Three ways to cook your lamb this Easter

The meat of choice is of course lamb, marking the beginning of spring. From a stuffed saddle to roast legs, here’s our favourite ways to dish it up

Is there a better spring feast than roast leg of lamb and crispy potatoes?

Cooking lamb is all about low and slow, plenty of herbs – hardier herbs like rosemary and thyme are lamb’s best friend – and seasoning and still maintaining that pinkness in the middle.

Spring lamb, called so after being born in the winter and sold to be eaten in the spring time, will usually be between three and five months old, and should be very tender. But it won’t have as much flavour as older lamb because of the shorter grazing time. But that’s where a good cook comes in. For easy carving, go for a deboned joint. And opt for a Welsh lamb, which are often the leanest they can be as they spend their lives roaming the rolling hills of Wales.

Roast leg of lamb ‘aunty Soss’s way’ with spiced parsnips, carrots and crispy roast potatoes by Anna Hansen

Time: 1 hour 10 minutes, plus at least 6 hours marinating time (preferably overnight)

Serves 6

Leg of lamb

2.5kg leg of lamb
1 carrot
1 celery stick
1 onion
5 garlic cloves
250ml of white wine

Marinade

200g of natural yoghurt
80ml of olive oil
1½tsp preserved lemon, finely grated
1 lemon, juice only
1tbsp of thyme, chopped
3tsp cumin seeds, toasted then ground
1tsp sweet smoked paprika
3 garlic cloves, chopped
3tsp salt
1tsp black pepper
1tsp dried chilli flakes

Potatoes

12 medium potatoes, peeled
1½tsp nigella seeds
​2tsp Urfa chilli flakes
2tsp rosemary, chopped
6 garlic cloves, sliced
Vegetable oil
Sea salt and black pepper

Carrot

6 carrots, sweet, quartered lengthways
1 piece of fresh ginger, thumb sized, finely chopped
½ green chilli, chopped
2tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

Parsnips

6 parsnips, quartered lengthways, cores removed if woody
1tsp black mustard seeds
½tsp ground turmeric
1 handful of curry leaves, fresh
2tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

To prepare the lamb, trim away any excess fat and membrane and, with a sharp knife, pierce the flesh all over. Combine all of the marinade ingredients together and rub all over the lamb, working it into any crevices and the pierced flesh. Place in a large food bag and leave to marinade in the fridge​.

Preheat the oven to 225C. Roughly chop the carrot, celery, onion and garlic and place in a large roasting tin, spreading out evenly to create a bed for the lamb. Place the lamb onto the vegetables and add the wine and a slosh of water to the pan. Roast for 20 minutes then reduce the temperature to 180C. Roast for a further 40 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how pink you like your lamb, making sure to baste the lamb occasionally with pan juices.​

Meanwhile, prepare the other vegetables. Par-boil the potatoes and then drain in a colander. Toss the potatoes around a little to fluff-up the outsides. Place the potatoes into a roasting tin and sprinkle over the onion seeds, Urfa flakes, rosemary, garlic and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper. Pour in enough olive oil to coat thoroughly and mix well with your hands.

Place the carrots in a roasting dish and add the other ingredients, ensuring they are well coated. Place the carrots and potatoes in the oven with the lamb, they will take about 35 minutes (though the potatoes may take a little less time, so keep checking). Make sure you turn them over occasionally to ensure an even, golden brown finish.

Mix the parsnips with the other ingredients and place on a baking tray. Roast until cooked – approximately 25 minutes. Once the lamb is cooked to the desired pinkness, remove from the oven and leave to rest somewhere warm for approximately 15 minutes, covered loosely in tin foil. Strain the pan juices into a jug – skimming away the excess fat – to use as gravy.

Slice the lamb and serve onto plates with the roasted vegetables. Drizzle with the pan juices and serve immediately.

Roast leg of lamb with honeycomb and minted Jersey Royals by Shaun Rankin

Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Serves 4

Lamb

3 sprigs of rosemary
3 sprigs of thyme
4 garlic cloves, roughly sliced
2kg leg of lamb
Salt
Pepper

To plate

450g of jersey royal potatoes
5 sprigs of mint
500g of frozen garden peas
85g of butter
150g of honeycomb

Preheat the oven to 250C. Snip the rosemary and thyme into small sprigs. Using a small knife, pierce six or seven holes in the lamb and stud with the rosemary, thyme and garlic​.

Season the lamb with salt and pepper and roast in the oven for approximately 1 hour or until cooked to your liking. Towards the end of the cooking time, cook the jersey royals in boiling salted water with three of the mint stalks, for 10 to 15 minutes or until tender​.

Place the frozen peas in boiling water and bring the water quickly back to the boil. Cook for approximately 2 to 5 minutes or until just tender​.

Chop the remaining mint and mix together with the warm jersey royals and butter​. Carve the lamb and serve with the potatoes, peas and a scattering of fresh honeycomb.

Stuffed saddle of Lune Valley lamb with buttered runner beans by Adam Gray

Time: 3 hours

Serves 4

Roast lamb saddle

1 small boned saddle of Lune Valley lamb, retaining bones for gravy
10 garlic cloves, peeled
500ml of rapeseed oil
500ml of lamb stock
1 sprig of rosemary
500g of baby spinach
Salt
White pepper

To serve

200g of runner beans
75g of unsalted butter
4 large potatoes, cut into 8 cm discs
200ml of rapeseed oil
75ml of water

Start by making the gravy. Preheat the oven 180C. Chop the bones from the lamb saddle into evenly sized pieces and place in a roasting tray in the oven. Cook until evenly golden brown. This will take over an hour. Meanwhile, gently heat enough rapeseed oil in a pan to cover the whole garlic cloves, add the garlic and let it simmer for 40 minutes to 1 hour until the garlic is soft. Strain off the oil and set aside​.

When the lamb bones are evenly browned, remove from the oven and transfer to a saucepan. Cover with the lamb stock and rosemary sprig, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 20 to 30 minutes​. Pass the lamb gravy through a fine sieve. Reheat when ready to serve.

To stuff the lamb, lay the boneless saddle flat on a chopping board, so the two portions of meat are facing away from you. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Place the cooked, drained garlic cloves lengthways along the centre of the saddle.

Blanch and refresh the spinach, then squeeze out any excess water. Lay the spinach over the garlic cloves, along the centre of the lamb saddle​. Fold the lamb saddle over so the flaps of fat overlap each other. Tie the saddle tightly with butcher’s string in 2 to 3 cm intervals along the whole saddle and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Heat an ovenproof frying pan to a medium heat and place the lamb saddle in without any oil. Seal the lamb saddle all over until light golden brown, then place the pan in the oven. After 5 minutes turn the oven down to 180C and continue cooking for a further 15 to 20 minutes for medium rare cooking or more if you like it well done. Remove the cooked lamb saddle from the oven and leave to rest on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Next, cook the potatoes by placing in salted cold water, bring to the boil and simmer until almost tender. Drain and set aside. To prepare the runner beans, slice them on an angle and blanch in boiling salted water until tender. Strain and place into iced water immediately​.

Return the cooked lamb saddle to the oven for 3 to 4 minutes to reheat, then remove. While the lamb is heating through, pan-fry the cooked potato discs in a little rapeseed oil until golden brown on both sides. Season with salt and pepper. Place the golden brown potato discs in the centre of the serving bowls​.

In a separate saucepan melt the unsalted butter with 75ml water and bring to the boil, then add the runner beans. Coat the runner beans with the butter and water emulsion, then season with salt and pepper. Keep warm​. Cut all the string from the lamb saddle and then carve the saddle into 1.5 cm slices and arrange on top of the potato discs. Put the buttered runner beans in a separate serving dish and pour the lamb gravy into a jug. Serve immediately.

Recipes courtesy of Great British Chefs. Visit their site for more lamb recipes