Nick Nairn's Roast Lamb and Dauphinoise Potatoes
This is my ideal meal. Slow–cooked leg of lamb is so full of flavour, melting in texture, and exceptionally moreish when coated with this rich wine glaze. Five hours may seem a long time to cook lamb but believe me, it will be worth it, especially with my creamy dauphinoise potatoes.
SLOW-COOKED LAMB Temperature
For low-and-slow meats like slow-cooked leg of lamb, you need to slowly bring them up to a much higher internal temperature than usual.
93-95 °C is the sweet spot—at this point, they'll be tender enough to fall apart and melt in the mouth.
ROAST LAMB AND DAUPHINOISE
POTATOES RECIPE
Serves: 6
For the Slow-Cooked Leg of Lamb
- 1.8–2.4kg leg of lamb
- 10 cloves garlic
- Rosemary (optional)
- Salt and black pepper
- 200ml fruity red wine
- 100g unsalted butter
For the Dauphinoise potatoes
- 1kg Red Rooster potatoes, peeled and finely sliced
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed
- 75ml whole milk
- 175ml double cream
- 1 heaped tsp salt
- Black pepper
directions
To prepare the meat
- Preheat the oven to 120 °C/250 °F/gas mark ½. To prepare the meat, peel and slice the 10 garlic cloves and set aside.
- Next, cut little slits into the meat with the point of a sharp knife, approx. 1 cm deep and push the garlic slices in. If you’re using rosemary, stuff some rosemary leaves in the slits too.
- Smear the meat with the butter and season well. Place in a large roasting tray and pour in the wine. Cover and seal in with a large piece of tin foil.
- Cook the meat for 5 hours but check half way through that there is still enough liquid and the meat isn’t cooking too fast.
- For the last hour, remove the foil, increase the heat to 160°C/320°F/gas mark 3 and baste 2–3 times during the hour.
To make the gravy
- The juice and wine should start to create a glaze on the meat. At the end, remove the meat to a warm place, spoon some of the fat off the juice left in the pan and discard.
- Place the meat dish on the hob over a medium heat and whisk up the remaining juices, adding a few gravy granules. Add water if necessary and boil it all up to make a gravy.
To make the dauphinoise potatoes
- Have a large ovenproof dish set aside. Mash the crushed garlic with the teaspoon of salt.
- Place in a large pan with the milk, cream and a good few grindings of pepper and bring to the boil slowly.
- Peel and finely slice the potatoes on a mandolin grater (or in a food processor) – it’s pretty tricky to get them thin enough by hand. Do not rinse them.
- Add the potatoes to the pan with the milk and cream giving them a good stir to coat them evenly with the cream and milk as the slices often stick together. Bring back to the boil and simmer on a low heat until the potatoes are almost tender and the potato starch has thickened the milk – this should take approx. 15 minutes.
- Turn the potatoes into the buttered dish, taking care to leave behind any that have burnt and are caught at the bottom of the pan. Bake in the oven for approx. 45 minutes during the last hour of the lamb’s cooking time – they should become nicely browned on top.
Serve immediately and generously with the butter-soft slow–roasted lamb and red wine gravy.
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