Lamb with Garlic Sauce

[labellementeuse]

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.

Comments

[senri.livejournal.com]

did it come out all right, in spite of the oven fiasco?

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

It did, actually, and I felt embarassed to have made such a fuss, but! I had to fiddle around and it was kind of a pain. But the whole meal turned out really nicely, so no complaints really.

[senri.livejournal.com]

bah after a day fuss isn't something you want to do right? ;p A minimum of hassle is always best. Glad it worked out though~ <3