Foodie

Monday, March 19, 2007

Roast Leg of Lamb ala Tom

We can't thank Sandra's friend, Tom, enough as he did it again. He sent me a leg of lamb and it made out New Year's Eve Dinner the most memorable. I could not believe that time flies so fast, it is 3 months already since we had this delicious lamb dinner. Thank you again, Tom and hope to get more lamb and rosemary from you.

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Ingredients:

1 leg of lamb (about 4 1/2 pounds)
1 handful fresh sage
1 clove garlic
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon, juiced
Olive oil
1 handful fresh rosemary
3 ounces pancetta, sliced

Method:

With a knife, follow the lamb bone down about 4 inches (you are just making a 'tunnel' where you are cutting the meat away from the bone). Do this from the top end and the bottom end.

Roll the leg into a roast shape and tie with cotton butcher's twine.

Pierce the meat at an angle with a sharp pointed knife 6 to 8 times at random around the leg.

Where you have made the incisions, open them up a bit by poking your fingers down in them to make a bit of space.

Using a pestle and mortar smash up half the sage with the garlic and 1 teaspoon of salt. When its pulped, add the lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the other half of the sage and the rosemary roughly chopped.

Stuff the mixture into all the incisions and gaps you have made with the knife. Then stuff the pancetta deep into the gaps along the bone and the incisions. This gives a lovely fragrant flavor to the meat. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Brown lamb on all sides.

Place lamb in roasting pan and roast in a preheated 425 f oven for 30 to 40 minutes for medium rare, 1 hour for well done. (A meat thermometer inserted in center should read 160 or 165 degrees F or a thinbladed knife inserted to the center for 20 seconds should feel lukewarm on your lips.)

Let sit at room temperature about 10 minutes covered loosely with foil before carving, so juices can run to center.

Remove strings and slice meat thinly across the roll.

Serve with Deep fried french beans and mint sauce.

To reheat carved lamb, place slices on a sheet pan, cover with a wet towel, and bake 5 minutes at 375 degrees F.


Serves

14 comments:

Lee Ping said...

Dear Lily,
My blogger friend has a question about the beef noodle that she ate in Pahang and Penang. I was wondering if you can hop over to my blog to answer her question. http://hipfood.wordpress.com. Her question is in my Taiwanese Beef Noodle posting. Her name is Wonda. Thanks Lily.

Sky said...

Hi lily,


Would like to ask, if anybody have "白 米 福" (in hokkien) recipe?, it's a kind of steam kueh, is roung and white in colour, normally people use for praying.

Thanks

Egonsie

Unknown said...

mary

sorry to disappoint you, i don't read chinese and worse still reading chinese in hokkien. alamak.

is it possible to email me a picture of the cake, then perhaps i can help

sorry

Anonymous said...

lily...i'm new here. really nice site you have here!

Can you pls tell me...what's 'pancetta'...and where to buy this?

Unknown said...

kg

Pancetta is an Italian bacon that is cured with salt, pepper, and other spices, but is not smoked. Unlike English and American bacon, which are taken from the sides and belly of the pig, may be smoked, and are usually cut into slices, pancetta comes only from the belly, is salt-cured but not smoked, and is generally sold rolled up into sausage shapes.

It is available in any good Italian market and more and more supermarkets. Needless to say, it is available online

Anonymous said...

lily, i doubt there's pancetta in PJ...where I live. I'm near Atria Complex Damansara jaya.

Can I substitute it with normal bacon?

Unknown said...

kg

bacon is fine and you could make a very good leg of lamb with just garlic and salt. the fresh herbs might be hard find in malaysia and must be costly, use dried rosemary and omit the sage.

Anonymous said...

lily...thanks for your advise. Yes..fresh herbs are almost impossible to find here...and even the bottled and processed herbs in tiny little bottles are very costly!

One more...when you say 1 Clove garlic...does that mean '1 single piece of garlic?...or the whole big piece of garlic that are stucked together..which typically consists of more than a dozen or more single garlics?

Sorry for the silly quaestion.

Unknown said...

kg

use the whole bulb of garlic, the more garlic the more flavorful.

Anonymous said...

lily, thanks so much for your willingness to help me! I will surely try this recipe soon and tell you the outcome.

Anonymous said...

you can get these herb planting kits from the petshop in Ikano Power Centre. Its near the big tanks where the kois are. Go see.

Is pancetta sold at Mr. Ho's Fine Food in Midvalley?

Unknown said...

chicklord

thanks for the info and i hope KG reads your comment

I am sorry i can't answer your question. I am not residing in Kuala Lumpur anymore

Anonymous said...

hehe can i use chicken instead?

Unknown said...

anonymous

yes, you can use the same rub for chicken

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