One of our family favourites during the winter is SEVEN HOUR LAMB. It's very easy to prepare but you do need to think ahead to get it into the oven at least 7 hours before you want to eat it. I cook this meal in a large Le Crueset casserole. You need something with a lid.
When buying your lamb you think about the size of your dish so the leg fits in. To cook this for 10 people recently I bought 2 small legs rather than 1 large one. The 2 legs fitted my dish perfectly. I always buy organic lamb from Jamie of TE KAINGA - at our Market on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.
Seven Hour Lamb
Ingredients and Method
1 leg of lamb
Allow 1 large carrot per person or 2 smaller ones - peeled and sliced into rounds.
At least 4 onions - peeled, halved and sliced.
Whole cloves of garlic - as many as you like.
Plenty of fresh thyme, bay leaves, sprigs of parsley
Place the sliced carrots and onions in your casserole dish, add most of the garlic and herbs. Season a little.
Nestle the leg of lamb amongst the vegetables and put the last of the herbs and garlic on top. Season the lamb.
Put the lid on and place in the oven at 150C.
Check after 2 hours. The veges and meat should have released some liquid. Sometimes I add a touch of lamb stock if it seems too dry. Repeat this after another hour or so.
After 5 hours, remove from the oven and layer slices of potato all over the top of the meat and vegetables. I use Agria and allow about 1/2 a large potato per person. Everything will be starting to fall apart by this stage. Add a little more stock and season the potatoes. After 7 hours its ready. All the flavours will be melded together. It looks a bit messy on the plates but it's delicious. I serve this with a green vegetable such as broccoli and plenty of Dijon mustard.
Seven Hour Lamb