Miss Mardi's Drunk on Beer Lamb...

Miss Mardi's Drunk on Beer Lamb.

Last weekend we hit up the amazing Festival of Lamb in Bendigo. We visited some of the restaurants involved last year but when I saw that they had a tent at the Sheep and Wool Show this year to showcase some cooking demonstrations, I was pretty excited.  One of the demonstrations that caught my eye was a leg of lamb, slow cooked in beer.  I love my slow cooker so this definitely spoke to me!  I gave it a go today but with my own twist, so here is my version inspired by the Festival of Lamb's Ale Lamb, called Miss Mardi's Drunk on Beer Lamb.

You will need for the slow cook:

• 2 stubbies of good quality boutique like beer.  For this recipe I used James Squire's Nine Tales Amber Ale which is lovely and caramel in colour.
• A leg of lamb, mine was a small leg, with the bone still in.
• A few large sprigs of rosemary.
• one brown onion, peeled and chopped in half.
• dash of olive oil
• salt and pepper.

The beer that went into the slow cooker!

In a pan on the stove, brown the leg of lamb a little in some olive oil.  You want to render off some of the fat. Once browned a little, pop into your slow cooker with the onion and pour in the 2 stubbies of beer, add your rosemary and seasonings.  Cook on a low to medium heat in your slow cooker for about 7 hours.  Don't be tempted to keep lifting the lid and looking!  Just let it do it's thing!  I did turn my lamb once about half way so it definitely got soaked in the beer.

This is the lamb and seasonings in my slow cooker, right at the start, awaiting to be cooked!

 

Once cooked, take the lamb out and cover with foil and allow to rest.  Strain the juice from the slow cooker, skimming any fat off and pop into a saucepan and reduce by a third to a half.  I kept the onion from the slow cooker and chopped to add to this reduced sauce.

Reduced sauce tips:

• allow to boil with out stirring to reduce quicker.
• I added about 30 mls of port for sweetness along with a tablespoon of brown sugar.
• thicken with a dash of gravox or cornflour - generally how you would normally thicken your gravy!

Once sauce has thickened and tastes to your liking, you can serve your Drunk on Beer Lamb!

I served ours on a bed of cous cous, with steamed greens and carefully tore the lamb into more manageable pieces and topped with the sauce.  Naturally you should enjoy it with a good quality  beer as well.

A really lovely recipe that you can play with in terms of additional spices and tastes, however for this recipe I wanted to keep true to the beer and allow it to do it's thing.  Trust me, it was super delicious!

A big shout out to the Festival of Lamb people!  The festival occurs in late July, every year.  Also, take time to visit the Bendigo Beer boys who inspired this wonderful marriage of lamb and beer.  They love their craft beers and are about inspiring and educating people about great beers.

Enjoy! 
Miss Mardi xxx