Roast lamb is my favourite meat, best to get some Irish, Britsh or NZ lamb (in that order), in the springtime.

Ingredients

• 4lb leg of lamb
• bulb garlic
• rosemary
• potatoes for roasting - about 3lb
• lemon
• olive oil
• fresh mint
• sugar 1sp
• white wine vinegar 3tbsp

Method

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Peel and chop potatoes to desired roastie size and put in a pot of cold water. Put on and bring to boil, then parboil for 5-10 minutes. When done, drain the water and then hold a lid over the pot as you shake it to rough up the edges of the potatoes - don’t over-do it! Allow to steam dry a bit by removing the lid again.

Meanwhile, take a few cloves of garlic and peel, put in a bowl and add roughly chopped rosemary, grated lemon zest and oil. Mix.

Place one roasting tray (for potatoes) in the oven with some vegetable oil to heat the oil up.

Season the lamb with salt and pepper and rub marinade into it. Place into another roasting tray and then into the oven.

Add remaining rosemary and garlic to the potatoes and season. Tip into the hot oil in the roasting tin (carefully!), and baste the potatoes. Make sure to turn and re-baste the roast potatoes every so often to ensure even crispiness.

Cook the lamb for 1hr 15 - 1hr 30 depending on how well done you like it. You can take it out whenever, cover it up and let it rest while the potatoes finish.

For mint sauce:

Pick and finely chop mint leaves, add sugar, salt, hot water and vinegar in a bowl, adjusting for taste. It should be minty and vinegary.