Lamb with orange roasted chantenay carrots

I just love those small chantenay carrots that are around this time of year and am definitely going to grow them on the allotment next year.

This evening we had slow roasted shoulder of lamb and minted crushed peas; both of which I've blogged about before.  There were, of course, the obligatory roast potatoes.  With these I served some orange roasted chantenay carrots.

The carrots were lightly topped and tailed.  I actually didn't bother with the really tiny ones, to be honest.  Washed, patted dry and then into a small roasting dish which had been heated up in a hot oven with a little vegetable oil in the bottom.  The carrots were stirred around until coated with the hot oil and then I sprinkled over the zest of an orange and a little salt.

Cooked for only about 10/15 minutes as they are so small and then I squeezed over the juice of half the orange just prior to serving.  The carrots were sweet and fresh from the zest and the warmed orange juice leached into the gravy and gave it a lovely citrus note to help cut through the fatty lamb.

I sometimes do lamb shanks slow cooked in a liquor to which has been added orange and lemon zest and juice.  This reminded me of that and worked really well.