Seven Hour Leg of Lamb

Aunty Dotty's Note:

You've never had laydownandweepit'ssogood lamb til you've tried this..It's a Diane Holuigue recipe and is so good. Hope lamb's not too expensive where you are!

• Total Time: 7 hrs 25 mins
• Prep Time: 25 mins
• Cook Time: 7 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 2 -2 1/2 kg leg of lamb, saltbush reared if you can get it
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons brandy or 3 tablespoons gin
• 40 garlic cloves, whole peeled
• 150 ml red wine
• 150 ml lamb stock or 150 ml chicken stock
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Heat a big stockpot full of water, when it boils plunge the lamb in, restore heat and simmer 15 minutes. Drain and pat dry.
2. In a deep pan or skillet, melt butter and brown lamb all over. Flambe with the brandy or gin and when the flame dies add the rest of the ingredients and season to taste.
3. Place a lid or cover on the dish and bake at 120C degrees for seven hours, turning twice.
4. Once cooked, use an eggflip as well as a fork or similar to lift out the lamb to a serving dish. The meat will be falling apart -- mmmm.
5. Puree the remaining sauce, return to the dish and reduce to a sauce consistency ( the garlic will help thicken it ).
6. Check the seasoning and serve in a small jug. This lamb needs lots of mash or bread or both to mop up the juices, as well as plenty of good red wine on the table.

Reviews

[Jewelies]

This lamb was absolutely falling apart amazing. The only downfall to cooking for 7 hours is the smell of it cooking all day. It made me so hungry ;)! I was unsure of what 'booze' to use in step 2 but decided to use just the brandy to flambe (thanks Kooka!) and save the red wine to add with the rest of the ingredients that went into the dish before placing in the oven. I used a roasting pan with a lid but covered it with tin foil first and then put the lid on. Personally I dislike lamb fat so once the dish was cooked I poured the sauce off into a pyrex jug (including garlic) and let it cool, then scooped the fat off and reheated the sauce in the microwave. This made quite a lot of sauce. The gravy was just gorgeous. Served with Smashed Potatoes I didn't do this but if you added a few veggies to step 1 you would have an amazing lamb stock ;)

[FrenchFoodMarket]

This a classic Easter recipe in France. My mom used to cook this recipe every year. It was served with some special beans from the Poitou (South West of France) region called Mogette, but impossible to find in the US ....
I will do it again tomorow is Easter Sunday !

[Kasha]

This just came out of the oven and we just had it for dinner. Very easy if you are planning to be home all day. The house smells like garlic, I'm a little worried about how to get rid of it, but the lamb and sauce were not too garlicy. I covered a rectangle pan with several layers of tin foil, but it would be a lot easier with a covered pan. Very, very nice.