Hugh's Roast Breast of Lamb with Lemon and Apricots

By Chris,

Main Ingredients:

• Two lamb breast joints
• Fennel bulbs
• Onions and lemon
• Dried apricots, shallots and garlic
• Thyme, butter and egg

This week it was my turn to try the snazzy new blender and I must say, it's really quite addictive. I'm never chopping anything ever again! Hugh's recipe said to chop up all the ingredients for this stuffed lamb joint, but it blended to a fine mixture in seconds. Three bulbs of garlic and three shallots were whizzed up and then lightly fried. This was then mixed in a bowl with chopped dried apricots, thyme leaves (a very fiddly thing to prep) and the zest of three lemons. An egg was used to bind it all together and I was meant to add a few handfuls of breadcrumbs, but I forgot...

The lamb breasts were then rolled out flat, seasoned, covered with the stuffing mix and rolled back up. Lamb breast is quite a cheap, fatty cut of meat, but if you cook it for long enough it can be really quite tender. The two bundled up joints were tied with string and roasted at 200 degrees for half an hour to seal in the flavours.

Next up, I chopped two fennel bulbs, two onions and two of the three lemons I had zested for the stuffing. These were used as a trivet for the lamb to sit on after the half an hour was up. This kept everything nice and moist and I could pretty much leave it alone for 90 minutes at a nice gentle 150 degrees.

To go with it, I honey roasted some carrots and whipped up some lovely herby cous cous. When dished up, it looked almost as good as in the book, even though the joint fell apart into strips when carved. The meat was still quite fatty and a bit chewy, but the stuffing was delicious and not too runny, even without the breadcrumbs. If I was to do this again, I'd give the meat a little longer and maybe try a different root vegetable, as the fennel bulbs were still tough and crunchy, despite having had 90 minutes in the oven. With a few small tweaks, this could be a real winner and even cheaper than the £2.49 a head that this cost.

Best for... A generous Sunday roast, followed by a nice long walk to burn it all off

Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Everyday

Helen says... It looks stunning and smells even better. Plus the cous cous made it a lighter option than the traditional roast veggies.