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Seared smoked leg of lamb
Serves 8 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 4kg bone-in leg of lamb herb wet rub
- taters, to serve
For the herb wet rub
- 4-5 anchovies in oil, drained
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- 2tbsp Dijon mustard
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 large bunch of rosemary leaves
- 2tbsp olive oil
- 10g sea salt
- black pepper, freshly ground
For the ‘taters
- 650g waxy new potatoes, such as Charlotte, halved if large
- 4-5 garlic cloves, left whole and unpeeled
- 2 rosemary sprigs
- very generous glug of olive oil
- sea salt
- black pepper or Grillstock house rub
For the Grillstock house rub, makes about 250g
- 2tbsp sea salt
- 4tbsp paprika
- 1tbsp garlic powder
- 1tbsp onion powder
- 2tbsp white sugar
- 2tbsp light soft brown sugar
- 2tbsp cayenne pepper or chipotle pepper
- 1tbsp English mustard powder
- 2tbsp black pepper, freshly ground
Method
To make the herb wet rub, put the anchovies, garlic, mustard, lemon juice, rosemary, oil and salt in a food processor. Season with pepper and blitz to a rough paste, adding more oil if is too thick.
For the meat, make deep, diagonal slashes along the top ofthelamblegandputitina roasting tin. Massage half the herb wet rub liberally all over the lamb, getting it into all the cuts. Leave the lamb for 1 hour or so to come up to room temperature.
Set up your barbecue for 2-zone cooking, the hotter, direct side at a medium heat (around 160C). Put the lamb on the hot side of the barbecue and cook for 15 minutes, turning every 2-3 minutes until the meat is seared and browned all over. Then move the lamb over to the cooler, indirect side of the barbecue to cook through.
At this point, decide if you’re going to roast the lamb hot and fast or low and slow. For hot and fast, keep the temperature at around 160C and cook the lamb with the lid on for a further 45 minutes, or until the internal temperature hits 65C, when the lamb will be pink and juicy.
For low and slow, put the lid on and clamp down the vents at the bottom of the barbecue until the temperature stabilises at around 120C. Cook the lamb until the internal temperature hits around 90C (about 5 hours), by which point it will shred beautifully.
Remove the lamb from the barbecue. Cover loosely with foil and leave to rest for 30 minutes. Slice or pull the lamb and serve with the remaining herb wet rub drizzled over the top, and golden taters by the side.
To make the taters, Set up your barbecue to cook directly at a high heat (around 200C).
Tear off a sheet of foil, about 1m long. Use the thickest foil you can for this – catering is best. Fold the foil in half, so you end up with a double-thick sheet around 50cm long. Fold the foil in half again and then crimp the two sides to make a pocket, leaving the top open.
Tip the potatoes, garlic, rosemary and oil into the foil pocket. Season with salt and pepper or Grillstock house rub. Crimp the open end to make
a sealed parcel, then give everything a good shake.
Put the parcel on the barbecue and cook for 25-30 minutes, giving the bag a shake every 10 minutes until the potatoes are tender and charred in places.
To serve, carefully cut open the pocket and tip the entire contents into a bowl.
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