Orlan­do’s Sev­en-Hour Leg of Lamb

(serves six)

1 large leg of lamb, about 3 kg
4 onions, sliced
4 car­rots, sliced
8 gar­lic cloves, peeled but left whole
300 ml white wine
300 ml stock
2 tbsp Arma­gnac, to finish

Sea­son the lamb and heat a brais­ing pan on the hob. Brown the lamb on all sides thor­ough­ly so it is nice­ly scorched — about ten min­utes. It will not brown dur­ing brais­ing, so this is your only chance. Lamb varies, so add a lit­tle oil if the pan seems dry, and pour away most of the fat if a lot has col­lect­ed in the pan dur­ing the browning.

Lift out the lamb and set aside. Add the onions and car­rots and brown those — about 5 min­utes — then add the gar­lic, lamb, wine and stock. Sea­son and bring to the boil. Cut out a piece of bak­ing paper [I had none and used alu­mini­um foil, which was fine] and lay over the lamb to keep it moist.

Trans­fer to an oven heat­ed to 120C (100C fan) and cook for sev­en hours, turn­ing twice. After 5 hours the meat will be cooked; you can serve it now, or stick with tra­di­tion and give it a cou­ple of hours more.

There is no need to rest the meat when it is cooked this way, but you need to fin­ish the sauce. If you are plan­ning to serve the meat on a dish, put it on the dish now. Use wide spat­u­las and arrange your serv­ing dish in the most con­ve­nient spot before attempt­ing to lift the extreme­ly ten­der lamb out of its cook­ing pot. If you are plan­ning to serve it in the cook­ing pot, drain all the cook­ing juices into a bowl.

Strain the juices — I dis­card the veg­eta­bles now but you can serve them — [we did and they were lus­cious, the car­rots sur­pris­ing­ly hold­ing their shape] and defat them (I use my gravy sep­a­ra­tor). Put the juices into a pot and boil quick­ly to a saucy con­sis­ten­cy. Stir in the Arma­gnac, if you wish. Pour over the lamb or serve alongside.