Leg of Lamb

weiland79

Hi guy's.

I have a leg of lamb in the freezer at home and am planning to cook it for Sunday lunch this weekend. I've never cooked one before and was hoping some of you could post up some of your favorite recipes.

Thanks in advance Ian.

Dizzyblonde

I make about 25 slits in the skin of the lamb with a sharp knife and put a sliver of garlic and a small sprig of rosemary into each slit. I cook it at 180 C for 2 hours covered with tinfoil then I remove the foil and let it cook for another half hour - this will be well done, so if you like your less well done take half an hour off the cooking time.

Roast lamb freezes very well. I usually make extra gravy and freeze the sliced leftovers in gravy, then it can be reheated in the oven and it tastes just as good as it did on the day you cooked it.

lucylu

+ 1 with DizzyBlondes comments
If you dont already have one, get your hands on a meat Thermometer. they are only a couple of euro.

Stick it into the thickest part of the meat and it will tell you if it is cooked enough. Sometimes its hard to judge if meat on the bone is cooked through.

chiefbrody1974

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

I make about 25 slits in the skin of the lamb with a sharp knife and put a sliver of garlic and a small sprig of rosemary into each slit. I cook it at 180 C for 2 hours covered with tinfoil then I remove the foil and let it cook for another half hour - this will be well done, so if you like your less well done take half an hour off the cooking time.

Roast lamb freezes very well. I usually make extra gravy and freeze the sliced leftovers in gravy, then it can be reheated in the oven and it tastes just as good as it did on the day you cooked it.

ahhhhhhh ya beat me to axactly that receipe. I love lamb, I was in Dingle and ate it 3 nights in a row. OP, this is an ideal way to cook the lamb to perfection. slice up some sweet potatoe wedges, put them a tray, cover in olive oil and then paprika, stick them in the oven 20-25 minutes and take out with your lamb, lovely jubly and very healthy.

Seaneh

weiland79 wrote: »

Hi guy's.

I have a leg of lamb in the freezer at home and am planning to cook it for Sunday lunch this weekend. I've never cooked one before and was hoping some of you could post up some of your favorite recipes.

Thanks in advance Ian.

Tip number one.
Get it out of the freezer and into the fridge tonight. It will take a while to be fully defrosted and I wouldn't bet on it being done in one over night session.

nompere

I'm cooking a leg of lamb this Sunday as well.

This is the recipe I'm following. It's in a book I have by Madhur Jaffrey. The poor book is stained everywhere and falling apart at this stage.

http://www.massrecipes.com/recipes/03/03/raanmasaledarwholelegofla237796.html

Minder

Leg of lamb - so many possibilities. Poke full of holes and stuff little bits of flavour in to boost the deliciousness factor. The other possibility is to tunnel bone the leg, that is removing the thigh bone without slicing through the meat. It's a fiddly job but worth the effort if you don't mind getting stuck in. All you need is a small sharp paring knife and some patience. Working the knife around the knuckle is the hardest part, but a few nicks around the joint and it will start to come apart.



Once the bone is removed, there is a pocket left to stuff with all manner of goodies. So how to cook the lamb and what to have for stuffing?

Mash garlic, anchovies, thyme and butter together and poke into incisions all over the leg. Roast, rest and make a gravy of the juices. Add vermouth and reduce, add cream and season. Serve

Same as above but with cider and no anchovy. Mash garlic, thyme and butter together and poke into incisions all over the leg. Roast, rest and make a gravy of the juices. Add cider and reduce, add cream and season. Serve.

The other day I made a roast leg of lamb on the bars of the oven shelf. Under the roast was a tray of sliced potatoes - seasoned. As the meat roasts, the juices fall on the potatoes. Result is delicious roast lamb and a tray of soft cooked potato with a large crust of lamb flavoured crispy bits.

Mechoui lamb. Moroccon spice blend. Mix equal quantities of smoked paprika, cumin (powder) and salt. For a roast leg of lamb add the spice mixture to garlic butter and poke into incisions all over the lamb.

Herb crusts - breadcrumbs and hard herbs like thyme or rosemary. Blitz the herbs in the pot attachment of a stick blender and add to breadcrumbs and mix. Cover a partly cooked roast leg with about 30 minutes to go. This will give enough time for the breadcrumbs to crisp up, but not too long so they burn. Adding ginger or citrus rinds to the breadcrumbs is another winner.

To stuff a tunnelboned leg of lamb, flavoured breadcrumbs are an obvious choice. Use other fillers to carry flavour such as cooked rice, cous cous or quinoa. Fry an onion until soft and add to cooked rice with spices - tumeric, cinnamon, cumin. Then add pinenuts and dried fruits such as dates, apricots, cherries or cranberries. Whatever stuffing you choose, the filling will sit in the cavity left by the bone - a couple of wooden skewers will secure the stuffing.

The open roast is probably the favoured way to cook a leg of lamb. For a change try wrapping the leg in parchment or greaseproof paper. Season the leg with your choice of flavours then wrap in a double layer of paper and bind with twine. Lamb cooked this way needs to be low and slow. So try two and a half hours at 150c. The paper needs to be wrapped in such a way that the juices don't escape.

weiland79

Wow Minder some great ideas there thanks a mil but i fear i may be a little under prepared between now and tomorrow. But i'll keep them in mind for the next time.

d4v1d

nompere wrote: »

I'm cooking a leg of lamb this Sunday as well.

This is the recipe I'm following. It's in a book I have by Madhur Jaffrey. The poor book is stained everywhere and falling apart at this stage.

http://www.massrecipes.com/recipes/03/03/raanmasaledarwholelegofla237796.html

i've cooked various versions of this type of recipe before. it really is a fantastic method. i'd normally add about double the cardamon seeds as in the recipe, it think they really add a lot more to the flavour.

when cooking the lamb a good idea is to put a small bit of water in the roasting tray to stop it drying out and cover it completely with tin-foil for the most of the time it's covering.

lamb works very well on a slow roast, about (2kg) 3hrs at 180C and then up the temp to about 240C for the last 20 minutes, remove the tin foil and brown it off. some people like it pink in the middle but i much prefer it soft and falling off the bone.

i'd say to anyone to be adventerous and try the indian flavours as they're really, really good.

weiland79

Thread fail!!!

I woke up this morning and my partner being the helpful soul she is had plonked the leg of lamb in the oven without any sort of seasoning or preparation. I was not a happy camper.
Anyway not to worry i will be trying out the differenbt suggestions at a later date. Some of the Indian recipes sound especially nice.
Thanks again.

The Hill Billy

I feel your pain.

Crazy Taxi

weiland79 wrote: »

Thread fail!!!

I woke up this morning and my partner being the helpful soul she is had plonked the leg of lamb in the oven without any sort of seasoning or preparation. I was not a happy camper.
Anyway not to worry i will be trying out the differenbt suggestions at a later date. Some of the Indian recipes sound especially nice.
Thanks again.

What's the saying? "Women cook, Men create"

the beer revolu

weiland79 wrote: »

Thread fail!!!

I woke up this morning and my partner being the helpful soul she is had plonked the leg of lamb in the oven without any sort of seasoning or preparation. I was not a happy camper.
Anyway not to worry i will be trying out the differenbt suggestions at a later date. Some of the Indian recipes sound especially nice.
Thanks again.

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Sgt Hartman

weiland79 wrote: »

Thread fail!!!

I woke up this morning and my partner being the helpful soul she is had plonked the leg of lamb in the oven without any sort of seasoning or preparation. I was not a happy camper.
Anyway not to worry i will be trying out the differenbt suggestions at a later date. Some of the Indian recipes sound especially nice.
Thanks again.

AAAGH! That would be enough to ruin my day:eek:

Great suggestions there Minder. My favourite way to prepare a leg of lamb is to prepare a paste using Karahi Gosht Masala mix (available in most Indian foods shops), garlic, ginger, coconut cream and groundnut oil. I'd make several incisions and work the paste into every nook and cranny of the lamb leg.
I would then cook it very slowly covered in tin foil in a tray containing plenty of water at 140 degrees for 3 and a half hours. The meat just falls off the bone and it's very juicy.
I would them fry up some mustard seeds, onion, garlic, ginger, mushrooms, tomatoes, red chillies and peppers in some ghee with some more of the Karahi gosht blend. I'd then add some of the juices of the roasting tin into the veggy mix and simmer with the lid off until the veg is cooked.
Once cooked I'd stir in a nice big dollop of natural yogurt, some chopped fenugreek leaves and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Carve the lamb into nice chunks, ladle over a big helping of the veggy curry and serve with home-made coconut and turmeric chapattis, yum:)

Bits_n_Bobs

Lots of lovely recipes - but I only tend towards Indian recipes on things like knuckles or shins of lamb not leg?

Love leg too much to be letting spices mess with it personally. Keep it simple with the garlic and rosemary as already mentioned, crispy roast spuds and creamed leeks, buried under proper home made gravy; heaven. Had it two weekends ago on the basis that it was no longer summer and thus ok to be slapping together a roast...only good thing about the summer ending

I definitely feel your pain with the missus beating you to cooking it! Damn wives getting in the way of manly cooking! Whats worse reading this thread I remembered my bloody brother in law has my Madhur Jaffrey cookbook, no chance of getting it back off him I fear....

The Hill Billy

Minder wrote: »

...The other day I made a roast leg of lamb on the bars of the oven shelf. Under the roast was a tray of sliced potatoes - seasoned. As the meat roasts, the juices fall on the potatoes. Result is delicious roast lamb and a tray of soft cooked potato with a large crust of lamb flavoured crispy bits...

'Crying Lamb' as I've heard it called, as it weeps fat over the spuds & veg. Beautiful!

nompere

Bits_n_Bobs wrote: »

I remembered my bloody brother in law has my Madhur Jaffrey cookbook, no chance of getting it back off him I fear....

She's just written a new one - "Curry Easy" - which is on its way to me via Amazon. Apparently she has simplified many of her techniques, and is using the oven much more than previously. The aim is meals in 30 to 45 minutes.

The leg of lamb went down a treat - particularly with two lamb-avoiding young ladies, both of whom had seconds. Result!!

Don't use it for your ferociously expensive spring lamb, but as it gets a little older ...