Leg of lamb with herbs

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 5 cloves garlic
• 2 kg leg of lamb
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• 3 sage leaves
• 1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley
• 1 sprig(s) rosemary
• 1 bunch of thyme
• some lavender flowers, if desired

Instructions

Working time approx. 15 minutes; Rest time approx. 12 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour 20 minutes; Total time approx. 13 hours 35 minutes

Catalan recipe: Cuixa de xai amb herbes

It’s best to prepare it the day before. Cut the garlic into sticks and lard the leg of lamb with them. To do this, pierce the leg with a small knife and push the garlic sticks along the blade into the resulting hole. Then rub the roast with olive oil. Finely chop the herbs, mix them together, sprinkle them over the roast and press them down. Wrap the roast in aluminum foil and leave to marinate in the refrigerator, ideally overnight. On the day of the meal, set the oven to 200°C top/bottom heat, or 180°C fan-assisted. Place the lamb in the foil in the oven, lower down if possible, and cook for 1 hour. Then remove the foil and cook the meat for another 15-20 minutes. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes and then enjoy. This recipe is very useful when you have guests and don’t want to spend ages at the stove. It practically cooks itself and preparing the meat the day before takes a lot of stress out. What’s more, the roast will be wonderfully tender and tastes fantastic thanks to the herbs. Delicious with rosemary potatoes, hash browns, or duchess potatoes. For vegetables, I like green beans with bacon, garlic, and savory, perhaps with red wine.