WITH THOSE TEMPERATURES soaring, some could argue we’ve skipped spring entirely and throttled right through to summer. But hopefully that’s not the case as spring brings an abundance of traditional seasonal dishes to enjoy at leisure – pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, hot cross buns, wild garlic soup and, of course, spring lamb.

Lamb is one of the most versatile, delicious and value-for-money meats you can find in the supermarket. Irish lamb is amongst the best in the world and it’s one of our favourite things to cook, but when you want something delicious and elegantly easy, roast some lamb on-the-bone. Goes without saying, always look for the Bord Bia Quality Mark.

A couple of hours in the oven alongside some potatoes, root vegetables and lots of seasoning and extra flavour makes a full or half leg of lamb juicy, soft, succulent and full of flavour – here’s a one-pan dish that you’ll want to try now spring is here and winter is (hopefully) gone for another year!

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One Pan Roast Lamb with Boulangère Potatoes and Roasted Vegetables

Serves 4

Ingredients

• Half-leg of Irish lamb (1.2-1.5kg) – removed from the fridge an hour before cooking
• 4 cloves garlic
• Handful of fresh thyme, stalks discarded
• Handful of parsley, stalks discarded
• 2 large sprigs of rosemary, stalks discarded and leaves chopped
• A couple of fresh sage leaves, stalks removed
• Salt and pepper (both free-flowing and flaked salt)
• Rapeseed oil
• 100ml stock of your choice
• Vegetables of your choice
• 5-6 white, non-floury potatoes, washed and skin-on, sliced thinly or with a mandolin

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (170ºC fan).

Using a pestle and mortar, bash the garlic, flaked salt and herbs down to a fine paste, thinning it out with a little oil until it’s the consistency of a very thick pesto. Alternatively you could do this with a small food processor or hand blender, or even very, very finely dice it all on a board, but the pestle and mortar is best. If you don’t have fresh herbs, a generous amount of dried mixed herbs will suffice.

Liberally season the half lamb leg with fine, free-flowing salt and freshly-cracked pepper.

Thinly slice the potatoes into half inch slices and arrange in layers at the bottom of a greased, lipped baking tray large enough to fit the lamb comfortably in. These are known as pommes boulangère – potatoes that are cooked in fat/stock under a roasted piece of meat.

Lay the seasoned lamb half leg on top and, using a knife, make fairly deep incisions throughout the meat. Spread the herb and garlic mixture all over the lamb, pushing it as best you can into the little pockets created. Ensure there’s a fairly even coating over the lamb.

Pour about 75ml of stock over the potatoes underneath the lamb just to stop them from drying out, as they will absorb the flavour and fat from the lamb.

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Cover the tray with a double layer of foil and put into the oven for 90 minutes.

Then, prepare your root vegetables like carrots and parsnips by washing and slicing. You can even use quartered onions or halved bulbs of garlic here if you like and other vegetables like beetroot, but rainbow carrots give a wonderful colour.

Remove the lamb and potatoes from the oven, take off the foil and crank the heat up to 190/200ºC for the last 30-45 minutes. Arrange the vegetables around the lamb in the tray and return to the oven.

When finished, take out the tray and cover the lamb loosely again with the tin foil for about ten minutes to rest before carving into slices. Carve the lamb first and then plate up with the roasted vegetables and boulangère potatoes.

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