SERVES 4-6
Preparation Time: 30 min
Cooking Time: 60 min
Wood Type: Apple
Heat: Medium
Additional equipment: Grill
Ingredients:
10 -12 Logs
2.5kg Leg of Lamb (butterflied)
Wild garlic salsa verde
1 small bunch tarragon
2 small bunch parsley
30g wild garlic
3 tsp Dijon mustard
40g small capers , drained, rinsed and roughly chopped
200ml extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
When cooking over wood or charcoal, a common mistake is to think that you need a roaring fire with flames lapping up and touching the food. It certainly looks impressive in pictures but most of the time it just leads to food burnt on the outside and not cooked through.
In this recipe we’re going to show you how you can slowly roast a butterflied leg of lamb over an open fire to medium rare.
When you cook with fire something magical happens to your food. The smoke brings out unique flavours no amount of technology or trickery can replicate. For this recipe we are using Applewood, which is one of the best woods you can cook with. It gives you a good heat but at the same time a nice perfumed smoke.
INSTRUCTIONS
Start by building your fire. If you are using logs then we suggest using the “log cabin” method. You can find a link to this here. If you are using charcoal we would always recommend starting it with a natural firelighter.
Once you have your fire going you should wait until you have a good bed of embers, which will normally take 20-30 minutes. Remember, you are not looking to cook directly over flames. A general rule of thumb for a medium heat is to be able to hold your hand over the grill for 7-9 seconds before it becomes uncomfortably hot.
Make sure your lamb has been out of the fridge for at least an hour to come up to room temperature.
At the last minute, season with salt.
Put the lamb fat side down over the embers of the fire. You are looking for this to slowly roast. If you get any flames from the fat dripping onto the embers below move the rump to another part of the grill.
There are many variables that can affect the cooking time, but you should be looking for a total of about 40 minutes of slow cooking, moving the lamb every 10 minutes.
During this time you will need to feed the fire with either more logs or charcoal. Make sure you don’t sit the lamb directly above the part of the fire you are doing this in.
For the last 10 minutes of cooking turn the lamb continuously as the fat will be rendering out and you are likely to get flairs from the fire. At this point you can have a slightly higher heat to crisp up the fat.
If you have a meat thermometer you are looking for an internal temperature of 62c. Once the lamb is cooked leave it to rest for 10-15 minutes whilst you prepare the wild garlic salsa verde.
To make the salsa verde , mix together all of the ingredients listed above. Adding the oil and vinegar last.
To serve, slice the lamb against the grain and spoon over the wild garlic salsa verde.
We like to serve the lamb with some some fire roasted potatoes.
