Sanctum Sanctorum: Slow roasted lamb with Rosemary Porter Beer Jus served with Potato rosti mint puree stacks

Like last weeks cooking challenge I'm cooking with beer. Here is a slow roasted leg of lamb that will end up being extremely sweet and succulent thanks to slow roasting for 6 hours.

Ingredients

Lamb:

1.5 Kg leg on lamb (bone in)
Rosemary
2 lemons (the juice from 2, rind from 1)
2 cloves of garlic
mirin
fennel seeds
Olive oil

Potato Rosti:

2 Desiree Potatoes
1 large sweet potato
1 brown onion
Vegetable oil to shallow fry

Rosemary Jus:

250 mls litre of stock
1 bottle of James Squire Porter beer
1 brown onion
2 cloves of garlic
20g butter
2 springs of Rosemary
Thyme
Balsamic Vinegar

Mint Pea puree:

200g peas
6 mint leaves
10 watercress sprig

Roast lamb:

1. Create the marinate for the leg of lamb.

Crush fennel seeds in a mortal and pestle with sea salt and pepper add to the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, rosemary and mirin with lamb in a freezer bag. marinade for at least 1-2 hours.

Mirin is a japanese rice wine. I used Mirin because I wanted the marinade to have a little sweetness to it without overpowering the lemon and rosemary, due to Mirins high sugar content.
As the marinade is only going to be on the lamb for 1-2 hours resist the urge to put the lamb back into the fridge. You really do want the leg of lamb to be at room temperature when you start to roast.

2. Preheat oven to 120 Degrees Celsius. Season leg of lamb with lots of salt and pepper prior to going into the oven.

3. Now the Roast is ready to go into the oven. Cover roasting tray with Aluminium Foil. Cook at 120 degrees for 4 hours. Uncover and cook for a further 1-2 hours.

For this recipe I used two disposable aluminium roasting tins. Becaus ethey are the same size they cover each other perfectly.

4. Remove from oven. Cover and rest for 30 min.

Potato Rosti:

1. While oven is preheating, peel and coarsely grate potatoes.

Use your hands to squeeze out as much liquid as possible, use absorbent paper to remove the last of the liquid from the potatoes. Place in a bowl Add finely cut onion. Season. Cover with absorbent paper. Place in the refrigerator until required.

The fridge will help take out the last of the liquid.
Add one egg if the mixture doesn’t bind

2. Place about a 1/3 of a cup of potato into 10 cm ring. flatten.

I flattened mine using a press from my old coffee maker. Its the perfect size tool for the job.
3. in a small frypan heat oil and duck fat over a medium heat. Place rostis in the pan. cook for 2 minutes each side.

Cooked the first set 2 at a time but this was too difficult to flip.

The second set was cooked individually and worked pretty well.
Do not be alarmed if it falls apart slightly.

4. PLace on greaseproof paper. Once the lamb is cooked and rested place in warmed oven to reheat.

Rosemary Jus:

1. Place a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Add oil and butter. Once butter has turned brown add onion and garlic, stirring until browned.

2. Add herbs.

3. Add beer. Reduce by half.

For this recipe I am using a Porter beer from James Squire. Porter is a dark beer that gives a malt and chocolate flavour to the jus.

4. Add stock. Reduce by three quarters or until it reaches a sauce consistency.

The stock that I am using is a stock I made up from the unused Rabbit bones from last week boiled down with a garlic, herbs and onion.

5. Season. Add Balsamic to taste
6. Pass through a sieve.

Mint Pea puree

1. PLace a small saucepan full of water on to boil. Add peas and mint leaves to the water. Boil for 5 minutes or until it goes green.

2. While the water is boiling roughly chop watercress.

I’m using watercress because it will give a much needed bitterness and mustard flavour to the peas

3. Strain peas add to watercress. Reserve half a dozen for garnish. Blend remaining until smooth with a stab blender. blend until a smooth paste.

Once the Lamb has rested place on plate with rosti and jus. Now when I plate I think about what I want the final dish to look like. Sometimes, like this week, I sketch out how I want to "plate up" the final dish.

Here is my sketch: