Easy roast lamb

Matt again,

I've been meaning to finish this post for a while now, the meal happened a few weeks ago and I've been a little slow in getting it written up...

Jen was due back from Bristol at 7 on Sunday, and I wanted to have something nice for her to eat. This was perfect - easy, delicious and looks impressive. The whole recipe derives an extra sense of danger from cooking the meat direct on the oven shelf. Crazy. 

The potatoes are brilliant, all crispy and lamby. Well worth a try if you can bear going without gravy...

The recipe is good for two or three with plenty left over for tasty lamb sandwiches the day after.

This is pretty close to a Nigel Slater recipe, although for me his cooking times seemed all wrong. In my book, lamb should be pink in the middle, not bleeding. His suggestion of 15 minutes per 500g was just too short. Sorry Nigel.

Ingredients:
1.5 to 2kg Leg of lamb
1 head of garlic
1 handful of rosemary
5 reasonably sized potatoes with the skin still on
olive oil

Method:

1. Pierce the leg with a small sharp knife and stuff rosemary and garlic into the holes. Liberally douse the leg in olive oil and dust with salt.
2. Using a food processor, slice the potatoes fairly thin and spread out on a roasting tin, throw in some slices of garlic, a few stems of rosemary and a glug or two of olive oil.
3. Place the roasting tin on a low shelf in the oven and then place the lamb directly onto the shelf above it (oven set at 230C). Make sure that the leg is well positioned to avoid a lengthy oven clean.
4. Leave well alone for half an hour before turning the heat down to 200C.
5. If you fancy turning the potatoes at this point, go for it but they'll probably fall to pieces.
6. As I mentioned above, cook for a total of about 25 minutes per 500g. If you're worried about over cooking, buy a meat thermometer they're a cheap way of making sure that you don't ruin a meal.
7. Remove the lamb and leave to rest (for me this means on a warm plate under some tin foil).