Rianie Strydom’s ‘porcupine’ roast lamb with lemon, garlic and bay leaves recipe paired with Haskell lV Bordeaux-style red blend.
Ingredients
1 leg of Iamb (about 1.7 kg), deboned
2 whole bulbs garlic, plus 5 extra cloves
3 lemons
8 bay leaves
olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Recipe
Serves 6-8
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Place the leg of lamb on a board. Using a small, sharp knife, make about 20 incisions about 2 cm deep all over the lamb.
Peel the extra garlic cloves and quarter them lengthwise to make 20 pieces. Take 1 lemon and peel thick strips of zest off it and cut into 20 smaller strips.
Cut each of 4 bay leaves into 5 similar-sized strips. Into each incision, push a strip of bay, a strip of lemon peel and a quarter of garlic.
Place the lamb into an oiled roasting pan. Halve the two garlic bulbs and place beside the lamb. Quarter the remaining 2 lemons and place beside the garlic.
Season the lamb and tuck the remaining 4 bay leaves underneath it. Squeeze the juice from the zested lemon over the lamb and drizzle generously with more olive oil.
Roast for 1 hour and IS minutes (for medium-rare), 1 hour and 30 minutes (for medium) and 1 hour and 45 minutes (for medium to well-done).
Allow the meat to rest for 30 minutes before carving. Serve with roasted vegetables.
Wine Pairing
Haskell lV (Bordeaux-style red blend)
Cook’s Note
‘For really tender, tasty lamb, I rub in some olive oil and squeeze some fresh lemon juice over it and leave it overnight, covered, in the fridge.’