Gigot à la Bordelaise (Braised Leg of Mutton, Bordeaux Style)

Ingredients

• 1 leg of mutton
• large lardons of ham
• veal Fricadelle forcemeat
• good stock
• 750 grammes belly bacon
• 1 kilogramme carrots
• 500 grammes turnips
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 bouquet garni
• Sauce Tomate

Instructions

1. Disarticulate the principal bone from the shank bone and draw it out without opening the leg.
2. Lard the leg along the grain of the meat with large lardons of ham.
3. Fill the cavity left by the bone with very fat veal Fricadelle forcemeat and sew the piece up.
4. Colour the leg in the oven in a narrow braising pan that just contains it.
5. Moisten to the level of the meat with good stock and cook, allowing 40 to 45 minutes to the pound.
6. At two-thirds of the cooking, add the blanched belly bacon, the carrots and turnips cut in quarters, the garlic and the bouquet garni.
7. Dish the leg, surround it with the quartered carrots and turnips, and border these with the bacon cut into rectangles.
8. Strain and reduce part of the cooking liquor, add it to a Sauce Tomate, and serve the sauce separately.