Marinaded leg of lamb with garlicky potatoes

I cooked this for myself for lunch the other day - not exactly a low fat lunch, but then i've got 8 weeks to get fit for the GR20 trek across corsica.  It is though, the kind of thing that would be just perfect to eat in a mountain hut after a hard days walking.  We can but dream!  However, if there does happen to be some lamb for sale, with some potatoes and garlic, extra virgin olive oil, some rosemary, pepper and an unwaxed lemon, then we are sorted, providing or course that we can wait 30 hours for the marinade!

- Put a large leg of lamb in a plastic bag together with300ml olive oil, zest of an unwaxed lemon, 4 squashed cloves of garlic, 2 sprigs of chopped rosemary, 6 peppercorns and 2 kg of potatoes, cubed.
- Leave to marinade for up to 30 hours (i managed an hour).
- Put the lamb into a baking tray and the potatoes into another, then cook the lamb for 45 mins and the potatoes for 1 hour at 200C.

Simple but very tasty and filling for about 6 people.  I cooked just enough for me obviously, not the full 2 kg potatoes - that would make the gr20 tricky.

Roast shoulder of lamb

This tasted better than it looks in the photo!  My new japanese knife that i bought the other day in marylebone, made a slightly bigger hole than i meant.  It is phenomenally sharp and only needs sharpening every 6-9 months because it's made from high carbon steel and therefore very hard (about 64 on the Rockwell Scale)- an ordinary stainless steel knife apparently should be sharpened after every use.  It is a joy to use and i would recommend getting a decent chef's knife (16-22cm) to anyone.

This is probably the easiest meat recipe in the book and tasted all the better for it!

- Mince 3 cloves garlic and finely chop a sprig of rosemary.
- Mash both together with 1 tablespoon olive oil.
- Make insertions with a knife into 1-2kg shoulder of lamb and push the mixture into the lamb.
- Coat the top of the lamb with some of the oil, sprinkle with coarse salt and cook for 30 mins per kg plus 20 mins.



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