Holiday Cooking: Leg of Lamb for Thanksgiving

Hap­py Thanks­giv­ing everyone!For our fam­i­ly feast, I’m roast­ing bone­less leg of lamb. (There will be the tra­di­tion­al turkey.)

I took it out of the freez­er last night — rock sol­id. I left it on the kitchen sink and by the morn­ing the lamb was thawed. I plan on roast­ing it at 325 degrees for around 2 hours; to be spe­cif­ic, it’s done when the meat ther­mome­ter reg­is­ters 120 degrees (that’s rare meat).

I cut off the wrap­per but left the stretchy string that holds the meat togeth­er so the roast holds its shape. I crushed an entire head of gar­lic with around 20 cloves. I insert­ed gar­lic through the stretchy string into the inside parts of the roast. I rubbed some salt on the roast — not too much because salt is dry­ing. Then I rubbed black pep­per as well. I cut some fresh rose­mary sprigs and rubbed the meat with rose­mary. I scrunched this rose­mary and insert­ed inside the meat. I placed the roast on a roast­ing pan.

The string will be cut and dis­card­ed. The rose­mary sprig will also be dis­card­ed; but I have fresh ones to use as dec­o­ra­tion around the serv­ing plat­ter. The meat will be cut and served with mint jel­ly and all the oth­er Thanks­giv­ing trim­mings: mashed pota­toes, gravy, etc.

The gar­lic tones down the gamey qual­i­ty of lamb, and so does the sweet mint jel­ly. The rose­mary also cuts the gami­ness and throws off a love­ly scent.

Once the meat is removed from the enam­el pan, I will use the pan drip­pings for the gravy. But first, if the drip­pings are very fat­ty, I will pour off the excess fat, being care­ful not to pour away the brown drip­pings, which is the good stuff. I will place the pan over low heat, pour in Shi­rah or what­ev­er red wine is around — around a cup? — and then I will mix some Mochiko rice flour in a cup of water, stir until mixed. I will pour this mix­ture into the drip­pings with wine, and stir, scrape, until the gravy thick­ens. If need­ed I’ll add salt and pep­per to the gravy.

One can include with the roast­ing meat, some pota­toes so that the whole thing roasts togeth­er — the meat and pan-fried potatoes.

Lamb meat is dark with a rich, heavy fla­vor which goes well with red wine.

Bon A Petit! And by the way, it’s 80 degrees warm in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia this Thanks­giv­ing Day.

from Chef Cecil­ia

Tags: food, lamb, roast, hol­i­days, fam­i­ly, cook­ing, #hol­i­day­cook­ing

This is reprint­ed from my oth­er blog:

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2014/11/roast-leg-of-lamb-for-thanksgiving.html?fbclid=IwAR1ze58t1Ut4Ui0yX03djaW7BKrX3JT2-VmmU0mwlXp1LgVrsSakCugM478