Roast Leg of Mayo Mountain Lamb

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When purchasing your lamb make sure to ask your local butcher where he purchased it. In Westport its possible to buy local lamb from local butchers.

Ingredients

• 2.7kg/6lb leg of lamb
• olive oil
• 55g/2oz butter softened
• 3-4 cloves garlic, cut into slivers
• 6 potatoes
• 4 onions
• 455ml/16 fl oz chicken or lamb stock
• sprigs rosemary
• salt and black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 230C/ 450F/Gas 8.

Using a small sharp pointed knife make a series of small deep slits about 1½ inches apart all over the leg of lamb and insert a sliver of garlic and a small sprig of rosemary. Don’t be tempted to use too much garlic here, one to two cloves is plenty as the garlic can indeed overpower the delicate flavour of this meat. A little bit of the garlic is fab though, as it roasts the garlic becomes sweet and works so well with the meat.

Rub the meat with softened butter and place it in a roasting tin. Here it’s best iof you have a roasting tin with a raised rack in it. Then the lovely juices will drip from the meat and into the tin below. Pour over some olive oil and cook for about 30 minutes.

While the meat is cooking, peel and finely slice the potatoes and onions. Mix them together in a bowl and season.

After the thirty minutes, take the meat from the oven and lift it out of the tin.

Layer the potatoes and onions in the fat and pour over the stock. Return the meat to the rack in the tin, and continue to cook. If you don’t have a rack for you roasting tin, place the meat on the shelf above the rack and the juices will drip down into the tray below.

Roast for about another hour depending on how well you like your meat cooked. Ideally, you want to have your meat pink at the bone. Well done lamb is truely a travesty. If it’s what you’re used to, and many Irish people are, just try it a little pink this time and you will be amazed at the difference in the whole eating experience from flavour to texture. Really worth trying.