Slightly Greek Slow Roast Lamb

A carving-free zone, thank God. 

Carving meat has never been my strong point. I have been known to reduce a perfectly roasted chicken into undignified smithereens, a mess on the carving board that looked anything but appetising. I always feel a contradiction of emotions when the time comes to carve; pride that I have cooked dinner, but a teeny amount of disappointment in myself that although I have cooked it, I can't carve it properly, and even more shame that I don't really mind and kind of like hollering for The Boyfriend to come and do his job. It has always been that way though in my family, Mum would slave away only to call Dad to carve (and get clawed by the cat until he succumbed and gave him tit bits). The point of this little insight into my Sundays is to announce that I can't carve, and to give praise for the gift of the slow cooked joint, in this case lamb. After 5 or 6 hours, even I can take two forks or even two pairs of tongs and rip away to my heart's content, tearing the soft threads of meat and pulling the bone clean away with minimal effort. I cooked this yesterday and started out wanting to cook Klefitico ( I love a Greek theme) but I didn't want it to be all tomatoey, so, er, I left the tomatoes out and improvised.

Feeds 6. Pre-heat the oven to 180c. Take a large deep roasting tin and double line with long pieces of foil in both directions. Now line again with a long piece of baking parchment. Slice three onions thickly and take a whole bulb of garlic and cut in half horizontally. Put all this in the tin with a few bay leaves. Place a leg of lamb in the tin and rub with a mixture of seasoned olive oil and oregano (dried is fine). Pour a generous glass of white wine into the tin. Bring the baking parchment up over the lamb and then the foil, making a nice parcel that won't let the juice out. Put in the oven for about 5 hours. Then you...oh, that's it.

I cooked this for a Saturday night supper with friends, and roasted some chopped skin-on potatoes which I then put in a massive dish with the lamb and poured all the juice and onion over. I made a yoghurty garlicky sauce to go with it. Or you could do proper roasties and have this on a Sunday. Either way, give the meat a good 15 minutes rest with some foil on top before you shred the meat to pieces and grin with satisfaction as you grab the bone and it comes away in your hand.