Roast lamb help needed please

[Selks]

Hi all,

Some advice re how to do great roast lamb needed please.

I was veggie for many years so I am not a good meat cook. I can roast a chicken but have never mastered roasting lamb. DS is home from abroad for Christmas and has requested this during his stay so I'd like to do a lovely roast lamb dinner.

So.....I need advice.....what cut of lamb to get, how to roast it - how long, do I cover it etc etc and anything else I need to know, like how to do the gravy....

I'd like it to be as tender and succulent as possible; I have a fear of it being dried out or tough.

Many thanks!

Anyone?

I tend to go for shoulder or leg of lamb.
Season well, add a sprinkling of rosemary and bung it in the oven for however long it says on the packet.
Then when its done i cover with foil and let it rest for a while.

thank you....sounds pretty simple

Cut slits and push cloves of garlic and Rosemary in them then sprinkle liberally with salt. Mmmmmm

I always buy a leg of lamb. I am rubbish at making gravy, I always get a packet.

Depends what you want - leg is classic roast material - 20mins/lb 20 mins over for succlulent slightly pink lamb and crispy skin - yummy!!

Shoulder is cheaper and works really really well slow roasted - as low and as long as poss - just blast it on high to crisp the sking at the beginning then turn it down low. Now you'd prob serve this with salad/new pots/garlic bread/ tzatziki etc rather than roasties and mint sauce. Is very nice and melty in the mouth!

I do a shoulder or leg with rosemary and lots of garlic (whole cloves) in a pre heated hot oven then turn down to medium when you put lamb in, cook for 4 hours. It just melts in your mouth and the garlic is all squishy and delicious with your roasties. Enjoy

I prefer shoulder to leg, it has more fat on it but I think thats what makes it more tasty and juicy, it almost melts in your mouth, you'll need a bigger piece than you think to account for the fat as some people won't eat it. Buy the lamb fresh and don't freeze it, frozen lamb loses some of it's flavour.

I just season the top with sea salt, black pepper and a generous amount of rosemary.

It's pretty hard to get enough stock from an average sized joint of meat to make a decent amount of gravy. I just use granules but I add the juices from the joint to it in place of some of the water. Add a little boiling water to dissolve the solidified juices in the bottom of the cooking dish, use the back of a fork to scrape it all off the bottom, all the flavour is in the crispy bits that are welded on, add the juice that seeps from the resting joint too, you'll be suprised how much comes out after 10 mins. You can get lamb gravy granules but I just use beef, it tastes lovely with the lamb juices and rosemary in it, you can also add a little mint to the gravy if you like it.

There is a brilliant recipe in Jamie's Dinners for Slow Roast Shoulder or Lamb with Roasted Vegetables We've made it before but also had it a friends house last week. The meat was meltingly tender. Really delicious.

Ah, thank you for all the info all of you, it's teaching me a lot.

I like the idea of a slow-roased joint, and I think following Jamie's recipe will be great for me to start off with.

Looking forward to it now!