slow cooked
leg of
lamb

Make five deep small slits in both sides of the leg and insert the garlic cloves Season the leg on both sides with salt and pepper.

Dry roast the spices, allow them to cool and then powder them. Do not use pre-ground spices.

Sauté the onion, turnip and garlic with the ground spices until it is evenly browned. Towards the end of the cooking time, continuously scrape the brown from the bottom of the pan. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Put the onion mix into your roasting pan, add about half a cup of water to the sauté pan and place it on high heat and scrape the remaining brown into the water. Set it to one side.

preheat the oven to 150°C
Add the leg to the roasting dish and pour your quince jelly or jam over the top. Wearing food service gloves mix the jelly into the onion and roll the leg in the mix, patting a good layer of the onion onto the top of the leg. Add the reserved brown water and stock around the edges of the lamb and add water to to the side until it is halfway up your roasting dish.

Cover the leg and put it in the oven. Set a timer for one hour. Baste the leg and add more water if required and return the leg to the oven and set a timer for thirty minutes.

Baste the lamb, adding more water as required every thirty minutes for three hours. Return the leg to the oven, this time without a lid. Continue basting the lamb every thirty minutes and adding water as required. The lamb will start developing a deep crust and the basting liquid, sauce will be a little oily on the top as the fat renders from the lamb.

At the six-hour point check your meat…if it is cooked and falling from the bone leave it at that, if not another hour will definitely do it. Turn the oven off, transfer the leg to a carving plate, cover with a sheet of baking paper and a double layer of foil, tightly crimped on the edges. Keep warm in the oven.

Using paper towel mop up as much of the oil on the basting liquid as possible. Mine was lovely and thick and saucy, but it may need a little reducing, depending on how much water you have added in the last hour.

to serve
The leg can either be carved at the table and served with the sauce in a sauce boat, but my preferred method, because it keeps it nice and hot for longer, and the meat doesn’t dry out.

Instructions here. Wear cotton gloves under food service gloves, and pull the lamb from the bone. Break up the top skin which is so delicious and pile it on one side of your serving dish [so people can fight over it] pile the other meat onto the plate and pour the hot sauce over the top.

Serve immediately!