Slow Oven Cooked Roast Lamb with a delicious roast rub

I'm a huge fan of cooking Lamb in my Slow Cooker, stuffing it with fresh Rosemary and Garlic, always browning the meat first to seal in the juices.....

  I decided to do something different and cook it in the oven for a change. I grabbed some fresh Rosemary & Thyme from the garden. I took the herb leaves off the stems and gave it a quick chop, along with a few bulbs of fresh garlic. Popped it into the Mortar & Pestle, added a few tablespoons of Olive Oil, cracked Sea 

Salt & Pepper, a teaspoon of  Smoked Paprika and a teaspoon of Cumin. Gave it a good pounding and then rubbed it all over the roast.

I cooked it for the first half an hour in a preheated oven at  180 - 200 degrees and then dropped the temperature to 160 - 170 for remainder of the cooking which was approx 3 hours all up. Popped the veges in about an hour before the Lamb was ready. 

The veges soaked up the juices and the rest of the pan juices made the BEST gravy!

Lj's Pea & Ham Soup

Ingredients:

1 kg Ham Hock

500g Bacon Bones

1 Large Carrot diced

1 Large Onion diced

1 Large Potato diced

500g Split Peas

2 Cups of Frozen Peas

1 Litre of Chicken Stock

1 Litre of Water

Sprigs of Fresh Thyme

What to do:

Saute the Onion and Carrot until it starts to soften. Add the Ham Hock, Bacon bones, Stock, Thyme and diced Potato and pour over the Chicken Stock and Water. Bring to the boil and simmer for approx 3 hours or until the Ham is falling off the Hock and the bones. Remove the bones and hock. Add the frozen Peas. If you like a chunky soup leave as is, if you like it smooth blend it at this stage. I like it a little of both so I do a quick blitz with the hand held mixer. Let the hock cool down enough to pull the meat off the bone without burning your fingers. Return the ham to the soup and serve with crusty bread.