Roast Lamb with Juniper Berries

As we approach winter, I start doing more and more cooking in the slow cooker. It has the dual benefits of cooking awesome, rich, filling meals that also make the house smell awesome, whilst being ridiculously easy to make beautiful tasting meals using cheaper ingredients. Here's what we had Saturday, which was awesome to come home to after playing a game of soccer in the rain.

First get a good hunk of lamb - in this case a leg with the bone in. I meant to get shanks but unfortunately they were out. Pop it in the pot and put it to one side. In the pan cook up whatever you want the sauce to be made out of. In this case it had juniper berries and orange peel as the main flavours, with merlot, onion chunks and crushed tomatoes to flesh it out. A bit of flour went in as well to thicken it. Then pour it over the lamb and cook it for 7 or so hours on High.

Here's what the lamb is like when you take it out. Note that it was so soft it literally fell apart as I took it out - it was so juicy and soft that you could have used a butter knife to carve it. Put the sauce back in a pan and boil it for 5-10 minutes to thicken it a little to make it your desired consistency.

Serve with mashed potato with the sauce over the top, and then settle in for a hot, tasty and above all else filling winter meal. Serve with the rest of the wine, assuming any is left.