Green Peppercorns and Mint Lamb Roast with a 2001 Nederberg Pinotage

Listen All of Y'all it's a Pinotage
Listen All of Y'all it's a Pinotage

Jeanne of Cook sister, has been horse whispering and lured me away from local wine and into trying a South African one - she's right, think hemispherically. Check out Henley Wine Fair and realise why I'm more than happy to humbly take her advice. Always on the lookout for something new, a Pinotage (Hermitage and Pinot Noir) captured my interest.

To do it justice, I got a leg of lamb from the freezer. My Dad's gone soft and become less of a mutton purist in his old age, Pah! Still, with him and a good friend up in Muntadgin - a steady supply of meat has been assured. Fear that lamb may become a specialist meat in the future, they're hard work, the shearers aren't there, there are other ways of restoring the soil (ploughing crops in) so more and more farmers are getting out of sheep.

Leg was done in a new marinade inspied by the simple but trusty "Best Backyard BBQ Cookbook". The recipe called for a butterfly, but I was feeling proper Sunday Roasty. Cleaned up the fat and skin- cross scored it and coverered it with the marinade for one hour.

Marinade
2tbs Jingilli olive oil, 1tbs of green peppercorns - crushed, 3 cloves of garlic- minced, 2tbs of fresh mint mashed together in a mortar.

Veges
Three tubers of Jerusalem Artichoke, Sweet Potato, and Royal Blue Potatoes. All parboiled and roasted, with the late addition of some Broccolini splashed with olive oil.

Eating and Drinking
Loved the roast - served with a simple red wine jus. JA's could have been more thinly sliced. Broccolini florets dry out very quickly. I often double cook the roast, just cooking the outside half and finishing the inside for later in the oven. I don't know if there's anything wrong with this - it means I get the right balance of doneness. Then again, it does scream too fast cooking and potential food poisoning.

The wine was very pleasant. It was much softer than I'd been warned and liked the non-jamminess...erm self-conscious alert. I'll stop there and will promise to look West more often for my wines (as you Easterners should).

No pics I'm afraid- camera ate my memory card.