Boneless Leg of Lamb Braised in Red Wine With Garlic

Anyone who's visited Niamh (eatlikeagirl)'s stall at the Covent Garden Real Food Market over the last couple of months may well have salivated over her delicious slow-roasted pork or lamb served in home-made blaas (bread buns) with home-made condiments. Recently, she's resolved her meat sourcing difficulties by turning to online farmer's market, Paganum, purveyor of fine quality meat produced in Yorkshire. Having scarfed my way through some of Niamh's fine fare, I have been very impressed with the quality of the meat.

Some of you might know that, because of a dearth of butchers in my local neighbourhood, I've been investigating online sources of good quality meat over the last few months. Thus far, The Well Hung Meat Company has delivered acceptable meat but at prices too high for me to place repeat orders. And Abel & Cole have impressed me with the quality of some of their meat, but less so with consistency not to mention issues with the ordering and delivery process. I've also got a list of other online meat suppliers to try, most of whom I encountered at the Organic Food Festival in Bristol some weeks ago.

So, recently I received a delivery from Paganum. I really like the environmentally friendly woolcool insulation - it kept the contents very well chilled and is made from British sheep's wool. The meat looked great!

Sturdy packaging using environmentally friendly insulation

I consulted the twitter food community for ideas on how to cook my leg of lamb and opted to go with thelarderlout's advice to "slow cook at 170C w/ 1/2 btl redwine, rosemary, garlic, carrot, celery, onion, anchovy paste. baste every 1/2 hour. 3 hours'll do it."

I hate celery, so I dropped that straight away. I intended to go out for anchovy paste and fresh rosemary but, in the end, decided to make do with what I had in, so onion became spring onion, fresh rosemary made way for dried and I didn't bother with the anchovy paste!

So, go ahead and use this "recipe" as a starting point. I'd love to hear about your own variations and successes.


Boneless Leg of Lamb Braised in Red Wine With Garlic

Ingredients
1.7 kilo boneless leg of lamb joint
Some home-grown carrots
Some spring onions
Some cloves of garlic, chopped
Half a bottle of Argentinian Malbec red wine
A scattering of dried rosemary

Method

• I made a bed of carrots, spring onion and garlic in the bottom of a large glass casserole dish.

• The lamb leg was place on top. I made holes with a sharp knife into which I pushed large chunks of garlic.

• I glugged half a bottle of red wine over the lamb. It covered the vegetables and came a little way up the side of the lamb.

• And then I popped the dish into our fan oven, set to 170°C, for 3.5 hours.

The finished lamb was beautifully tender. The red wine had produced a wonderful, deeply coloured stock - to my surprise it didn't have a particularly red wine taste at all! The garlic and rosemary flavours came through, but didn't overwhelm the rich lamb taste. And the lamb did taste great - nothing like the insipid, anonymous taste of cheap lamb but an almost hogget-like intensity that I liked very much.

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Pete's "Courgette 'Saka"

During my August trip to Dusseldorf (for work), Pete was keen to find new ways to use some of the beautiful courgettes we've been growing in the garden. When he told me of about the moussaka-like dish he made one night (using courgettes instead of aubergine) I insisted he make it again as soon as I got home! We both enjoyed it so much he's made it a number of times since then.

The recipe has varied each time he's made it. Apart from the first time, when he used beef, he uses lamb mince - more in keeping with a traditional moussaka. The ratios of ragu, courgette and bechamel have changed too. The first time he made it, he fried the courgettes briefly before layering them into the dish but he no longer does this. And the last time he made it, he skipped the bechamel, and it was still delicious! Don't be scared to adapt this recipe!

You can, of course, substitute your preferred recipe and methods for the lamb ragu. Pete's very simple one, below, is easy and delicious but any thick, rich ragu recipe would work.


Recipe: Pete's "Courgette 'Saka"

Ingredients
-Ragu
500 grams lamb mince
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 Oxo cube
3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
A little flour for thickening (optional)
Olive oil for frying
-Courgette layer
Approximately 500 grams courgette
-Bechamel
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
Approximately 200 ml milk
-Cheese
Small handful of grated cheese (optional)

Method
-Ragu

• Brown the mince in a little olive oil. (You won't need much as lamb mince releases it's own fat).




• Add the garlic and Oxo cube and stir in well.
• Stir in the flour (if using).
• Add the tomatoes.
• Bring up to a simmer and leave to thicken for 20-30 minutes. (You can get away with 10 minutes if you're in a rush, as long as the mince was browned off properly).

-Courgettes

• Slice the courgette, lengthwise or crosswise, as preferred. (Seed first if particularly large).

-Bechamel

• Once the mince is ready, start the bechamel.
• Melt the butter.
• Mix in the flour with a whisk until it becomes a coherent paste.
• Heat the milk (a quick blast in the microwave works well).




• Add the milk to the flour butter paste gradually, whisking continuously. Don't worry if it seems to separate when the milk first goes in; if you keep whisking it comes together again.

-Assembly

• In a oven dish, use half the mince to create the first layer. Cover with half the courgette slices, spread out over the mince and half the bechamel. Repeat.
• Sprinkle grated cheese over top, if desired.
• Pop dish into medium oven (160-180) for approximately half an hour. (Exact cooking time will depend on how thick your courgette slices were, as these need to cook through).

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Sumac, Garlic & Coriander Lamb

(Skip to the end for the recipe)

Being invited to review Abel & Cole organic meat deliveries

When Abel & Cole's PR contacted me about reviewing their products several weeks ago, I mentioned that I would be much more interested in reviewing their organic meat than the fruit and vegetables.

We'd trialled a Well Thrifty Box from the Well Hung Meat Company some weeks previously (which I really ought to summarise in a separate blog post at some point) and have been investigating other suppliers too. Ideally we'd like to try a few alternatives before a) working out which one we like best for quality, money and service and b) whether any of the options beat popping to Waitrose (2 minutes walk from our house) and buying what we need as we want it.

Their first delivery contained a mixed fruit and veg box, the contents of which were very inconsistent in quality, plus an organic chicken; a beautiful bird - plump, firm meat which, when cooked, retained both moisture and a firm texture and tasted wonderful.

So I was delighted when I was offered further meat products to assess and review.


Problems with the delivery

Friday's delivery was duly arranged to include an boneless half leg of lamb and a bone in forerib joint of beef. I'd specifically mentioned that I'd like to try a bone in beef joint as this is something I find hard to source in local shops (Waitrose included) and would be interested in ordering online if it proves to be as good as I hear and read. So I was particularly pleased that Abel & Cole were generous enough to include it in my second delivery.

The meat arrived in the usual polystyrene box, wrapped in plastic and surrounded by ice-packs. Opening any deliveries that arrive by post is always a little like Christmas for me - even when I'm expecting the package and know just what's inside.

Lamb? Tick! A fine looking piece of meat. Perfect for the family BBQ at my parents' home on Sunday.

Beef? Oh no! Instead of the bone in joint, we find a boneless forerib instead. Scratch the plan to make stock from the bones!

Quickly, we check the paperwork. The receipt confirms that the order was placed correctly for boneless lamb and bone in beef. Looking at the beef itself, the label clearly reads Boned Forerib. I scramble onto the A & C website and notice an odd thing - firstly, although the text on the packet reads Boned Forerib, the product code, in slightly larger text, is the code for the bone in joint we expected. And what's more A & C don't even list a boned forerib joint!

I drop a note to the PR and marketing ladies and explain the mistake. "Exactly how would your customer services team respond to this mistake for a regular, paying customer", I ask? "I'm reviewing not just the product but your full service", after all.

The issue is passed across to Greg in Customer Services and the response I get is a good one: The letter starts with a sincere apology, a full refund for the beef joint and some information about how feedback on mistakes feeds back into the process and helps them to reduce repetition of such errors going forward. Chris goes on to make the following offer:

"I can't apologise enough for the inconvenience this has caused you and in the light of the problems you've experienced previously I would be more than happy to offer you the Forerib Joint, Bone In (1.5kg avg) free of charge next week should this be convenient for you. I would also hope you might be able to use the boned and rolled joint you have received in error as we would be happy for you to keep the item without charge. If it is no longer convenient for you to receive the beef joint we could always arrange to send you a free bottle of wine or olive oil as an apology instead."

The problem for me lies in the inconsistency - having made meal plans based on what one has ordered, it's very frustrating to receive something different (or of unusable quality) and have to juggle those plans at the last minute. Of course, A & C's generous attitude when putting mistakes right absolutely takes the edge off that frustration - after all, the upshot is that the customer receives two (very expensive, in this case) items for free - but it doesn't change the fact that they're not getting it right in the first place.

On one hand, their genuine warmth and desire to make amends when reacting to mistakes is commendable. On the other hand, it's disheartening to see that the quality control issues that plagued them some years ago are still prevalent.


It's all about the sumac!

I earmarked the lamb for a family BBQ at my parents' house long before it arrived. As I'd already promised that I'd be bringing and preparing it, I was relieved it was the beef and not the lamb that had been mixed up.

But what preparation for the lamb would suit being cooked on a BBQ and also work well with the loosely Indian-themed dishes mum had planned? I was stumped and asked for advice on food chat boards and from the twitter food blogger community.

Sumac seems to be one of the flavours of the moment and was recommended by quite a few folks so I plumped for a sumac-based marinade suggested by fellow food blogger, Gillthepainter, though I decided against the almond yoghurt sauce she made as an accompaniment.

I've never cooked with sumac before and actually had no idea what flavour it would give. Luckily, I did know where to find some as a small Iranian and Mediterranean shop has very recently opened just around the corner from us!

I blitzed the sumac with garlic, ground coriander seeds, olive oil and seasoning and rubbed and squished the resulting paste over and into my lamb, which I left to marinate in the fridge overnight.

In the event, the skies opened with a monsoon-like deluge and we switched to an indoor feast.

Honestly, I can't remember how long we roasted the lamb for - there was so much going on - but it was cooked just as I'd wanted - nicely brown on the outside with one end cooked medium and the other medium rare.

The lamb was absolutely lovely. Tender, moist, firm meat with a lovely flavour - a beautiful piece of meat. The marinade succeeded in the difficult task of allowing the lamb to shine whilst serving up something a little different.

The sumac gives what I would describe as quite a subtle citrusy flavour - not what I was expecting at all. It worked well with the garlic and coriander seeds and gave a pretty pinky-red colour to the dish.

I was gratified to see guests go back not just for seconds but for thirds too, with a number of comments about how good the lamb meat was.

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