Lamb has been a favorite meat in Ireland for a long time -- maybe not as popular as pork, but a front-runner nonetheless when Irish cooks are thinking about something serious and substantial to make for that Sunday roast.

Locally, Wicklow lamb from the mountain pastures and rolling hills south of Dublin is probably the biggest favorite....though some Irish cooks prefer lamb from the West. There some of the flocks raised on the windswept Atlantic shorelines are grazed on spray-salted grassland that flavors their meat with a tang of the sea, producing local lamb and mutton that challenge the best of the famous French pre-salé lamb.

While lamb is always available as chops and smaller cuts, there seems to be a longstanding preference in Ireland for boned rolled roasts and the classic leg of lamb. This traditional farmhouse recipe surrounds the leg with a half-inch-thick crust of soft fresh breadcrumbs, butter and herbs that helps keep the lamb tender and juicy, but also adds an excellent crunchy contrast to the solid texture of the meat. The vegetables roasting under the lamb -- potatoes, sliced onions, and (a little unusually) apples -- are cooked to an inner tenderness by the hot chicken stock added at the beginning of the process. During the roasting period they absorb the stock and are flavored by it, becoming crunchy on the outside and perfectly tender on the inside.

If you don't care to go to the expense of a whole leg of lamb because there aren't going to be enough people around to help you eat it, you can also produce a similar result using one or two lamb shanks.

Ingredients:

For the meat:

• One leg of lamb (or shoulder), about 3 1/2 - 4 pounds:
• or, one or two lamb shanks

For the crust:

If making leg of lamb or 2 lamb shanks:

• 2 cups soft fresh breadcrumbs (either storebought or made by pulsing 4 slices of a good white bread in the food processor)
• 2-3 teaspoons mixed dried herbs: rosemary, sage and thyme
• or, 4-5 tablespoons fresh chopped rosemary, sage and thyme
• 6 tablespoons of softened (not melted) butter
• Salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste
• If liked: 1/2 teaspoon powdered garlic / garlic granules
• or, 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

(If making only one lamb shank: halve the above recipe)

For the roasting pan:

• 1 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled, each potato chopped into 2 or 3 large pieces
• 1 large onion, peeled and sliced
• 2 large cooking apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 300 ml chicken stock or canned chicken bouillon

Method:

If you're making the lamb shank version of the recipe, the meat has to be pre-cooked before the crust goes on, as shank is too robust a meat to be roasted. Wipe the shanks and set them aside. Then find a large heavy pot and in it heat several tablespoons of solid cooking fat (Crisco or similar) or 2-3 tablespoons of cooking oil. In this, sear the lamb shanks until well browned on all sides. Remove the shanks briefly and in the fat sauté one chopped onion and a bay leaf: then put the lamb shanks back in, and top up with enough boiling water to cover them. Allow to boil for 1 minute, then lower the heat to medium, cover with the lid slightly ajar, and simmer gently for 1 1/2 hours. Remove the lamb shanks to a plate, handling them carefully to keep the meat on the bone, and set aside until completely cooled. (Refrigerating them to hasten the process is fine.)

If you're making this recipe with a leg of lamb, wipe the leg well with paper towels / kitchen paper, then cut the surface of it all over with shallow crisscross cuts.

A crusted lamb shank
ready to go into the oven

Whether you're making leg of lamb or lamb shank, the preparation now proceeds in the same way.

Preheat the oven to 200° C / 400° F. Fan oven users: you may need to lower these temperatures by 10 degrees or so, as fan ovens tend to run hot. Check your settings with an oven thermometer if necessary.

If you don't have access to storebought / ready made fresh breadcrumbs, prepare them by chopping the bread into one-inch pieces or cubes and processing it in your blender or (preferable) food processor until most of it is the size of dried breadcrumbs. Normally you will still have some larger pieces in the mixture, about the size of large peas or beans. This is fine, as long as at least half of the crumbs are relatively fine. (Please note: do not try this recipe with dried breadcrumbs, as it won't work terribly well -- the crust tends to fall off the lamb in the middle of the baking period.)

Mix the crumbs together with all but one tablespoon of the butter, and the salt, pepper, and herbs.

Take the lamb shanks or leg of lamb and rub them well with the remaining tablespoon of butter.

With your hands, press the breadcrumb mixture gently onto the meat so that it sticks to it in a crust approximately 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick, so that the leg or lamb or lamb shank is well covered. (If you're making leg of lamb and you find you're running short of the breadcrumb mixture, it's perfectly all right to leave some of the bottom side of the leg of lamb uncovered.)

Place the leg of lamb or lamb shank(s) on a rack in the roasting pan.

In the bottom of the roasting pan, arrange the potatoes, onion slices and apple slices. Pour in the chicken stock.

Cover the roasting pan with a tent of aluminium / aluminum foil.

When the oven is preheated, put the the leg of lamb /lamb shanks in it and roast at 200° C / 400° F for 30 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 180° C / 350° F.

If making leg of lamb, roast at this lower temperature for a further 20-25 minutes per pound. When it's 30 minutes until the lamb will be done, remove the foil tent.

If making lamb shank(s), roast at this lower temperature for 40 minutes more, removing the foil tent at the 20-minute point. At the end of the 40 minutes, check the vegetables for doneness: if the potatoes are cooked through and getting brown on the outside, you're finished. Otherwise cook for a further 10 minutes if necessary.

Remove the lamb or lamb shanks from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before carving.

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