Roasted leg of lamb

This is a biggie! It's been such a long time since we had lamb. We moved back to Brazil and here people don`t really appreciate lamb... or goat.... or veal.
Anyway, I found lamb under "exotic meat" in our local supermarket and grabbed myself 2kg of a nice leg of lamb. Here's the way we roasted it today... It was marvelous.

You'll need

For the rosemary butter
3 big cloves of garlic
4-5 sprigs of rosemary
about 50g of butter
salt and black pepper

For the gravy
135mL of red wine
about 35g of butter
the same amount of flour
The meat juices from the roast

For the mint sauce
4 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh mint
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar

For the side dishes
check leeks in white sauce!
About 6 big potatoes
cooking oil
Carrots
Brussels sprouts

Start by removing the leg of lamb of the fridge about an hour before you roast it, to get to room temperature. Meanwhile prepare the rosemary butter by chopping or grating the garlic.Preheat the oven to 350C or gas mark 6. Mix it with the butter and add the finely chopped rosemary sprigs to the mix. Add salt and butter to taste. Mash it all with a fork to be very smooth. With a sharp knife or skewer make about 30 to 40 deep incisions on the meat, wide enough to fit your finger. Rub the butter mix all over and put it inside any crevasses and the incisions, to make sure the it penetrates deep.

Put it on a tray and cover loosely with tin foil for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and let it roast for another 50 minutes for red meat of over an hour 15 minutes for thoroughly cooked lamb.

Remove the lamb and let it rest for 15 minutes before serving. Meanwhile prepare the gravy:

Heat up a heavy based pan and add the meat juices. Be careful for it will sizzle. Add the wine, the small knob of butter and the flour to thicken it. Reduce and stir until happy with the consistency.

If you want Auntie Bessy style potatoes:

Peel and cut the potatoes into big chunks. Cook it for 10 minutes. Drain the water, return them to the pan and shake it to round the edges. When you are half way though your roast put a tray on the bottom with cooking oil until really hot (be really careful!). Add the potatoes and be careful, it will sizzle. Stir then to get the oil all around and put it back on the bottom of the oven. After about 20-30 minutes turn them around to get that crisp layer all over. Remove them when the meat is ready.

When I add the potatoes, I like to add carrots to the tray with the leg of lamb, to give them the meat flavour.