Leg of Lamb - Anchovies & 7 hours.

I first posted this on eGullet in answer to a question, but I thought I may as well put it on the blog where people can get at it all the time. Next time I do it I'll take some pictures to add.

Lamb is my favorite meat & I've been cooking legs for many years. Here's a pretty much fool proof method that always wows even the non-lamb lovers.

Start in the morning of the day you're going to serve the lamb.

1) read the eGullet culinary institute course on slow cooking meats.

2) Debone the leg end, but leave the shank end as is. This helps both the cooking & the carving.

3) Salt, pepper, a little minced garlic & a little rubbed rosemany should be placed in the boned cavity. Then tie the boned portion back togetherr with kitchen string.

4) cut 3-5 slashes about 1/2 inch deep across the outside leg end on a diagonal. In each slash place an salted tinned anchovy. (Never fear, they add a great flavor & your guests can have a great time guessing, mostly wrongly, what your secret magic ingredient is.) Add a generous amount of freshly ground pepper & some more rubbed rosemary leaves. NO salt as the anchovies take care of that.

5) Here's the only tricky part. Pre-heat an oven to 425 F. Put the lamb in for about 20 minutes to brown. Take the lamb out of the hot oven & place it in an oven at 160 F. The tricky part is getting both temperatures. If you have 2 ovens then you're in great shape. If not then just let the browned lamb rest while you get the oven temperature down to 160 F. DO NOT leave the lamb in while the oven cools down; it will cook too fast.

6) Roast at 160 F for 7 hours. Once you reach 61/2 hours timing is no longer important. Anothe hour or even more will be Ok. This makes life much easier when it comes to bringing the meal together.

7) Let the lamb rest out of the oven for 15-20 minutes before carving.

As an option (but one your guests will love) make a gravy. Carefully pour off most of the fat, but not all, from the roasting tin. Then put the roasting tin over high heat on the stove. Deglaze with a good dollop of red wine. Make sure you scrape all the bits off the sides & bottom. Let boil until the wine is reduced to 1/3 of its original volume. Take the tin off heat & as soon as it quits boiling add lots (8-12 oz) of heavy (35%) cream. Back on heat stirring constantly. Reduce to about 2/3 rds of original volume. Pour gravy into a sauce boat & enjoy.

Lamb done this way is absolutely delicious & has the great advantage of simplicity.

Don't know what you're serving with it, but a couple of recommendations are:

Roast ratatouille & roast potatoes cooked in duck fat with Herbs de Province & lots of sea salt.

STORY: Last time I served this & there were 10 of us; the guests at one end of the table used up most of the gravy. (they'd had it before) not realizing that that was all there was for everybody. Fortunately Tom who is a professional chef was there. He & my wife went back to the kitchen & whipped up more gravy using olive oil, red wine, lamb stock cubes, some leg trimmings & more cream. It was amazingly good all things considered & our guilty guests were saved. Everybody wanted to try the 'concoction', but the guilty paries weren't allowed. Great party!

Is anybody in France 'normal'?

I was thinking about this today as I talked to Jacques. Now Jacques is truely a Jacques of all trades. He's done all kinds of work on our house. There seems to be little he won't tackle AND do a good job of it. For example here he is building a new fireplace - single handed! Note the cap; we'd known Jacques for months & months before we ever saw him without his hat.
So far so normal. Turns out, however, the Jacques has spent several years in the middle East teaching French to foreigners after that he was a social worker in Paris. He & his wife decided to move down to the country when they decided to start their family (they now have 3 children) as they didn't want to raise the children in a city enviornment. What to do? Elizabeth still works with the elderly locally, but Jacques decided to work for himself. HIs father was a great handyman & taught Jacques a lot so he decided to make a business of it. Given his background, education & intelligence he can work out almost anything. He's much in demand.

A few months ago we were bemoaning the fact that we couldn't find a good school or teacher to improve our French. Jacques volunteered & now gives each of us an individual lesson every Monday. He's a great teacher. We're learning not just 'proper' French, but everyday French as well. We always have lunch together when Jacques is here. Not only is this good for our French, its good for Jacques English. No doubt that his English is better than our French. We all enjoy getting each other's perception of world events, French politics and whatever topics come to mind. As I said this is a very bright well informed man.

A 'normal' workman? I think not. Actually I should call Jacques an artisan which is what the craftsmen here are called. Its a priviledge to know him.

We thought Jacques was the exception until we met Gerard the falconeer who also happens to make beautiful cabinetry and then Stepan the gardner who climbs mountains most of the time. I'll tell you about them in a future post.

The beauty of France

Its hard living here. Today was yet another very hot day, well over 90 degrees so I suggested to my wife that we go for a long drive in the air conditioned car & have lunch somewhere. Good idea so she started getting ready. I had a quick look at Michelin on line & worked out a route that looked interesting & had a good looking restaurant at about the right distance away.

We left home about 10:15 & went North via Limogne to Cajarc, passing the Lot valley on the way with its beautiful scenery. We stopped in Cajarc for coffe & a look in the local Real Estate agents for houses for some friends who are looking to move to France. ( Turned out that the agent was out showing a house, but his wife was there & didn't know much about the properties for sale. So she labouriously wrote our his name, phone number & e-mail adrress & proudly handed it to my wife, She was very happy to have been able to have helped. I didn't have the heart to tell her that all of the information was on the back of her husband's flyer. You're got to love the spirit, if not the efficiency!)

On to Maures up the Cele valley, very pretty. There we turned right (East) towards Montsalvy on the D19. Empty country, but beautiful. As we gently climbed the views just got better & better. Nice small villages & hamlets with steep rooved houses with round slate tiles. Great in the summer, but probably pretty cold & isolated in the winter. Traffic? What traffic?

We reached Montsalvy about 1:15 & went into the Auberge du Fleurie. The dining room was very well set up, nicely decorated and about half full. Menus & wine list were brought & we then knew we were in for a good meal. Four courses for 28 Euros. (A bit expensive for these parts.) Linda had a langustine starter with a whole crustaton & a "tail" made of a crisp crepe stuffed with langustine & porc all on a basil sauce. Very pretty & good, but a bit too mild in flavor. I had what was billed as a gazpacho of cucumber. There was a small glass of tomato & cucumber gazpacho, but there were also two good sized portions of smoked salmon on a bed of salad with a light vinegarette & a tiny cup of melon puree. It was absolutely delicious. We both had the fillet of beef with truffle sauce. WOW! This was accompanied by a ball of mashed potatoes with a thin crisp slice of ham moulded to the top, the whole had been fried lightly in duck fat then topped by finely sliced crisp onions. A great main course. A nice cheese selection featuring local cantal & chevre & a blue veined tome. ( I got a real rise out of Madame by asking if this was where the Montsalvy cheese was made, its an artificial 'supermarket cheese which isn't veey good, I got an emphatic non! And in English "NO good!" with a dramatic thumbs down.) Linda had a dessert consisting of finely sliced fresh strawberries with creme freshe sandwitched between large rounds of very rich chocolate. I had an individual apricot claflutte.
In addition to the food the Auberge had a huge wine list with over 300 entries. Some great bottles at fair prices. What I appreciated was about 30-40 choices of half bottles. Thus we could have a split of Chablis Grand Cru & follow it with a 50cl bottle of Corbiers. All this for just under 100 Euros. Pas mal as they say.

We slowly wended our way home admiring the views as we descended to the Lot valley again, then along the Lot via Decazville, Capdenac Gare & Villefranche de Rouergue on the Averyron & home. We stopped on the way so Rupert could have a nice swim in the river which he loved.

What a nice way to spend a hot day. I do love France!