Cooking Herb Crusted Lamb

Asked by Bake86. Answered on 2nd January 2018

Full question

For Nigella's recipe of herb crusted leg of lamb is the joint sitting in the water or does it have to be on a rack above the water?

Our answer

Nigella's Herbed Leg Of Lamb (from AT MY TABLE) is a leg of lamb that is slathered with a herb and garlic paste before cooking. The lamb leg is roasted in a tin with a little water in the bottom. The water is there to prevent the tin from burning and the steam created during cooking also helps to keep the lamb gorgeously tender.

It is only a very small amount of water in the bottom of the roasting tin (½ cm or approx ⅛ inch) so it is not necessary to put the leg of lamb on a rack over the water, it is fine for the meat to just sit on the base of the tin. The cooking juices that collect in the bottom of the tin can be mixed with a little freshly boiled water and a drop or two of honey to create some juices to spoon over the carved lamb.