Nici Wickes: Christmas Slow-Cooked Butterfly Lamb Leg

This slow-cooked lamb dish is a festive treat and it’s super simple to make spectacular with a final flourish of pomegranate jewels and fresh herbs that make the whole thing feel properly celebratory.      Ingredients  1 butterflied leg of lamb (1.6–2kg)   3–4 garlic cloves, slivered   Zest and juice of 1 orange   2 tbsp olive oil   2 tbsp runny honey   1 tbsp Dijon mustard   1 tsp each ground cumin, ground coriander, smoked paprika   1 tsp flaky sea salt   Freshly ground black pepper   2 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped   1 cup chicken or vegetable stock   ½ cup white wine (optional)   To finish: Pomegranate seeds, mint leaves, flat-leaf parsley, extra orange zest     Method  Start by laying the lamb out flat and making small slits across the flesh so you can slip in those slivers of garlic. It’s a tiny bit of extra effort but the flavour reward is enormous.   In a small bowl whisk together the orange zest and juice, olive oil, honey, mustard, spices, salt, pepper and rosemary. Pour this over the lamb and give it a good massage so every little nook gets coated. If you’ve time to marinate it for a few hours or even overnight, do — the flavours deepen beautifully.   When you’re ready to cook, heat your oven to 170°C. Nestle the lamb into a roasting dish and pour any leftover marinade over the top. Add the stock and wine around the meat, then seal the whole dish tightly with foil. This is the trick to keeping the lamb meltingly tender. Slide it into the oven and leave it to slowly braise for about 2½ hours, checking halfway to make sure there’s still a little liquid in the base.   Once the lamb is lovely and soft, remove the foil and drain off some of the juices for a gravy. Increase the oven temperature to 200°C. Return the dish to the oven for 15 minutes so the edges caramelise and the top gets all sticky and gorgeous.   Let the lamb rest for a good 15-20 minutes on a board or plate before slicing or pulling it into big, rustic chunks — it will be fall-apart tender.   Pour the reserved pan juices back into the roasting dish. Mix 1 heaped tbsp of flour with some 2 tsps. soft butter to form a paste and add this to the roasting dish. Stir and simmer until it thickens a little for a gravy.    To serve, pile it onto a platter and scatter over pomegranate seeds, mint, parsley and a final grating of orange zest. Serve gravy on the side.    The colours are pure Christmas and the flavour is sunshine on a plate. Pair it with simple greens or a herby summer salad.    LISTEN ABOVE  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.