Slow Roasted Leg of Lamb!
Toronto Butcher shop
This is how the Greeks make roast lamb cooked until tender half braised in a garlic lemon
flavoured liquid that transforms into a luscious sauce no mucking around with gravy This Greek
Slow Roasted Leg of Lamb takes hours and hours to roast, but it is EASY, virtually foolproof
and very hands off.
A perfect centrepiece for Easter, Sunday Roast or any other occasion for
feasting All around the world this weekend, there will be gatherings of family and friends to
celebrate Easter.
I was quite interested to learn that ham is very popular in America. Here in
Australia, it's all about roast lamb and seafood. I love a good roast lamb! I've shared quite a
few of them - from a classic Roast Lamb Leg, to a Slow Roast Leg of Lamb (fall apart tender!), Slow
Cooked Lamb Shoulder and even a Slow Cooker Roast Lamb.
But this one I'm sharing today is not just
another lamb roast. It's a Greek one. Rubbed with a simple spice mix, slow cooked until tender, half
braised so it sucks up all the yummy lemony garlicky herby flavours.
Aussies love their lamb. In my
family, Sunday Night Roast Dinners are an occasion that triggers fiery correspondence between us kids
as we debate the menu. You can read one such dialogue in this Slow Roasted Rosemary Garlic Lamb Shoulder,
along with my self proclaimed family title as Roast Queen.
The thing with roasting a leg of lamb is that
unless (and even if) you have a meat thermometer, it is actually quite hard to cook the roast perfectly
so it is blushing pink on the inside, moist and juicy. It can take just 20 minutes for a leg of lamb to
go from perfect to dry. It can even overcook while resting.
Truly. Been there, done that - cutting into
the lamb straight out of the oven to take a peek, grinning smugly when I spied pink, set it aside to rest
for 30 minutes, then when I carved it, there was not a hint of pink left. I was temporarily dethroned as
Roast Queen when that happened. I'd like to say I stepped down like a good sport, but no, I was overthrown
I'm taking back the title for this Greek lamb though Flavour, flavour, flavour, juicy, juicy, juicy, easy,
easy, easy.
That's what this Greek Slow Roasted Leg of Lamb is all about. As long as you allow for sufficient
cooking time, it is really hard to go wrong with this. In true Greek form, this lamb is packed with extra flavour
by stuffing bits of garlic into incisions made all over the lamb, then it's rubbed with paprika and garlic powder.
Add a simple braising liquid to keep it beautifully moist and to infuse it with even more flavour, then cook it
long and slow. Oh! The other advantage of this Greek Slow Roasted Leg of Lamb? NO MUCKING AROUND TO MAKE GRAVY!
The braising liquid reduces down to an intensely flavoured sauce that needs to be generously poured all over the
lamb.
This is how it is supposed to be. And I'm not complaining This lamb does take hours to roast. Hours upon hours.
7 hours for a 3.5kg/7lb leg of lamb, to be precise. But it's hands off, low maintenance time. And at the end of it,
look at what you get. Now THIS is a step up from the usual Sunday night roast!