Slow Roasted Leg of Lamb + sides

Every Monday night I cook for my entire family of 9 adults and 3 rugrats. Which means I'd be planning the menu all through the weekend and seeing that I'm not one to slave over the stove for long hours, I tend to keep to dishes that spends most of its time in the oven bubbling away whilst I nicely plant myself in front of the telly until it is all ready to be served. Here's what I made for this week's Monday night dinner :

Main

* Slow-Roasted Leg of Lamb

Sides

* Mid-Eastern'ish Chicken with Tomato Rice

* Sun-Dried Tomatoes Focacia Bread

* Cold Cucumber Chickpeas Salad

* Cold Garlic-Yoghurt Dip

INGREDIENTS AND METHOD

Slow-Roasted Leg of Lamb

Part 1

1 leg of lamb (bone-in)

4-5 cloves of garlic

Rosemary leaves

2-3 tbsp of Briyani Powder

Salt and Pepper

Part 2

3 large onions (Quartered)

1 whole garlic (Halved)

2 large carrots (Quartered then halved)

2 tbsps briyani powder (Mix with some water/stock to make thick paste)

4 tbsps tomato sauce

1.5 cups of water or chicken stock

Salt to taste

Night before cooking day

Marinate the leg of lamb - Part 1

(Picture courtesy of Google Images)

Pat dry the leg of lamb. Make small slits all over it. Insert slivers of garlic and rosemary in the slits. Rub all over with briyani mix. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap with cling-film. Refrigerate overnight.

On Cooking Day

* Pre-heat oven to 150C.

* Place onions, garlic and carrots in a large roasting dish.
* Sit the leg of lamb on the onions, garlic and carrots.
* Pour the water/chicken stock around the leg of lamb.
* Cover roasting dish with foil.
* Roast for approximately 3 hours.

After 3 hours
* Remove roasting dish from oven.
* Let leg of lamb rest for abt 30 mins. Then remove the lamb from roasting dish. Wrap with foil. Set aside.
* Meanwhile, pour juices from the roasting dish into a pot. Add the briyani paste, tomato sauce. Add more water or stock if needed. Season with salt and pepper.
* Transfer the leg of lamb into the roasting dish again. Pour the gravy over. Bake uncovered for 20-30 mins (depending on how crispy the outside you want it to be).
* Carve the lamb just before serving.

Your Roasted Leg of Lamb will look kinda like this.

(picture courtesy of Google Images)

I served the lamb with a side dish of

Chicken & Vegetable Rice

Recipe and Picture from - http://arabic-food.blogspot.com/

and also

Cucumber and Chickpeas Fatoush

Recipe and Picture from - http://arabic-food.blogspot.com/

I also had some Garlic Sundried Tomatoes Focacia Bread prepared for those who wanted to soak up the gravy from the Roasted Leg of Lamb.

For dessert, I made Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Cake Pudding complete with Chocolate Sauce and Vanilla Whipped Cream. Recipe from Nigella's book entitled 'Nigella Express'

 

I apologise for not posting actual photos of the items I made last night..as usual..in the hustle and bustle of prep work, the actual cooking, the serving and the eating..I forgot to take pictures ! :)

Cups and cups of sweet custard..

Last Saturday I steamed 100 cups of Caramel Pudding for my brother's friend, Shaheen. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of it. Anyway, I'd like to say thank you to Shaheen for her order and hope she'll come back for more ! :)

Little Sweet Comforts

It's my father's birthday today. And so, I made these little Pineapple Upside Down Cake for him..along with some Tiramisu too ! I have added these little morsels of heaven to my list of Teatime Treats.

Super Easy Roast Chicken !

(PICTURE TAKEN FROM BBC GOOD FOOD WEBSITE)

I tried this recipe last night and the outcome looks exactly like the picture above !

SLOW-ROAST CHICKEN

(Extracted from BBC Good Food)

Ingredients :

> 1.6-2 kg whole chicken

> 1 kg roasting potatoes, half or quartered (whatever that suits your family)

> 2 whole garlic heads - halved

> 3 whole onions - quartered

> 4 celeries - cut into 2" in length

> 2 large carrots - cut into 2" length then halved

> 300 ml chicken stock

> 2 stems of rosemary

> 6 bay leaves

> 1 lemon, cut into wedges (optional, omit if you do not like the sour'ish lemony taste)

> Butter for greasing

Method :

• Heat oven to 160c/fan.
• In a large roasting dish or roasting stock pot, place the potatoes, celeries, carrots, onions, garlic and 1-2 pieces of the lemons. Add also the herbs.
• Pat dry chicken with kitchen towel.
• Stuff chicken with balance of lemon pieces.
• Brush generously softened butter (this will give you a nice and golden colour) on chicken, sprinkle salt + pepper.
• Place chicken on the assorted veggies + onions etc.
• Add chicken stock

Roasting Instructions :

~ Pre-heat oven to *160C/Fan.

~ Loosely cover the roasting.

~ Cook for 1 hour.

~ After 1 hour, remove cover, brush a bit more butter on the chicken then bake uncovered for another 30-40 mins (depending on how crispy and golden you want your chicken to be).

~ Once the desired is obtained, remove chicken from oven, loosely cover with foil and let rest for 30 mins before carving.

* Note :

The heat differs from oven to oven, therefore check the doneness of the chicken by pricking the thickest part of the chicken..and if clear juice flows out..the chicken is done.