Living on the Lamb

You may have noticed I love leftovers. Not the boring reheated meal leftovers, but using something leftover to create something new and exciting. In fact I think that I'm more likely to experiment with leftovers, with flavours and other unusual ingredients because you haven't laid down a fortune in money for one meal. This is the premise of my beloved Diana Henry and her book Food from Plenty. This week I cooked my first ever roast lamb. It was a D.H. recipe from her book Cook Simple called Normandy Roast Lamb with Cider here is the recipe my adjustments are in italics as usual!

Serves 6 unless you're making loads more meals with the leftovers!
Leg of Lamb 1.8kg
2 garlic cloves cut into slivers, I'm not the worlds biggest fan of garlic, and we didn't have any in the house so I didn't bother
2 sprigs of thyme
55g butter, softened
Salt and pepper
225ml of dry cider
A good slug of calvados or brandy I actually used masala as it was to hand.
575ml of chicken or lamb stock
200g Creme fraiche

Preheat the oven to gas mark 7

Trim any horrid bits off the lamb, then make incisions all over the lamb and stuff with a sliver of garlic and bits of thyme.  Rub the butter over season well and pop in the oven in a roasting tray for 15 mins. Then roast for another 50 mins on gas mark 5, until the juices run clear.

Put the lamb on a heated platter cover with foil and towels to insulate,  for 15 mins so it can rest.

Pour the juices from the roasting tin into a jug and put the roasting tin on a medium heat  and deglaze with the cider and calvados/brandy. Boil until reduced by two thirds, add the stock and cooking juices, reduce again by two thirds, then add the Creme fraiche. Boil until slightly syrupy.
Serve with flageolet beans cooked with a knob of butter, parsley and lemon and salt and pepper.


Leftover day 1

Using the leftover sauce and slices of the lamb I made a sort of stroganoff. Frying off an onion, adding slices of lamb, and the sauce and cooking through until piping hit and serving with creamy mashed potatoes and peas.

Leftover day 2
Strip the leg of all the remaining meat and chop up finely until it's sort of minced using about 3 handfuls of this minced up lamb I made a Greek-ish feast. 
Fry off in some olive oil, ground cumin, about 1tsp with 1 tsp of chilli flakes, 1 tsp ground corriander and 1 tsp of smoked paprika. Once fragrant add 1 chopped red onion and cook until softened. Add the lamb, a splash of red wine and a bit of tomato purée. You don't want to create a sauce, just a a moist mix of the meat. Serve with houmous, a Greek salad, pitta bread and Greek yoghurt. 

To make the Greek salad, my version

Finely chop a red onion, and cut up tomatoes into chunks season with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil and some dried oregano. Leave to mingle. When ready to eat, chop up half a cucumber into chunks and about half a pack of feta, mix together and serve, put olives in if you wish.

We still have enough minced lamb left to make 2 shepherds pies for two people, obviously a whole leg of lamb for two people seems extravagant but we have eaten so well from it!

Enjoy!