Roast Lamb (Ψητό-αρνί)
Apr 11th, 2010 | By Peter Minakis | Category: Easter, Featured, Greek Food, Greek Traditions, Greek Wine, Herbs, Lamb, Lemon, Main, Potato, Recipes, Roasting
It’s already a week since last week’s Greek Easter Sunday and would do it all over again just to delight into this centerpiece dish of roasted leg of lamb. Greeks enjoy their meats more on the cooked side. It doesn’t necessarily mean charred to a crisp but it certainly is nowhere near anything resembling pink.
That being said, this recipe of roast leg of lamb will please both camps…those that like moist, pink lamb meat and the Greeks who like it well done. Again, no pink meat here but this roasting method will give you consistently moist, tender, fall-off-the bone lamb meat that’s aromatic from the herbs, the slivers of garlic that stud the meat will melt and flavour the meat even more.
Some coarse sea salt and fresh ground pepper are the linch-pins to this winning dish and if you follow this method, your family will ask for leg of lamb every Sunday! Unctuous, juicy meat, the lamb’s fat has rendered and what’s left is a tender, flavourful leg of lamb that will conquer the lamb skeptics.
The other important factor in successfully cooking a leg of lamb is sourcing it. Here in Ontario, we’re lucky/fortunate to have a local product – Ontario lamb. Oh yeah, the New Zealand is available but our family loves Ontario lamb. Once again, we bought our lamb from Kostas Meat Market.
The other reason why this leg of lamb is flavourful and moist is because the meat is on the bone. I don’t think this method will work with a boneless leg. It would however, work with a bone-in lamb shoulder…not as pretty as the leg but just as delicious. Love ‘dem bones.
Finally, roast lamb demands a Greek-style roast poatoes and in this cooking segment, we even capitalize on the valuable and delish drippings that the lamb has gifted us. I strain and discard the leftover juices and then pour them into a gravy separator. Pour your separated juices back into the pan with your potatoes and add juuust the amount of fat you like into the mix. Roast the potatoes and your lamb will be resting, still warm when you carve it and the perfect marriage of roast leg of of lamb is yours for the taking.
Roast Lamb (Ψητό αÏνί)
(serves 6)
1 bone-in leg of lamb (6 to 8 lbs.)
1 whole bulb of garlic, cut into slivers
1 Tbsp. fresh oregano (1/2 if dried)
3 Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary
3 Tbsp. chopped fresh thyme
1/2Â cup olive oil + 1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp. of Dijon mustard
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 heaping tsp. of sweet paprika
2 tsp. of fresh ground black pepper
coarse sea salt
water for the drip pan
Pre-heated 450F oven
Roast potatoes
Approx 16 large Yukon Gold or Russet potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
strained juices and drippings from the roast lamb
juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon (according to taste)
salt and pepper to taste
- Smash the bulb of garlic, peel and discard the skins and cut the cloves of garlic into slivers. With a sharp knife, insert into your leg of lamb and gently shift the knife to make a small opening. Slip the sliver of garlic into the hole and remove the knife from the meat. Repeat this step all over the area until nearly (or all the slivers) of garlic have been inserted into the meat. Add any leftover slivers of garlic to your marinade.
- In a bowl, add any leftover garlic, your olive and vegetable oil, mustard, zest and lemon juice, oregano, rosemary, thyme, sweet paprika, black pepper and a couple of tsp. of coarse sea salt. Mix well and taste and adjust seasoning (you might like your marinade more tangy). Place your lamb in a large plastic bag or on a pan and pour the marinade over it. Rub the marinade all over the meat. Seal the bag or cover the meat and place in your fridge overnight.
- The next day, remove your lamb from the fridge and place in on your baking tray that’s lined with a rack (the lamb must be elevated from the pan bottom). Use a couple of carrots and stalks of celery to make your own rack and place the lamb on top of them. Cover the top of the lamb with some of the marinade and discard the rest. Season your lamb very well with coarse sea salt and some fresh ground black pepper. Pour enough hot water in to the pan to cover the whole bottom (remember, your lamb MUST be elevated/not come in contact with the water).
- Cover your lamb with foil and seal. Place the lamb in your pre-heated overn (middle rack) for 2 hours. After an hour, you may want to check to see if more water needs to be added. After two hours, check to see if the shank bone has any resistance when gently pulling it. If it’s still stiff, cover again and place in the oven for another half hour.
- Lower your heat to 350F, remove the aluminum foil and place your lamb back in the oven and roast until the leg of lamb takes on a deep brown colour. Remove from the oven, transfer from the rack to a platter and cover with the foil and allow to rest.
- In the meantime, crank your oven’s heat back up to 450F. Pour the lamb juices and drippings into a gravy separator and skim/remove as much fat as needed and strain and pour back into the roasting pan. Add your potato wedges back into the roasting pan along with some lemon juice and toss to coat. Taste and adjust seasoning…salt and pepper to taste.
- Place your potatoes into your pre-heated oven and roast for about 45 minutes or until they get just crisp and golden. Remove from the oven and serve with your roasted leg of lamb.
- Garnish with some of the fresh herbs used for the marinade and some roasted garlic and grilled lemons. Encourage your guests to squeeze some grilled lemon juice on their lamb and smear some buttery roasted garlic.
- Serve with a fabulous Greek red wine. Our family enjoyed the Skouras St. George (Agiogiorghitiko) from Nemea.
If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.
© 2007-2010 Peter Minakis
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© 2010, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kalofagas Greek Food and Kalofagas Greek Food, Patricia Dudek. Patricia Dudek said: RT @kalofagas: http://bit.ly/aINlpu Although Easter is now behind us, you can still recreate this luscious roast leg of lamb recipe [...]
I am wondering the sanity of my visiting your blog at this very moment Peter…now I am really hungry and need to go to the market after eyeballing this dish for a few moments.
i have to say that my favorite leg of lamb recipe is nz lamb – greek lamb has a different taste, it is reared differently, and it isn’t suitable for cooking in the same way as that chunky juicy leg of lamb in your photo
the best way to enjoy cretan lamb is in a wood-fired oven (xilofourno) – with potatoes melting all around it!
Perfect! I have a leg of lamb that I’ll be roasting soon, and I’ve been trying to decide how to do it!
Mmmmmmmm Canadian lamb, eh!
Peter — I’d be happy to have Easter dinner all over again with that lamb too.
Yum, this looks good!!!!
You don’t have to convince me of how good this is Peter. I do love the technique you used for the potatoes though. Need to get myself a fat separator!
That’s a beautiful thing. Lately I’ve been doing boneless leg of lamb on the grill; I’ll try it with these seasonings.
There are very things as satisfying as a roast leg of lamb in the oven……We also like our lamb more on the cooked side, so a roast leg can be in the oven for up to 4 hours in my house!This is indeed a centre piece of note!
That’s the way to do it, Peter!
peter, even as i sit and look out into the fields littered with adorable lambs, i can’t deny being appetized by this. talk about an internal conflict! :)
I find myself wanting a piece of lamb and potatoes for breakfast looking at these pictures, with all the garlic slivers that I will retrieve one by one, yes!
That is one fabulous looking (and huge) hunk of lamb! If I invited my whole family and all my neighbors over, I still don’t think we could finish it off! It would sure be great to try, though!
We so want to have a big grilled lamb dinner this summer & this recipe sounds perfect. We’ve even found some local lamb.
Man, a feast so good it has to be repeated the next week?? Very decadent – and I’m very jealous! :)
I can’t say that I am a fan of lamb but after reading that the Greeks like it more on the cooked side and not pink, I think I would love to give this version a try. There is just something about that pink lamb flavor that puts me off, but this leg looks gorgeous and cooked to perfection. Love the slightly charred top as well.
The lamb looks great Peter, but it is the potatoes that are making me drool this time!!!
Your lamb looks perfect! This is how I like it roasted!!!
Ahhh this looks so delicious my mouth is watering….yummmmmmm….
What temperature do you use to START the lamb? The recipe says that after 2 hours you lower the temp to 350, but it doesn’t say what it’s lowered FROM! I long to make this lamb because I think it will taste like the lamb my yaya and papu made. I’ve never been able to duplicate it.
Thanks for providing these wonderful recipes.
Valerie, take another look…pre-heated 450F oven…right below ‘water for pan’.
Oh, yes, indeed-y. Dem bones are the best!
Yes please I’ll have some of your lovely lamb and a big bowl of those potatoes too!!!
You would have thought that I’d be sick of lamb after a week of eating it every day (a whole lamb between 4 goes a looong way!) but your post has made me crave it again. Thanks Peter, I think.
:)
This looks delicious Peter! A lovely way to cook lamb and easy too.
no pink in your lamb, eh? Well, lamb is the only meat where I like it a bit pink and tender. And, the charred look is not something that I would typically go for, but since YOU’RE cooking it, I’ll take it any day! :)
Dear Peter the last few days I spend time to your site… I wrote down some of your recipes and already I made KOURABIEDES…. yumieeee recipe and thank you…. but the most enjoyfully time that I had was by read the commets and your answers to some of them… I wish you from my heart a HAPPY NEW YEAR.. and thank you for the smile that you put in my face…
ps.. GREAT SITE and fantastic pictures… Bravo sou….
Geia sou Vicki and Xponia Polla, hgeia in 2012! Delighted to hear the Kourabiedes recipe were well received and I hope you try some more dishes soon. Peter