Sheep have had a long history as part of the culinary delights of the world, whether you think of the ubiquitous roast mutton that permeates British culture, or the sheep that were in the manger with Joseph and Mary when the Christian Messiah was born, sheep have been with us a long time. The most popular of sheep based dishes, the roast leg of lamb, rich, savory, and all too often served with mint. It’s hard to go wrong with a good roast leg of lamb. Pic above from wallart.

  For thousands of years people enjoy roasted lamb from the open fire spit.

History of roasted leg of lamb.

When we say sheep have been with us for a long time, we mean a really long time. The origin of the domesticated sheep goes back to 11,000 BC in Mesopotamia, and share the distinction of being one of the first animals domesticated by mankind. These sheep were known as mouflon, and weren’t quite the woolly sheep we know today. They were raised just for their meat, milk, and skin for parchment and vellum.

  This is how people like their lamb nowadays. The roasted leg on a bed of roasted vegetables.

In fact, the wool that we so often think of sheep for today wasn’t an important part of their use until 6000 BC in Iran.
What roast leg of lamb reminds us of, is that when we indulge in this wonderful dish, we’re sharing a meal that our ancestors have shared for thousands of years. Mutton and sheep’s milk have a staple protein since we first transitioned from hunting and gathering to an agricultural lifestyle.

  Roughly described parts of the „whole leg of lamb“. The shank is often served separate in restaurants. The shank with the leg is mostly sold by butchers. The chump has the most meat and is mostly sold separate. In Uruguay I by the „whole leg of lamb“, ideal is a weight around 2-2 1/2 kilo’s. Legs around 4kg and more are not lamb’s anymore. Better to buy 2 smaller ones then 1 heavy old mutton.

Now mutton is a much-loved meat, an important staple in cultures all over the world, while their wool is vital to many an economy. So a roast leg of lamb honor this noble animal and its contribution to the human culture!

This is a delicious „whole leg of lamb“. Shank, leg and chump are roasted as one piece. Soft-pink and still juicy. Enjoy pic after clicking on to supersize.

Easy way to roast a leg of lamb.

How best to honor it than by indulging in a delicious dish of Roast Leg of Lamb. If you’ve never made a roast leg of lamb, it’s remarkably simple. Simply place it in a roasting pan and rub it down with olive oil, then give it a solid dusting of salt and pepper. Broil it in the oven for 5 minutes, about 220C (450F), flip it over and broil it again, and then apply a healthy measure of rosemary and garlic. Cover it with aluminum foil, and roast it for one hour at 180-190 C (350-375 F). Don’t forget to give it about 10 minutes to rest. Voila, you now have a magnificent roasted leg of lamb, and you and your family can rejoice!

Or, do it on your BBQ.

        This is/was my usual way to roast lamb. On an open BBQ fire, with or without garlic and rosemary. Here the leg and shank without the chump.

My Roast Leg of Lamb – slow cooked.

Since we lived so many years in Australia, my Mecca of lamb dishes, I learned several ways of celebrating lamb. All kinds of cooking method’s with all kinds of lamb cuts. The Aussie’s love their „Barbie“ and therefore most lamb will be cooked over open fire. Sadly most of the time open fires, even BBQ’s etc. are not aloud by law, because of the fire danger. Solution is to find ways roasting lamb „inside“. That’s my way:

  Leg of lamb and the ingredients.

Ingredients.

1 leg of lamb approx. 2 kg (on the bone, with or without shank)
Spices for marinade:
2 teaspoons chilli powder (I have self made green/red mix, medium hot)
½ teaspoon cardamom seeds without shell
½ teaspoon clover seed
½ small cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1 tablespoon of cumin seeds

  Mixing ingredients together.

3 cloves
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 nutmeg, grated
1 tablespoon paprika powder sweet
1 tablespoon coarse river Salt or another Fleur de Sal ( I used Himalayan)
40 gram of fresh grated ginger
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
40 gram of fresh chopped coriander green
Juice of two lemons
110 ml peanut oil (I had no peanut oil available this time, so I used extra virgin olive oil and a few drops of sesame oil – careful sesame oil is very strong)

  I remove most of the fat, because the marinade has enough oil and juice. I’s different if you roast on the BBQ, there is the layer of fat desirable.

for later douse:
10ml olive oil
200 ml of water or 50:50 water:red wine

How to do.

First, heat the spices (not the powders, not fresh ingredients) for the marinade in a pan without oil for 2-3 minutes until they start smelling (wonderful).
Put it in a mortar and let it cool. Grind it to a fine consistence.
Then warm the nutmeg, paprika powder (do not let it get too hot, since paprika powder otherwise gets bitter) and combine with the salt.

Inside a bag and in the fridge overnight.

Combine with all other ingredients, except the meat and the water/wine, in a bowl.
Cut the meat several times (about 1.5 cm deep) and massage the marinade deep  into the flesh with your hands.
Then wrap it in foil or vacuum the meat (I pop  it in a double bag) and leave it in the refrigerator overnight.

     After the first hour the shank was ready and now the pan will be filled up with some sprigs of rosemary and the water/wine mixture.

Preheat the oven to 160 C (325 F) and cook the meat in an oven for half an hour.
Then cover and bake for another 60 minutes.
Douse the water/wine mixture and cover again.
Roast for another two hours and pour over from time to time with wine/water gravy and ensure that the liquid level is always about one centimeter high. Then remove from the oven and let the meat rest at least 10 to 15 minutes, then cut and serve.

  Almost ready, now we let the lamb rest, that all the juices remain inside the flesh. It doesn’t look as brown as normal broiling, but here you can see how the marinade is roasted on top of the meat.

Tips.

One might think, that’s along cooking time for lamb – yes it is – but it is low temperature and a slow cooking method. Its worthwhile, you’ll see.
If you want to have the lamb very cross baked ( which is hard with the above marinade system) then leave the meat without a lid the last 15 minutes and with 200 C (400F).
But that is really not this recipe.

  Very brown, delicious, but inside much dryer.

The last hour, when I poor the juice over the meat (every 10 to 15 minutes), I control the softness of the meat very strong.
It should be fall of the bone and it should be very soft !
YES !!!
But don’t overcook it.

  Very nice decorated with mouthwatering side dishes. That’s how to serve it to your guests. From the leg shown before, served with a yogurt sauce. Both pics shawarma.

The mentioned times here are average.
Every piece of meat has a different amount of flesh and a different thickness of bones.
Best is, if you cut the thin part of the leg, or test the shank, as I did here, and if this is ready then you have another 60 minutes for the large piece. In case you’ll use a meat thermometer, it should reach 75 C (150 F) in the thickest part of the meat.

   This same recipe you can use with a lamb shoulder. It’s much less meat then a leg, but as delicious as a leg and enough for 2 people. Here in Uruguay even cheaper then a leg. Urugayan price, at the moment, for a kilo of lamb-leg is around 260,–pesos = US$ 9,– = 8,30 euro.  Not bad !

A fine complement to any lamb dish is a dip made of yogurt (3.5%), olive oil, lemon juice, coriander green, parsley, dill and tarragon.
Stir and season with salt and pepper.

Side dishes can be almost anything, try a variation of veggies as seen above.
This time we used potatoes, carrot and pea veggie mix, and the sauce of all the juices and marinade.

  Beautiful juicy and flavorful meat falling off the bone.  The sauce is just the sauce out the pan sent trough a sieve.

  Deicas Atlantico Sur 2005.

The wine we enjoyed this time was the „Atlantico Sur“ 2005, from the Deicas family. This excellent wine comes of a single vineyard at Sierra de Mahome, San Jose, Uruguay. The grape is a Cabernet Franc, full body and a great taste, soft with only 12,5 % alcohol. Just 1627 bottles were filled in 2005. Now try it yourself and enjoy – it’s soooo easy !