Recipe Lamb with Mint, Lemon and Rosemary

[Morning Glory]

A lot of cooks prefer to use fresh herbs. Dried herbs are often lacking in subtlety and can taste ‘grassy’ and dull. Mint is one of the exceptions. In its dried version it adds a depth and pungency which is missing in the fresh leaves. Here its paired with its best friend, lamb. The lemon adds a delicious piquancy to the dish and infuses the potatoes. Rosemary adds an aromatic note. Its one of the simplest dishes you will ever make! No chopping onions, no washing up and it cooks itself quietly in the oven. Serve it with a Greek salad of crisp lettuce, feta, cucumber and black olives scattered with fresh mint.

Ingredients (serves 2 for a light meal - use more lamb for larger portions)
250g lamb neck fillet
250g potatoes (new potatoes are best)
olive oil to drizzle
1 x lemon
1 tsp dried mint
3 or 4 cloves of garlic cut into slivers
A few sprigs of rosemary
A few pink peppercorns (optional)
Salt and pepper

Method

1. Heat the oven to 160 C
2. Cut the lamb into two portions.
3. Peel the potatoes, leaving whole if they are small. You don’t have to peel them but it does look prettier in the final dish.
4. Arrange the lamb and potatoes on a sheet of foil lined with baking paper.
5. Cut the lemon into quarters and squeeze the juice over the lamb and potatoes.
6. Place squeezed lemon quarters around the lamb and potatoes.
7. Tuck the slivers of garlic and the rosemary sprigs around the lamb and potatoes.
8. Scatter dried mint over. Add a generous twist of sea-salt and black pepper and scatter the pink peppercorns, if using.
9. Drizzle with olive oil.
10. Cover with a sheet of foil, folding the edges to form a sealed parcel.
11. Place on a baking tray in the oven for 90 mins.

Here is how it looks before it goes into the oven:

And after cooking:

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

Very nice. I've forgotten the convenience of cooking on foil! I have to admit, whenever I see lemon, I think, "what if we substituted preserved lemon?" But here, that wouldn't work, because the preserved lemon would get even more intense as it cooks down. A fresh lemon, though, would add a freshness. This does have a distinctive Greek feel to it, so the salad pairing sounds just right.

 

[Morning Glory]

Very nice. I've forgotten the convenience of cooking on foil! I have to admit, whenever I see lemon, I think, "what if we substituted preserved lemon?" But here, that wouldn't work, because the preserved lemon would get even more intense as it cooks down. A fresh lemon, though, would add a freshness. This does have a distinctive Greek feel to it, so the salad pairing sounds just right.

I must admit it crossed my mind to use preserved lemon but I came to the same conclusion as you did!

Hmmm... I reckon there could be an interesting recipe to be developed which features fresh mint and preserved lemons and....?

 

[Francesca]

@morning glory

Very nice ..