Here’s how the conversation started on Friday afternoon…
“MJ, I’m boiling a leg of lamb tonight, would you like to come over? Ummm…I should mention that I have no idea how it’s going to work out, but since you’re family, I’m sure you won’t mind if it’s a disaster and we have to order Thai takeaway…”
Pete’s cousin later recounted that the first thing that came to her mind was..“Boiling lamb? For goodness sake, just don’t!”
This recipe, inspired by an episode of Rick Stein’s Food Heroes of Britain, is an absolute winner and quite different to anything I’ve ever cooked or eaten before.
In Australia, a leg of lamb is almost always baked or, in recent years, butterflied and barbequed. But it wasn’t something I grew up eating at all – being Chinese, the only thing my mum ever did with her oven was use it as a cupboard to store plates in. For years, I never understood why people actually needed to clean their ovens…
Anyway, this recipe is apparently not uncommon in the UK, and it’s a really delicious way to cook lamb. The meat is tender and moist, and you have the added bonus of some wonderful brown stock to stash in the freezer at the end of the cooking process. It’s traditionally made with mutton, but that’s hard to source from our local butcher. The quantities are pretty flexible, as is often the case with this style of cooking.
When I went to prepare the dish, I found that the lamb didn’t fit into the pot, so I drove back to the butcher to ask him to cut the shank off for me. He laughed and showed me a joint half-way up the leg, then cut through it with his large knife and bent the shank over. If you’re buying a leg of lamb or mutton for this purpose, you might want to ask your butcher to nick that joint for you – it’ll make it much easier to manoeuvre the big bone into the pot.
- 1 large leg of lamb (or leg of mutton) – mine was about 2.7kg
- lots of carrots and onions, peeled and chopped
- peppercorns
- sprig of fresh or good pinch of dried rosemary
- generous amount of salt to season
- butter and/or olive oil
- ¼ cup plain flour
- 2 heaped teaspoons capers
1. Sit the lamb in a large cast iron cooking pot (I used a 30cm Le Creuset dutch oven) and cover it with the carrots, onions, and peppercorns. Place the sprig of rosemary on top, or scatter with the dried rosemary. Scatter over the salt, then add enough water to just barely cover the meat.
2. Cover with the lid and cook on the hob over a medium heat until just boiling, then reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for 2 – 3 hours, depending on the size of your lamb and how you prefer your meat to be cooked. Carefully turn the joint over about half way through the cooking time, and top up with a little extra water if needed. Taste the stock for seasoning and adjust if necessary.
I used a probe thermometer to check the meat – 65C for medium or 80C for well done – and removed it from the pot once the internal temperature exceeded 70C. It continued to cook further as it rested.
3. With a ladle, scoop out some of the stock and pass it through a sieve into a separate bowl. Melt some butter and olive oil in a small saucepan, then add the plain flour and cook it through, but don’t allow the roux to brown. Add the strained stock and heat gently until thickened, then stir in the capers. Plate up the sliced meat with some of the cooking vegetables and the caper sauce. We served the dish with King Edward potato wedges (just to keep it all very British!).
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Celia….I think we should seriously exchange photos. How can I not know what my favourite bloggers look like? I didn’t know you were of Chinese heritage…..I’m seriously now looking forward to some cool stir-fries and stuff so if you think I’ll let you get away with it, I won’t!!!!!!
On another note, I frequently boil lamb shanks till absolute tender then pop in the oven to brown a bit. I always use the stock to make a roux but have never considered having capers in!!!!!
So, that’s one that will be on my next shopping list!
What a lovely plate of food!!!!!!! LOL
Hahaha…it’s funny, but I rarely cook Chinese food, much to my mother’s consternation. So much Chinese cooking uses packaged ingredients – sauces, spice mixes, dried vegetables – much of which I’m dubious about quality and origin-wise. And there are so many other cuisines out there to explore! :)
Re the caper sauce, Rick Stein said that the original recipe was made with mutton, which was quite fatty, so the acidic caper sauce helped to cut the fattiness of the finished dish. It was rooly trooly delicious…and all gone by yesterday, as I made the leftovers into shepherd’s pie for lunch!
As gorgeous as that all sounds Celia, I just don’t think I could bring myself to boil lamb!
Hahaha…I don’t know how many Aussies could, Kate! It just seems so wrong, doesn’t it? Yet it really was delicious.. :)
Hey convergent one…this is one of my favourite ways to cook lamb. I discovered it by accident when I added too much liquid to the dish and ended up with poached rather than baked lamb, and have kept making it since. I usually make it on a day when I need to have dinner ready and waiting for us when we get home. I pop it in the oven as soon as I get home after school pick up and before we leave for violin lessons etc. When we get back home a few hours later, it is all ready, the house smells great and we can pretend that we don’t have such crazy lives. I have even been known to pop home briefly in the afternoon to put the lamb into the oven! I use a bit of white wine, a few garlic cloves and a piece or two of preserved lemon in mine as well as the thyme/rosemary and peppercorns. Ends up all lovely and lemony-garlicky. I also only use a couple of cups of water (about half way up the lamb) and find that is enough as the le creuset retains the moisture so well. I will have to try it with your caper roux next time as that sounds really lovely.
I read your comment to Pete, SG, and he just laughed! :) It’s not quite the same, though – I think what you’re making is more along the lines of a pot roast, whereas this dish is boiled on the hotplate. Your method would get some lovely browning to the top of the meat as well…hmmmm…
No, it is definitely not a pot roast. Too much liquid for that. I still end up with lots of soupy liquid at the end and the texture is poached/steamed rather than roasted – juicier – if that makes sense. It ends up looking very much like yours. If it stays in the oven for an hour or so longer it starts to get a little brown on top (it is very forgiving of cooking times in my book – min two hours, max 4-5 hours). You could do mine on the stove too, I just stick it in the oven since all the cooking happens when nobody is actually at home. Plus the oven combined with my trusty Le Creuset pot makes magic.
Boiled lamb? Seriously, it sounds so…nasty and bland. But your pictures prove otherwise, and I would love to sit in your dining room right now.
It does sound nasty, but it really isn’t! :)
wish me luck, here I go
Good luck, Wayne! I hope you like it.. :)
Hi Chay, this recipe looks great; I’m going to give it a try this weekend!
Loved your comment about Mum using the oven for a cupboard… that so brings back memories….
Your blog is now my homepage and I’m very proud of my big sister. What an incredible site this is!
I am now inspired to follow you back to first principles and make everything from scratch. Problem is, everything’s just a bit too easy and convenient here. But I will try. Visit me soon and make me spend time in the kitchen, yes?
The naughty monkeys send hugs.