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ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH.

Lamb was really cheap this week so we got a small shank-end roast - about 750g, bone in. I decided to do it today - sunday roast, etc, nothing could be more traditional or inappropriate for this actually really hot day. So I went to quite a lot of trouble to have it seasoned, sitting at room temp for half an hour, the whole deal. it was all set up and ready to go, I stepped out for thirty minutes, I get back and my flatmate has shoved the meat - and the meat only - into the oven, and left a note saying "put lamb in oven, think it will take about an hour and a half, back in 40 minutes."


ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH.

COME ON. It's a teensy weensy 750g roast! And I'm roasting it hot! It should take about TWENTY minutes, 30 if you like it nicely done! Plus 15 minutes to sit! Meanwhile, the vegetables, which should take about 40 minutes, are sitting on the bench! COME ON. I AM COOKING. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT, SERIOUSLY. Why would you just SHOVE IT IN when I AM COOKING and HAVE IT PLANNED OUT. Especially when I have sat the meat carefully inside the pan with the vegetables, WHY WOULD YOU TAKE IT OUT? FUCKING HELL.

Lamb with Garlic Sauce

Recipe tiem! x-posted to icanhazrecipes

I mostly made this because we accidentally bought garlic two weeks in a row, and while we do go through garlic, we're probably not going to go through ten or so bulbs this week, so I wanted to use some up. Also on special at the supermarket this week: leg of lamb, a mere $8/kilo. So we got ourselves a nice wee 750g shank end and I came over all traditional and did a sunday roast. Like a good little baby cook I paged through my Cook's Companion (by Stephanie Alexander, my Big Cookbook, which I can't recommend highly enough; a lot of her recipes are just way too upmarket for me right now, but her sections on selection and basic how-tos are brilliant. Plus, it has a section on kangaroo meat.) There was a recipe for lamb & garlic jus which was just... way complicated, BUT there was also a suggestion for a much more simple sauce for roast lamb, so that's what I did. I was way dubious while I was making it, but! It came out great! And was gorgeous with the lamb & roast veges.

Ingredients:
8 cloves garlic
1 small onion
stock
tomato paste
wine or a wine vinegar

Instructions:
1. Peel your eight cloves and peel and chop your onion very fine.
2. In a pot, cover the garlic and onion with cold water, boil, drain off the water. Repeat twice.
3. Simmer the drained garlic and onion with a little stock and 1 tablespoon of tomato paste until the garlic is soft. I was surprised by how long this took, actually. Also, the recipe calls for lamb stock; it would probably be great for this, but who has lamb stock just lying around? Not me, that's for sure, because I fail at stocks in general and have to buy the powders. So I did it with a half cup of from-powder green herb stock, and a tablespoon of tomato sauce (ketchup) rather than paste, and it worked just fine. I probably wouldn't recommend it, though, especially the tomato sauce thing; use paste.
4. Chuck the mix into a food processor and blend until smooth, or, if you are an unlucky sod who fails to have a processor, or you're environmentally opposed to kitchen appliances, or whatever, you can put it through a sieve with the back of a spoon. This took FOREVER and was a DRAG, so if you have a processor, really use it. I have made meringue with a hand whisk, and I still found it a huge pain in the ass.
5. Chuck it in a bowl or whatever and to the side. Cook your lamb as you normally would. (I made sure to do it in a separate pan which was, in fact, really complicated, but I needed to leave the potatoes to cook longer while I did the sauce.) While the lamb is sitting, skim the fat off the juices left in the pan - I suck at this, there was a bunch of fat still left in there - and deglaze over heat with wine or wine vinegar. I used red wine vinegar, which you could definitely taste in the end product, but in a good way.
6. Chuck the garlic paste in, swirl around/heat until it's all mixed in, and it's done! Pour it over lamb or potatoes or whatever you like.

I was really pleased with the way this turned out, and my flatmate liked it, so the extra effort of sauce-making was totally worth it.