Lamb knuckles (Serves 6)

My favourite lamb roast is the moist (and cheap!) knuckles. Your favourite lamb roast might be a leg of lamb, or lamb shanks, and they can be cooked in the same way, but may take bit longer.

Lamb:

Lay 6 knuckles into the bottom of a roasting tin. Sprinkle with some sea salt. Pour over a little filtered water – so that you’ve got about 1 cm in the bottom of the pan. Cover with a lid or foil. Cook at 200C (400F) for ½ an hour, then turn down to 150C (300F). After another half hour or so, turn the knuckles over. Depending on size, they will take about 2 to 2.5 hours altogether. About ¾ of an hour before you want to serve, check the knuckles. If they’re ready, take out; if not quite, move down to the bottom of the oven. Turn the oven up to 175C (350F) and put the roast vegetables in.

Roast vegetables (any mixture of potatoes, kumera, NZ or US yams, sweet potatos, pumpkin, parsnip or carrots):

Cut into bite sized pieces, toss in olive oil, or lamb fat left over from a previous roast, and some sea salt. Put into a separate roasting pan. (Variation: if you prefer, try the Mediterranean vegetables below).

Spinach Pesto:

Place a bag of baby spinach, a couple of slices of feta, a squeeze of lemon juice and a slosh of olive oil in a food processor. Blend together till spinach is finely chopped, but not quite a puree. An added Tbs of basil pesto makes an interesting variation.

Gravy (optional):

When the vegetables are about ready, pour the drippings out of the roasting pan and into a saucepan, and put the roasting pan with the lamb it back in the bottom of the oven to stay warm. Skim off most of the fat, and make gravy with the stock. Mix a Tbs or so of arrowroot with some cold water, and gradually add to the drippings, stirring continually. Cook over a medium heat till thickened. Season if needed.

Variation:

This is the basic version of the lamb. To dress it up a bit, add some whole garlic cloves and/or some sprigs of fresh rosemary.