of plain flour and stir well to soak up all of the lovely juices.
- Roughly chop the mint leaves and the capers and add to the roasting tray.
- Squeeze a few of the roasted garlic cloves into the gravy.
- Add the chicken stock to the tray, stirring well to thicken, but don't cook it for ages.
- Add a final splash of sherry vinegar to the gravy, stir and serve.
Serving suggestions
Serve hot with squash mash and Parmesan turnip tops.
Chef's note
If you are using a smaller joint then you can reduce the cooking time; a small (800g) joint would only need half the cooking time. However, it wont hurt to cook it longer as it will just do a better job of breaking down the collagen and sinews. It's also worth noting that Lamb is safe to eat rare.
Don't be put off a recipe that calls for a leg of lamb because of the high cost. This recipe can be adjusted for half a leg of lamb and you buy that (frozen) for just £6.00! (March 2013).
See also
- A comprehensive guide to roast meat cooking times - give the time you want to carve your roast and we'll give you a timed step by step roasting guide
- Slow roast recipes
- Roast potatoes
- Roast vegetables
- Gravy recipes
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