WOOD FIRE PIT ROAST LAMB COOKING THE GAUCHO COWBOY WAY

Loving my new wood fire cooking pit, I am having so much fun cooking gorgeous succulent joints of meat over wood embers that gently seal the meat with a soft woody crust sealing in all the juices, this is because the heat only comes from below cooking the bottom half of the meat while allowing the other side of the meat to rest, unlike a conventional oven where the heat is all around the meat.  This after all was the method that we all cooked by until the introduction of  modern gas and electric appliances.  When I first built my wood fired oven for cooking pizzas and roasts I did not realise how much it was going to change the way I wanted to cook, there is nothing you can not cook in these ovens or open fire pits and for me it is the best way to cook all our food.

GLORIOUS GAUCHO COWBOY LEG OF LAMB

(serves 6)

2kg bone in leg of lamb

2kg King Edward potatoes

500g chantenay carrots

500g Haricot verts 

2 bunches asparagus

1 ltr lamb stock gravy

Keeping the bone in the leg of lamb is important the bone will help with an even cook all the way through and it reduces the cooking time.  Season your leg of lamb with sea salt and lots of fresh ground black pepper, then pierce with a substantial skewer or two.

COOKING GUIDE

Rare          50 degrees       ( 9mins per  lb)

Med Rare  55 degrees  (11 minutes per lb)

Medium     60 degrees  (12 minutes per lb)

Well Done  75 degrees  (15 minutes per lb)

As this is my first cook over the fire pit I decided to use some old London red bricks to give me some control via height over heat, this worked really well as I was able to start cooking over white wood coals with a little flame still going.  As the cooking carried on I turned the lamb every five minutes or so and then lowered the bricks as the heat lowered and I could see the sizzle on the lamb was fading, as the heat got less and less I finally finished off the lamb on the standard grill over the low embers.  This gave me great control and ensured I did not give the lamb a burnt end crust like pit beef but kept a gorgeous light smokey brown crust that enhanced the lambs flavour beyond my expectations.

This is a brilliant way to roast any sunday joint, I will not be going back to my normal fan oven as standard after this, my lamb joint cooked just as quick over the wood fire and was more succulent and tender with so much more flavour than I have ever had.  I served this with goose fat roast potatoes, chantenay carrots, harricot verts, asparagus, lamb stock gravy with roasting juices and mint sauce