Wild Garlic - The Pesto Rub

Roast butterflied leg of lamb with wild garlic, served with boulangere potatoes. This recipe is courtesy of husband Mark, and I personally feel it is worthy of the Waitrose app., being both easy and delicious. Move aside Heston, you have a bald rival!

Mark used a Waitrose pre-butterflied leg of lamb which was part of the 3 for £10 range. I think it weighed around 400g. On that note, have you tried the Boston Butt? Please do. I think a post about that will have to follow.

Turn the oven up to gas mark 4, then prepare the potatoes. Mark can't remember how many he used, but you want enough for four (two with leftovers, as they're even better the next day.) They need to be peeled and thinly sliced. Do the same with two shallots. Smear a small roasting tin with butter, and cover the bottom with a layer of potato slices. Add a layer of shallots and season. Repeat until all veg are used and the tin is at least half full. Pour over approx. one pint of hot vegetable stock (the veg need to be covered.) Cook in the preheated oven for one hour before you add the meat. The potatoes need to absorb most of the liquid and they take a while to break down at this temperature. 

In a bowl mix 3-4 tablespoons of your home made wild garlic pesto with 3 biggish sprigs of finely chopped fresh rosemary, Maldon salt, black pepper and a dash of olive oil. It needs to be paste-like. Mark used a pestle and mortar which was unnecessary.

Smear the top and sides of your lamb with the paste and leave it to marinade at room temperature while the potatoes get their first hour in the oven. Set the meat on a roasting rack and position the rack on top of the potato tin. That way, any juices will spill onto the tatties. Roast in the oven for one hour.

We served the meat by cutting it down the middle and dividing it between two plates. You could do some fancy slicing I suppose. 
This somehow looks like the most British dinner you could eat! A variation/addition could be adding breadcrumbs to the paste. Then you could call it a herb crust, which sounds very posh.