During lockdown, Paul Green, head chef at 1887, The Torridon’s fine dining restaurant, has been sharing recipes using seasonal produce cultivated in the garden or growing wild on the estate, on the hotel blog.

Wild garlic or ramson is in season now and grows all around us. It makes a delicious pesto, which cuts perfectly through the tenderly cooked lamb in this recipe.

ROASTED LEG OF LAMB WITH WILD GARLIC PESTO
(Serves 4/6)

FOR THE LAMB
1 leg of lamb (about 1- 1.5kg)
A few cloves of garlic 
Rosemary sprigs
A couple of carrots, onions and a bit of celery
½ a bottle of white wine
500 ml stock/water (lamb, chicken or vegetable)

FOR THE RAMSON PESTO
A handful of wild ramsons
Grated Parmesan or other hard cheese
Roasted nuts of your choice such as hazelnuts, pine nuts
A little white wine vinegar
Olive oil
Sea salt

FOR THE GARNISH
Steamed carrots
Chopped potatoes
Buttered spring cabbage

METHOD
Begin by removing the lamb from the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature, about an hour. Preheat your oven to 150c.

Slice a few carrots length-ways, peel and half a few onions and chop roughly the celery – this is called a vegetable trivet and is what we will cook the lamb on.  Make slits all across the lamb leg and insert sprigs of rosemary and some sliced garlic. Drizzle all over with olive oil and season with sea salt.

Place this on top of the vegetables in a deep roasting tray and pour in the stock and wine. Cook for 4. h5ours, every so often basting the lamb with the liquor.

Halfway through cooking, add the chopped potatoes to the tray. They will absorb some of the cooking juices and be a little crispy too.

Once the lamb is tender and flaking, take it off the vegetables and leave to rest on a plate, covered with some foil.

Remove the potatoes.

The combination of the vegetable trivet, stock and meat juices will create a lovely gravy- mash the vegetables, adding a little more water if needed, bring to the boil and pass this through a sieve.

Using a pestle and mortar or a knife, mash the ramson and nuts and add the cheese.

Then add oil and season with salt and the vinegar (there is no set ratio or thickness to the pesto, all personal preference). Serve with the steamed carrots, buttered cabbage and potatoes.