My sweetie is half Greek. Lamb is a major consideration in my life these days. This recipe was initially found on the web, then modified some, then made again after the original was lost so I had to remember the marinade sort of and modify more.

This is really yummy, very easy, and incredibly reliable. If you've never cooked a roast you should be able to do this.

We cooked our lamb directly on the oven rack, with a pan under it on a lower rack to catch the drippings. This method will create a natural convection of heat in your oven. Your lamb will take a much shorter time to cook than usual, and it will be deliciously tender. Yes, you have to clean off the oven rack. It's not that bad, especially if you use olive oil on that spot of the rack before cooking. Do this, I note, before you preheat the oven with the rack in place. Saves burning your fingers.

If you insist on cooking your lamb in a pan, even if it's on a rack, start the oven at 450 degrees F and reduce it to 325. But be brave! Go Panless!

1. The Lamb Leg
   Buy a lamb leg. The first time we had a leg that was probably 4 lbs, boneless. The second time it was a 3 lb sirloin half, bone in. I boned it. Meat cooks faster without the bone, apparently, and it certainly carves more easily. If you bone the leg, save the bone to make soup with.
   
   
2. The Marinade
   Find a container with a cover, preferably tupperware or similar, that will hold your lamb leg easily, with room to move it around and turn it over and all that.

   Next... make the marinade in that container. Just drop the ingredients into the container as you measure them.

   • 2 generous tablespoons rough-textured prepared brown mustard. Not the smooth stuff. Definitely not the yellow stuff.
   • 1/4 of a fresh lime. You could probably use 1/2. Or half a lemon.
   • 1/2 cup red or rose wine vinegar.
   • 1/3 cup olive oil. The yellow second pressing kind is fine.
   • 3 large cloves of garlic. More if they're not the size of the end of your thumb.
   • 2 tablespoons fresh mint, minced. Or 1 tbsp dried mint. If you're all out, look in your tea cupboard. You want spearmint if possible. Peppermint is second choice.
   • 1-2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper.
   • 1 teaspoon Greek seasoning (or increase the oregano and mint a little).
   • 1 teaspoon oregano.
   • 1/2 teaspoon salt.
   • 1 small onion, minced, or 1/4 of one of those the size of your fist.
   
   Mix everything together (your fingertips work well for this). Then put the lamb in and turn it several times to coat. Make sure lots of marinade gets inside where the bone was. You really need to do this with your hands. Yep.

   Soak the lamb at least 2 hours. Overnight is ok. Turn it whenever you think. If you have it in a tupperware container and snapped the lid on tightly, you can flip the whole container over, shake it, and so on.

3. Roasting the Lamb
   You want to make sure your lambie is not overcooked. That's important. Overcooked lamb is not nearly as good as lamb that is tender with at least a little pink inside. We used a method that starts with the oven at a high temperature to sear the meat, then turns it way down to cook it slowly. It worked amazingly well.

   The internal temperature of the lamb at "medium rare" should be around 135 degrees F. Use a meat thermometer to figure this out. When it reads correctly, check the lamb by slicing into it. Cook more if it's not done enough for your taste.

   Put one rack at the middle of the oven, and the other lower. Put an empty roasting pan on the bottom rack. Oil the spot on the top rack, over the pan. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

   Remove the lamb from the marinade. If it's boneless and kind of flat, rolling the meat and tying with kitchen string works well. Sometimes they come that way. If so, hopefully you stuffed some marinade inside when you marinaded it.

   Place the lamb directly on the rack. Roast at 425 for 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 300 and roast about one more hour for a whole boned leg, or 10-12 minutes per pound. That's what we started with. Actually, both times it needed a little more, but I would rather check it and find it's rare and needs more cooking, than leave it too long.

   When the roast is done, remove it to a carving board. Let it stand about 10 min. then carve.

4. Making Gravy
   While the roast is standing, take the bottom pan out of the oven and pour off the fat, as possible. Put the contents in a pot. Rinse the pan with a half cup of hot water and pour this in the pot. This is known as "deglazing" the pan. You want all that brown yummy stuff in the pot, and it might take 2-3 rinsings. That's ok.

   Add a tablespoon of dried mint, or two of fresh mint. Some pepper. Cook this up. In a separate dish, mix 2 tablespoons flour and a half cup water, blending until it's smooth. Pour this in the pot a little at a time, whisking until smooth. Let it cook about 30 seconds between pours. Whisk the whole time. You want the gravy to thicken but not to completely solidify, so you might not need all this flour. Check the seasoning. Add salt, pepper, wine, more herbs, or whatever you like to make a tasty gravy. Make sure you cook at least 5 minutes after the last addition of flour.

5. What to Serve With This
   Asparagus is always good. Peas are too. That'd be your green item. I made asparagus with lemon juice sprinkled over, some olive oil, and some fresh grated black pepper before cooking, steamed just to tenderness. Yummy.

   Potatoes are lovely. Either get the little spring ones and slice them in quarters lengthwise, or get the Yukon Gold potatoes and slice them into wedges lengthwise. Oil a baking pan big enough to hold the potatoes in one layer. After you take the lambie out of the marinade, pour the remaining marinade over the potatoes in the pan and mix well. Bake this with the lambie, the entire baking time. It's really really good.

   Make some sort of eggplant dish too, if you like. I should put my eggplant recipe in. It's easy and goes well with this.

   Serve a light dessert. Chocolate tortes, while they are really good, are kind of overdoing it after this meal.

(My old house really looked like that in the winter!)

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Last Modified: 30 April 2007