SAFFRON ROAST LAMB WITH STICKY GARLIC POTATOES

By tulawdog

Ingredients

• 1 leg of lamb (4.5 lbs)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, bruised
• 6 scallions
• 2 bay leaves
• juice of 1 lemon
• small bunch mint, 1 1/2 oz including stalks, torn roughly makes 1 cup
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, steeped in 1 cup very hot water
• 1/3 cup rosé wine
• STICKY GARLIC POTATOES
• Serves 6
• 1 1/2 lbs small fingerling potatoes
• 8 cloves garlic (more if you like)
• 1/2 cup olive or other vegetable oil
• Coarse salt & freshly cracked pepper to taste.

Preparation

Step 1

Lamb
Put the lamb in a large freezer bag, pour over the olive oil and then throw in the garlic, trimmed scallions and bay leaves, squeeze in the lemon juice and throw in the squeezed-out lemon halves too, then add the torn-up bunch of mint. Seal the bag and marinate in the fridge overnight.
Bring the lamb to room temperature before you even think of putting it in the oven, and preheat that to 425 degrees F when you take the lamb out of the fridge.
Pour the entire contents of the freezer bag into a roasting pan and roast for about 20 minutes a pound, or until the lamb is cooked a perfect, à point pink; you will just have to pierce it with the knife to see. Just before the lamb is due to come out of the oven, put the saffron strands in a measuring cup and pour over the hot water so that it can get on with steeping.
Remove the lamb to a wooden carving board to rest. Pick out the lemon rinds, and then place the roasting pan on the stove over medium heat, and stir until it starts bubbling. Stir in the saffron in its water and add 1/3 cup rosé – tasting for seasoning as you go – as needed to let this bubble into a small amount of ungloopy gravy.
Carve the lamb on to a large warmed plate and strain the saffrony juices, stirring in any liquid first from the carving board, over the pink meat.
Read the sticky garlic potato recipe now so that you can coordinate your movements. And, to go with, I'd want no more than a bowl of green peas, turned in some butter.

Potatoes
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and add some salt, add the potatoes and cook for 30 minutes. Drain, and put back into the dry pan.


Peel the garlic cloves by squishing with the flat of a knife so that they bruise slightly and the skin slips off. Put them in the dry pan with the potatoes, and then bash potatoes and garlic so they are cracked and split. You can do this ahead and leave them in the pan – though with the lid off, so that they don’t get watery – until you want to roast them.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and slip a roasting pan in to heat up at the same time. Once the oven’s hot, pour in the oil and let it, in turn, heat up for 10 minutes.
Carefully tip the potatoes and garlic into the hot oil and cook for 15 minutes. Turn the potatoes over and then give them another 15 minutes.
Salt & pepper to taste.
Serve on a platter with the lamb.