Roast Leg of Lamb

Roast Leg of Lamb: very possibly one of my favorite dishes to make.  It's juicy, tender, and packs a fantastic natural flavor if prepared properly.  When shopping at Whole Foods Saturday, I found a great deal on leg of lamb: $7.99 a lb, deboned! Boy, was I happy.  I haven't had lamb in about...a year.  And I was ready to revisit with one of my favorite dishes.

The key to cooking lamb (whether leg of lamb, lamb rack, etc.) is that you DO NOT over-cook it.  Over-cooked lamb tastes completely different when done wrong--it's dry...tough...and just depressing.  So, in order to prevent overcooking this dish, make sure to marinade it with juicy ingredients the night before (white wine and orange juice for example).  Then, make sure to cook the lamb at the right temperature--roasts start off particularly high (450F), but then cook slowly at about 300F for 10-12 minutes per pound depending on the size of the roast.  A good rule of thumb is that the thicker the roast, the longer it may need to cook.  You can check the level of wellness by making a small incision to see the pinkness of the meat, or by using a meat thermometer (130-135F equals Medium-Rare).

Roast Leg of Lamb
This recipe comes from Elise Bauer over at Clearly Delicious and can be found here.  Elise prepares a six pound roast in her original recipe, but this recipe calls for the same quantity of marinade for a two pound roast.   Depending on your interest in flavoring, you can adjust the marinade accordingly.

INGREDIENTS

* 1/2 cup orange juice
* 1 cup white wine
* 3 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 teaspoons of fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon of dried thyme
* 2 Tbsp of fresh chopped rosemary or 1 Tbsp of dried rosemary
* 1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper
* 2 Tbsp olive oil

* Salt to taste

* 2 lb Leg of Lamb, boneless

1.) Prepare marinade and roast day before you wish to cook it: combine orange juice, white wine, garlic, thyme, rosemary, pepper, olive oil, and salt.  Elise suggests combining the mixture using a blender, but I found a whisk and some elbow grease to work just fine.

2.) Add roast to marinade.

3.) Cover, and refrigerate (preferably overnight).

4.) Preheat oven to 450F.  Place marinaded roast on a roast wrack.

5.) Cook for 20 minutes at 425F and decrease temperature to 300F.  Cook for an additional 10-12 minutes per pound (in this case: 20-24 minutes for a two pound roast).  Check to see the level of pinkness on the inside (you definitely want some pink meat) and check the temperature.  130-135F equals medium rare.

6.) Allow to sit for 10 minutes before carving.  Serve when Clearly Delicious and with a basic gravy, or mint jelly (Elise's suggestion!).

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