FLOWER POT KITCHEN: PERFECT ROAST LAMB

2 Apr 2018

PERFECT ROAST LAMB

EVERY TIME

Perfect grass feed roast lamb, medium rare full of succulent flavour and even better this is lamb we have organically raised ourselves on our small holding. This is the cut known as noisette, it is from the best end of the rack and in effect a rack of lamb off the bone, this cut makes for a perfect roast for two or medallions of lamb. Takes just 18 minutes to roast so it's brilliant for a mid week roast dinner on the table within 25 minutes with the oven doing all the work!

Cooking time 20 minutes / Resting time 5 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 2)

The Roast

1 noisette lamb or rack

1 glug olive oil

1 pinch Himalayan sea salt

1 pinch ground black pepper

Accompaniment

1 leek sliced

4 rashers sweetcure bacon diced

1 tbsp butter

1 pinch black pepper

Pre heat your oven to 220 C / 450 F, and place a roasting tin in the oven to warm up, meanwhile place a skillet on the stove and heat hot, rub the lamb in the olive oil and season with the salt and pepper, sear the lamb skin side down in the skillet until browned all over.

Remove the lamb from the skillet and place in the hot roasting tin in the oven, turn the heat down to 200 C / 390 F and set the timer for 18 minutes. Once cooked remove the lamb from the oven and leave to rest for a full 5 minutes before slicing, meanwhile place the diced bacon in the skillet that you used for the lamb, add the butter and fry until crispy, add the leeks and soften. Slice the lamb and serve on your bed of bacon leeks, for extra richness add a generous dollop of double cream to the leeks just before serving.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.