Roast lamb with fresh mint sauce and celeriac and potato gratin
If January has taken its toll then Phil Vickery has a bit of comfort food! He's cooking a delicious roast lamb shoulder with a special homemade mint sauce.
Serves
6 – 8 for the lamb 4 for the gratin
Ingredients
For the roast leg of lamb
1 medium sized leg of British lambSalt and pepper3 – 4 tbsp olive oil
For the fresh mint sauce/jelly
1 medium orange6 – 7 white sugar cubes100ml cider vinegar2 pinches salt50g fresh mint, roughly chopped4 leaves gelatine, soaked in cold water, optional
For the celeriac & potato gratin
350g celeriac (approximately 500g before its peeled)350g potatoes, peeled600ml whipping cream4 cloves of garlic, crushedSalt and freshly milled black pepper
You will need: 24cm x 24cm x 5cm deep baking dish for the gratin.
Method
For the roast leg of lamb: Preheat the oven to 200°C, Gas 6
Puncture the leg of lamb all over with a small sharp knife and season really well with salt and pepper
Sit the leg of lamb onto scrunched up piece of foil inside a roasting tin
Drizzle over the olive oil, place in the oven and cook for 1 hour 20-30 minutes
Remove from the oven, wrap tightly in foil and leave to rest for 30-40 minutes, this will give you a perfectly cooked, pink leg of lamb. The longer the better.
For the fresh mint sauce/jelly
Rub the outer skin of the orange with all the sugar cubes, so they take on the oily zest and then place the sugar in a stainless steel saucepan. Add the vinegar and salt then dissolve.
Bring to the boil, add the chopped mint then remove from the stove, cool and serve with the roast lamb
You can add the 4 leaves of soaked gelatine to the finished hot sauce to make jelly if you prefer
For the celeriac & potato gratin: Pre heat the oven to 190°, Gas 5
Cut the peeled celeriac in quarters, and then slice into thin slices about half a centimetre thick
Slice the potatoes in the same fashion, then rinse well in cold water
Place both vegetables into a large saucepan cover with water and a couple of teaspoons of salt
Cover and bring to the boil, simmer for 2 minutes, this helps to soften the vegetable, and gives a much nicer end result. Drain well.
Carefully cover the bottom of a 24cm x 24cm x 5cm deep baking dish with pieces of celeriac, overlapping quite generously. Do the same with the potatoes and season well with salt and pepper.
Continue layering until all the celeriac and potato are used up
Bring the cream and the garlic to the boil and then pour over the celeriac and potato carefully and press down with a potato masher
Cover with foil and place the dish on a tray and pop into the pre heated oven and cook for about 30 minutes, remove the foil then continue to cook until well coloured and reduced, probably a further 20 minutes or so
You may want to press down with the masher over the period of cooking. When cooked a skewer or knife with easily penetrate the creamy cake with very little resistance. If you can make the day before all the better, and then reheat. I have found that a microwave is brilliant for warming dishes like this quickly with no reduction of the cream.
Phillip used a Zipeela potato peeler, £24.99 at Lakeland.co.uk