complete meal with leg of lamb

Heres a fantastic Sunday dinner  for you and your silly friends that you'll love and they will too as you are discussing what you read in the Independent this week .Start off the meal with the gavi as you are munching the salad then change over to the red with the lamb

Salmon and avocado Caesar salad

 Extra Special 
Argentinian Malbec
Malbec is Argentina’s signature 
grape and fast growing in popularity. This full-bodied red, sourced from the Mendoza province and made by 
the Trivento winery, is packed with 
ripe berry notes. Its spicy flavour is bold enough to stand up to this marinated lamb dish, making it the ideal match.A simple, refreshing starter that’s ready to eat in minutes.

 Extra Special GaviThis northern Italian wine from 
top producer Araldica is clean 
and fresh, and packed with citrus flavours. It’s refreshingly crisp and 
light enough to drink on its own, 
or try it with our quiche cover 
recipe and its zingy balsamic-
dressed leaves
Serves 6
Ready in 15 minutes
2 thick slices white bread
15g butter
1tbsp olive oil
1 Heart of Romaine lettuce
3 x 100g packs Asda Extra Special Smoked Salmon
1 ripe avocado, peeled, stoned and sliced
8tbsp Asda Caesar Dressing (from a 245ml bottle)
75g Parmesan cheese

1. Cut the bread into large cubes. Heat the butter and oil in a large frying pan, then add the bread and toss the pieces around with a wooden spoon.
   Cook over a medium heat, turning the pieces of bread frequently until they’re crisp and golden brown. Tip on to a plate and leave to cool.
2. When you’re ready to serve, tear the lettuce into pieces and arrange on six plates. Flake the fish and add to the lettuce with the avocado slices and croutons.
3. Drizzle 2tbsp dressing over each plate. Shave the Parmesan with a potato peeler or grate it coarsely and scatter on top.

Clearly an accurate meat thermometer is essential. Our ancient mercury meat thermometer has proven over and over again to be much more accurate than the instant read thermometers we have. It doesn't matter if you go to the northern Rhône (inky, slightly tarry wines based on syrah) or to the south (where the red fire of grenache prevails). If you are roasting lamb, say, with branches of thyme and rosemary, or chopping the meat and cooking it slowly with olive tapenade, then putting aubergines, stuffed tomatoes or courgettes on the table, together with the wine, you have one of the greatest meals in existence.
Diversifying, I almost always take the Rhône as my starting point. So, following the grapes, a peppery syrah from one of Chile's new, cooler regions, say, would be lovely with a rare rack of lamb. Blends such as St Hallett's Gamekeeper's Reserve or Charles Melton's Nine Popes, both from Australia, are also good with butterflied leg of lamb sprinkled with rosemary and lavender.
Moving away from Mediterranean seasonings makes a difference: shoulder, slow-cooked until it melts and served on raisined couscous, likes syrah; last week, a lamb tagine we had was delicious with an inky Portuguese red; add Parmesan to the mix, and you need the acidity of an Italian red to cut the fat. Just thinking of it makes me hungry.
Domaine de Piaugier Sablet Les Briguières 2005 Côtes du Rhône Villages, FranceStockists
£8.99, or £7.99 when you buy any two Piaugier wines, Majestic (minimum purchase 12 bottles in a mixed case); 14% abv

Ingredients

Marinade
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup white wine
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons of fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon of dried thyme
2 Tbsp of fresh chopped rosemary or 1 Tbsp of dried rosemary
1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil
Blend ingredients in a blender, just a few pulses until well mixed.

Lamb Roast
1 (6-pound) leg of lamb, bone-in or boneless. If boneless, the leg should be tied up with kitchen string by butcher.
Marinade
Salt

Method

1 Place lamb and marinade into a plastic bag. Squeeze out as much of the air as possible from the bag and seal. Wrap again with another plastic bag to ensure that the marinating lamb doesn't leak. Marinate for several hours, or overnight, in the refrigerator. Remove the lamb, still in its marinade bag, from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before putting in the oven to help bring the lamb closer to room temperature before roasting.
2 Preheat oven to 425°F. Arrange two racks in the oven - a middle rack to hold the lamb, and a lower rack to hold a roasting pan with which to catch the drippings. Place the empty roasting pan in the oven while the oven is pre-heating. Note that this arrangement of racks and pans, with the roast sitting directly on the oven rack, will create a natural convection of heat in the oven, causing the roast to cook more quickly than if cooked the traditional method in a rack in a roasting pan.

3 Remove the lamb roast from its marinade bag (you may want to temporarily place lamb in another roasting pan, just to make it less messy to work with.) Pat dry the marinade off the lamb with paper towels. Generously salt and pepper all sides of the roast. Arrange fattiest side up, so while the lamb is cooking the fat will melt into the meat. Insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the roast, not touching the bone if your roast is bone-in. Place directly on middle rack of the oven, with a roasting pan on a separate rack a rung lower, to catch the drippings. You may also want to put some water (a cup or so) in the bottom roasting pan, so that the drippings fall into the water instead of burning in the hot pan and smoking up your kitchen.
4 Roast at 425°F for 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 300°F and roast an additional hour (for a 6 pound roast), about 10-12 minutes per pound. If you are cooking a roast bone-in, the bone will act as an insulator and will require a longer cooking time than a boneless roast.
Note that the method of cooking directly on the oven rack will mimic a convection oven and the cooking time/oven temp needed will be less than you would need if you cooked the roast on a rack in a roasting pan. If you are cooking the roast in a roasting pan, rack or not, start the roast at 450°F and then reduce the heat to 325°F. Also, the shape of the roast will have an impact on the cooking time. Our roast was rather long and thin, so it cooked up fairly quickly. A thicker roast may take longer than expected.
At this point start checking the meat thermometer. Note that every time you open the oven door, you'll need 10 minutes or so to bring the oven back up to temperature, thus slowing down the cooking process. So, don't check too often. Remove from the oven anywhere from 130°F to 135°F for medium rare. Lamb should never be cooked until well done or it will be too dry. Let stand for 15-20 minutes before carving. Cut away the kitchen string and slice with a sharp carving knife, 1/2 inch thick slices, against the grain of the meat.

5 While the roast is resting, use a metal spatula to scrape up the drippings in the roasting pan. Use the drippings to make a gravy, or use just the drippings themselves to serve with the lamb.
Serves 8 to 10. Serve with some homemade mint jelly for an added treat. Spring vegetable parcels (v)
Cooking vegetables in individual paper parcels locks in their flavour and looks sophisticated, too.

Serves 6
Ready in 45 minutes
3 small courgettes, cut into 1cm slices
2 x 150g packs Asda Baby Carrots, ends trimmed
2 x 175g packs Asda Baby Leeks, trimmed
2 x 170g packs Asda Sugar Snap Peas
6 sprigs mint
100g

Spring vegetable parcels  Cooking vegetables in individual paper parcels locks in their flavour and looks sophisticated, too. Serves 6 Ready in 45 minutes 3 small courgettes, cut into 1cm slices 2 x 150g packs Asda Baby Carrots, ends trimmed 2 x 175g packs Asda Baby Leeks, trimmed 2 x 170g packs Asda Sugar Snap Peas 6 sprigs mint 100g butter, cut into 6 cubes

Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/Gas 5. Cut six 30cm squares of baking paper and lay them on the work surface. Divide the vegetables into six portions and arrange them on the pieces of paper. Add a sprig of mint and cube of butter to each. Season, then drizzle 1tbsp water on to each. Gather up the parcels up like purses and tie the tops with string. Put on a baking tray and cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Serve one parcel for each person.

If you don't like the lamb recipe above try this

Roast lamb with herby stuffing Serve this tender lamb with your favourite gravy and mint sauce. Serves 6 Ready in 2 hours 30 minutes 1 large or 2 small shallots, finely chopped 1tbsp sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing 25g butter 50g fresh white breadcrumbs Finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon 1tbsp thyme leaves, chopped 1tbsp parsley, chopped 1tbsp mint, chopped 1 whole large leg of lamb, bone in (about 2.2kg) Gravy, mint and roast potatoes, to serve

Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/Gas 5. In a pan, cook the shallot in the oil and butter until soft, but not coloured. Tip into a bowl. Add the breadcrumbs, lemon zest and herbs to make a crumbly stuffing. Season. Grease the base of a large roasting tin. Put the lamb in the tin. Using a sharp knife, make cuts in the lamb, about 1.5cm apart, all the way to the bone. Use a teaspoon to put the stuffing in the cuts. Tie string around the joint in two places to stop the slices from opening. Cover the tin loosely with foil and roast for 1 hour 30 minutes, basting occasionally. Remove the foil and cook for another 30 minutes. Put the meat on a platter, cover loosely with foil and leave in a warm place to rest for 15 minutes before carving. Serve with gravy, mint and roast potatoes.