Spring is finally here in Cambridgeshire. In celebration of the fact that some of my bulbs are finally flowering, I thought I’d eat a dear little fluffy baa-lamb.
This recipe is wonderful for this time of year, when the sun is bright and there’s a jug of tulips on the windowsill. The herbs and sweet tomatoes are a real foretaste of summer. Enjoy this with a cold glass of white wine, or a pint of real ale.
To serve two, you’ll need:
½ a shoulder of lamb
100g tin flageolet beans, drained
10 small tomatoes
6 cloves garlic
1 glass white wine
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1 teaspoon Marigold vegetable bouillon
A few stems of rosemary
A few stems of thyme
4 teaspoons quince jelly (use redcurrant if you can’t get hold of quince)
1 handful parsley
1 handful oregano
Begin by making little slits in the skin of the lamb – six to a half-shoulder will be plenty. Stuff each resulting pocket with a quarter of a clove of garlic and a sprig of rosemary. (You may want to leave the knife in the slit and twist it to fit the garlic and rosemary into the hole.) Slice the rest of the garlic finely. Sprinkle the skin of the lamb with salt.
Quarter the tomatoes, and mix them with the the remaining rosemary and garlic and the rest of the ingredients in a heavy baking tray. Place the lamb on top, skin side up, and roast for an hour and twenty minutes at 180°C.
While the lamb is roasting, finely chop the parsley and oregano, and combine it half of it with two teaspoons of the quince jelly and a large pinch of salt. Remove the lamb from the oven and smear the herb paste all over the skin. Stir the other two teaspoons of quince jelly and the rest of the herbs into the beans around the lamb, and return to the oven for ten minutes, until glossy and beautiful.
Oy, squeezeweasel, that is a mighty fine looking spring feast. The beans look particularly good. You’ve officially got my mouth watering!
Oh wow, that is just too fabulous – I am craving lamb now.
Even though I’m deathly ill this recipe is bringing me back to the land of the living. Please! I want to recover so I can have a glass of white wine and make this NOW.
The first and the last sentence (cold lamb – shudder) combined to make me seriously consider vegetarianism for at least 5 seconds. Lucky the pictures look so delicious.
This is officially in my top five all time Mum and Dad recipes. Goes ridiculouly well with quince jelly. I sympathise with cait shortell as I am also ill but want to make it now too!
Yum.
I’m trying to find the tinned Flageolet beans here in the U.S. So far no luck – any ideas on an online site where I can order them?
judychidester@totacc.com
Can you tell me how to alter this recipe for 4 people? Looks like the perfect thing for a dinner I’m planning but there are 4 of us…