Looking for the perfect feast for St Patrick’s Day? Here you go

Herb Roast Lamb
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
5 sprigs of thyme
6 mint leaves
2 sprigs of rosemary
freshly ground black pepper
drizzle of rapeseed oil
zest of 1 lemon
1 leg of lamb (roughly 2kg)
2 potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
2 onions, halved
2 carrots, peeled and halved
splash of red wine
100ml hot chicken stock
1 tbsp tomato purée

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3.

Using a pestle and mortar, crush the peeled garlic with the thyme, mint, rosemary and black pepper. Add a drizzle of oil and the lemon zest.

Rub the mixture over the whole surface of the lamb.

Place the potatoes, onions and carrots in a roasting dish and rest the lamb on top of the vegetables.

Cover the lamb with tin foil. Roast in the oven for two hours, or until cooked to your liking.

When cooked, remove the lamb and set on a tray to rest for at least 15 minutes before carving.

While the meat is resting, place the roasting dish on the hob over a medium heat and add a splash of red wine and then the hot stock. Stir with a wooden spoon, scraping up anything that’s stuck to the tray, and mash the vegetables to thicken the gravy.

Add 250ml of boiling water and the tomato purée and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Strain and pour your gravy over the freshly carved lamb.

Extracted from Traditional Irish Cooking for Today by Brian McDermott (The O’Brien Press, €9.99). Photograph by A Fox in the Kitchen.