Slow roasted Lamb Chumps with Anchovies, Garlic, Rosemary & Lemon
Something a little traditional for Easter Sunday – using lamb and some spring-style (ie they’re not local, because it’s still a bit early) vegetables.
- Two boned lamb chumps approx 300g each
- Two garlic cloves
- One anchovy in oil (the ones from Waitrose don’t overwhelm with salt)
- The leaves from two good sprigs of rosemary
- A teaspoon of Maldon sea salt
- A lemon
- Good olive oil (I didn’t use Extra Virgin, but some nice oil from our local Italian shop)
- Salt and Pepper
- A glass of port – red wine may be better, but I wanted to keep the Gigondas for drinking!
Preheat the oven to 130 deg C/Gas 3.
Remove any string from the chumps and cut the meat enough to let the chumps lay flat on your board, fat side down.
Put the garlic, salt and rosemary into a pestle and mortar and grind to a smooth-ish paste. Chop the anchovy roughly and add to the pestle and mortar. Continue grinding until the bits of anchovy disappear into the paste.
Slice the lemon in half.
Squeeze a little lemon juice to loosen the paste. Spread the paste on the upper side of your unrolled chumps and tie back into shape with string.
Put the chumps into a small roasting tin and squeeze the rest of the juice from the lemon half you’ve used already. Place the other half of the lemon in the tin with the meat.
Drizzle the meat with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Roast for 40 mins, and squeeze the roasted lemon over the meat. Dispose of the skin.
Return the meat to the oven for a further 40 minutes.
Remove from the oven, and set the meat aside somewhere warm for it to relax for 10 or 20 minutes.
Deglaze the pan with port, heat through and use the pan juices as they are, or add some stock and reduce – or add some thickening to make a more traditional gravy.
Serve with small new potatoes and green vegetables – I used Anya potatoes, green beans and broccoli spears.
Update (May 7): In her comment, Mae says she loves anchovies. I should have said when I wrote this post, that the idea was to get the wonderful richness of the anchovies into the meat, without any hint of fishiness. If you like a more fishy result, don’t pound the achovies, just chop them up as much as your taste requires.