
Buying lamb at my local grocery store is a hit or miss activity, and I think they only sell it in weeks leading up to Easter. Once when I was determined to serve grilled chops for dinner, I went to five different stores in three different towns before giving up.
Over the weekend, I discovered they were selling boneless leg of lamb. I've made lamb stew and roasted lamb chops, but never a leg. I prefer not to think about body parts when I cook meat, and with beef or pork, it's not an issue. We don't cook leg of calf or boneless pig leg.
Anyway, I went to work looking for recipes for cooking this thing that looks like a roast, and I combined two to come up with this:
1/4 large onion roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tablespoon fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of cinnamon
1/4 cup olive oil
juice of half a lemon
Boneless leg of lamb—2 to 3 pounds
In the bowl of a food processor, combine all the ingredients except oil and juice. Pulse into a paste. Add oil and juice and pulse until thoroughly combined.
Preheat oven to 450Ëš. Place roast in a shallow roasting pan and coat with seasoning mixture. Roast for 30 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 375Ëš and roast an additional 30 minutes or until roast reaches an internal temperature of 140Ëš for medium. Allow roast to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before carving.
To make this an entire meal, I added halved new potatoes to the roasting pan when I turned down the oven temperature. And I broiled asparagus spears coated with olive oil for 5 minutes while the meat was resting. Enjoy!
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p.s. I officially changed my account name to the one you gave me.
Robyn, you really should move to a civilised country where organic food is not stifled by the insane greed of the agrichemical lobbyists.
I'm gonna walk into the village at lunchtime and get myself lambed-up.
http://smallglassplanet.blogspot.com/2009/09/whats-cooking-with-phil-and-er-dive.html
;^D