Jamie Oliver's Ball Thingy (Or, Honey-Spice Crusted Lamb Roast)

Those Celebrity Chefs, sometimes I love them, sometimes I...don't love them.

But I'm always willing to cut them some slack. So when my lovely Dessert Chef presented me with this contraption:
...I had to give it a go. It's a Jamie Oliver thing, apparently, and it's sort of like a mortar and pestle, but in a jar. Sort of. That's a plastic two-part screw shaker, and the little white ball is ceramic. The theory goes that you can use it to whip up rubs, sauces, and suchlike with hard and wet ingredients in a jiffy, using less energy than it takes to drive a mortar and pestle.

I guess.

Thus presented, I decided to give it a whirl.

I had a lovely little roast of lamb, and I decided to coat it with a glaze of honey, paprika, almonds and some other stuff. So here goes.

Honey-Spice Crusted Lamb Roast

(Serves 4)

350-400g Rolled Lamb Forequarter Roast
Whole Peppercorns and Rock Salt to taste
Freshly Grated Nutmeg
1t Slivered Almonds
1t Paprika
1t Avocado Vinaigrette
1t Honey
1 Onion, cut into 1/8ths
Roasting Veges, peeled and seasoned and tossed in oil

Start with your hardest ingredients, in this case, rock salt, peppercorns, nutmeg, and almonds. Put these in the bottom section, add the wee ball, screw the top on and shake vigorously.
Hand off the hard work to a keen young helper.
Unscrew the cap and add the rest of the ingredients; the vinaigrette, honey, and paprika.
When it looks something like this, scoop it out with the little rubber spoon (Yeah, there's also a little rubber spoon, for just this purpose. Here's a photo of it).
Spread it over the roast.
Ooh, look, veges! See that pumpkin up there? I grew that.
Place the lamb on top of the sliced onion and arrange the veges around it.

Cover in foil and roast for 1 hour at 190C, or shorter if you prefer a rare cut.

Remove the foil for the last 15 minutes of cooking to brown.
Remove from the heat and allow to rest for 8-10 minutes before carving.
Slice and serve.
What do I reckon? Well, it worked for me. Easy to use, easy to clean, easy to store. I'll be interested to see how well the rubber seals last, and of course keeping the neat little ball away from the 2-year-old is a challenge too.

So I wouldn't write it off as a waste of money and drawer space yet. I've used it again since and it has served its purpose well.

So good on you Jamie. This one's a winner.

Lamb Forequarter Roast

Last Labour Weekend, we had a Rolled Lamb Forequarter Roast from the Wai-ora stand at the market. The week after, I got the same cut, but not rolled. I cooked it pretty much the same, just crushing the herbs a bit more finely and adding lemon zest and lemon juice to the dressing, then letting it stand for an hour before cooking. Because it wasn't rolled, it cooked in a much shorter time, about 45-50 mins. There is no more need for words to tell you how good this lamb is.

Labour Weekend Lamb

For us Labour Weekend was just that: work.

I'd like to say that we got out into the garden and got rows of corn and tomatoes and carrots and lettuces planted, but sadly, nothing of the sort happened. I did manage to weed a bit around the potato plants (which are coming up nicely, from what I can tell), but the weekend was not dedicated to the garden as it should have been. Rather, we kept building Isaac's playhouse. I'm keeping progress photos, and will post a timeline once we've actually got to the end. Right now the cladding is on,and we still have to do the fascia, the roof, and the windows and door. Then I guess we think about paint and stuff. And attaching a slide, somehow. But that might be a pipe dream (now there's an idea...).

So to reward all our hard work of cutting leftover fence palings and nailing them to the playhouse frame, I cooked up a lovely rolled forequarter of lamb from Wai-Ora. Will I ever get sick of praising these guys? Seriously, if you're in the Hutt, get down to the riverbank market on Saturday. (No, I repeat, this isn't a paid plug nor do they give me free stuff.)

Dessert Chef and I were trying to decide what it was about this particular lamb that kept us coming back, week after week. To her palate, the meat is not as strong as the lamb from the supermarket, possibly because it spends less time getting from farm to the table. In my more self-indulgent way I imagine I can taste the fresh air, the greenness of the grass, the wild clover and thyme, the vibrance and energy of the farm. It's a delicate flavour that needs nothing to mask it or heighten it, which is why I tend to keep my dressing of the meat simple and lightly fragrant.

Rolled Forequarter Lamb Roast

(Serves 4 - just)

Take 1 Rolled Forequarter Lamb Roast.Raid the herb garden, which is absolutely brimming with Spring growth, and chop up a pile of mint, oregano, rosemary, and thyme. Season the lamb with olive oil and freshly ground salt and pepper, then roll in the fresh herbs. Quarter an onion and drizzle it lightly with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper. Place the lamb and onion on a rack over a roasting tray and leave to rest for an hour. Dress some chopped veges for roasting. Roll in olive oil, salt and pepper, some paprika and the rest of the fresh chopped herbs. Place these on some baking paper on another roasting tray.
Cook both trays at 190C for 1 to 1 1/2hrs, depending on how well you like your lamb done and how small your veges are cut.
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Making the Most of the Roast

Sunday was Roast Lamb Day again, having found another lovely joint for $12.00 at the supermarket. It replaced Roast Chicken on the menu, but that all worked out.

Without labouring the point, Sunday's lamb was much the same as last weekend's Lemon-Tossed Lamb Roast, with a few changes.

I tossed the Lamb with lemon and lime zest, salt and pepper and 2T of honey. Otherwise it was much the same. It came out crispy on the outside and succulent on the inside, and it went down awfully well. Uncle K, who was treated to the now infamous Sugar-Free Stew a few weeks ago, joined us for Sunday Roast and it was good.

What I really want to cover is what we did with the Leftovers.

In our menu we had planned on getting two nights' meals out of the roast, like we usually do with a chicken. For Monday night we picked up a packet of roti breads so we could have...

Roast Lamb and Vege Wraps

Chop up the leftover lamb and roast veges into roughly 1cm cubes and fry quickly in a hot pan. Butter the Rotis very lightly and fry quickly in another hot pan.
In a third pan, fry a hunk of cabbage, some sliced garlic and a sliced courgette in some butter.

Lay the hot roti on a plate and dish a spoonful of the Lamb and Vege into the top quarter of the roti, followed by a spoonful of cabbage and courgette. Fold up the bottom, then each side, and press down. Dish up a pile of fresh steamed veges, sit down on the couch and enjoy. Of course, sauces are an option too. Normally I would go with an aioli or sweet chilli sauce, but since everything was so moist anyway I just went naked, which was superb.



It was quick and easy, and what's even better is that by the time we'd dished up enough for the two of us, there was still enough for another meal of the same. So one lamb roast for $12.00 ended up making 7 adult servings, for an average cost of less than $2.00 per person. That's what we like.

Next post: Will my attempts to make a pizza sauce meet with success or failure?

One Double Shot of Roast Lamb, Please.

Monday was Queen's Birthday, and we decided to cook up a Roast of Lamb that we had found at the Supermarket for $12.00. I don't think it was on our menu, but when you spot a bargain like that, you give yourself a little bit of breathing room. After prepping the meat and doing a bunch of stuff around the place, friends called and offered to come help with getting the house ready for a valuation that we're having done shortly, and they brought with them another small Lamb Roast, about half the size but still a little frozen in the middle, which pretty much balanced out the cooking times.

Since I had the first lamb slowly marinating in herbs and garlic, I needed to launch a quick but yummy assault on the second one, which we achieved with a quick run to the lemon tree and the trusty assistance of the Grinders.

If you don't have a mortar and pestle, I reckon its the best $30-40.00 you might ever spend in an Asian Grocery. We've had ours for about 8 years, and it has never had time to gather dust. It doesn't rust, it can't go (any) blunt(er), and it even works in a power failure. Unlike knives and blenders, you can use a mortar and pestle to crush and bruise and smash, and are an effective weapon against such things as coriander seeds, cloves and cardamon. Next to my knives and my cast iron frypan, its the one thing in the kitchen I wouldn't do without.

Garlic Herbed Roast Lamb

Start this first thing in the morning. With the joint defrosted, gather some fresh herbs and a few cloves of garlic. I used mint, oregano and rosemary, because they seem to be weathering the winter cold better than the other herbs. Strip the leaves from the herbs, peel and slice the garlic (just crush the clove with the flat of a big knife and slice off the hard bit at the end), and put it all in the pestle. Crush up to a paste, adding 2T of olive oil, salt, pepper, and a T of balsamic vinegar.
Pierce the lamb every 2-3cm, to about 3/4 deep, on both sides. With a teaspoon and your fingers, force the garlic-herb mixture into the holes, and rub the excess over the entire joint.
Put lamb in the fridge and allow to stand for about 8 hours.

See below for cooking details.

Lemon-Tossed Lamb Roast

This can be prepped pretty much right before the meat needs to go in the oven. Put the lamb in a bowl, add 2T of Olive Oil, grind in some salt and pepper, and grate in the zest of a lemon. Toss the meat vigorously. That's it. Really.

Cooking the Lamb Double Shot

Preheat the oven to 230c, placing one rack low and one higher up. Place both joints of lamb onto a roasting tray, preferably on a raised grill, and put into the oven on the lower rack. Cook at this heat for 25 mins, then turn the heat down to 180c. Turn every 40 mins or so until cooked, probably about 2 1/2 - 2 3/4 hrs (this allows for the cooking of the roast veges in the same oven on the lower shelf).
Pull the meat from the oven and allow to stand for 10 mins before carving. In this time, scrape the good stuff from the roasting pan and mix with water and cornflour over a gentle-moderate heat, to make the gravy. Season to taste.

Veges

Scrub or peel a load of veges that will fit nicely in a tray big enough to cover the bottom rack in your oven. Chop up into good roast size pieces and toss in a bowl with salt, pepper and Olive Oil. You can also add garam masala, dried mixed herbs, paprika, ground coriander, chopped fresh herbs, a sprinkle of flour, brown sugar, or whatever takes your fancy. My veges tend to be flavoured based on how much energy I have on the day. This time around I grated the rest of my lemon rind on the pumpkin, and it was good.

Lay the roasting tray with baking paper, and spread the roast veges over it. I tend to keep the pumpkin in a separate dish on the same tray as it can sometimes bleed a lot of moisture onto the other veges. Place the tray of veges in the oven on the lower shelf and tweak the heat up to 190c to compensate for the extra volume. Turn after 40 mins, then every 25-30. When the meat comes out to stand, move the veges up a rack and put the grill on - but don't forget them as you make the gravy!

Pudding

I didn't make the pudding - its not my strong point - but Aunty A's Self-Saucing Butterscotch Pudding deserves a spot too. Warm from the oven and dished up with cookies & cream ice-cream, it was a dessert to make your teeth hurt. It was much enjoyed.

And finally, there has to be soup

As with previous roasts, I boiled up a stock with the two lamb bones, and the vege scraps and peelings, chopped up the leftover veges and made a roast vege soup. I got two servings out of it, one of which I just had for lunch. Nice stuff.

On top of that, those two little roasts (worth $18.00 all up) fed 4 adults for dinner, made 2 lots of vege soup, and tomorrow will have made sandwiches for three days. That's value, I reckon.