Are you ever intimidated by a recipe? There are some recipes that seem difficult and scary and daunting. Before I even start, those recipes make me feel certain that the final product is going to come out wrong. Macaroons, croissants, and souffles are the kinds of recipes that scare me. I’m also nervous about making whole pieces of meat. Just think about Thanksgiving – a whole turkey is a nerve wracking endeavor! And that’s also how I felt about roasting a leg of lamb. And then, it turned out all right.
For awhile Ryan and I have been talking about cooking our own Sunday lunch, but I’ve been putting it off because I thought it would be too much work. And then I saw a recipe for roast lamb with a spiced crust in a magazine and I thought, “yes…” Yes, I want to eat that. Yes, let’s have lunch at home. And yes, I can make that. But why this particular recipe called out to me, I don’t know. It required ingredients I’ve never used or tasted, a meat I’ve only cooked a few times, and a cut of lamb I wasn’t sure where to buy.
Now you might be thinking, Mariel, buy your lamb from the grocery store or a butcher like a normal human. But here’s the weird illogical thing, sometimes I don’t like going up to people behind a counter and asking for help. I worry I’m being an inconvenience or that I’ll embarrass myself because I don’t know what I’m doing. But that’s the reason why customer service people exist. It’s an even more ridiculous fear because my whole job at the Science Museum is being available to talk to people and help them out when they don’t know anything. And I love when people ask me questions; so why shouldn’t I ask someone else for help?
So I plucked up my courage and went to the meat counter at Waitrose, I showed the butcher the recipe, and she hooked me up. It was so easy! She asked a few questions, looked over my recipe, and then prepared the meat. It was so simple and painless, that I think I’ll be more willing to ask for help in the future.
I went home with a gigantic piece of meat. There was no scenario in which I wasn’t going home with a ton of meat as I was going to roast a whole leg of lamb for just two people. I arrived home and told Ryan that we’d be eating lamb all week. In fact, this recipe has provided us with 7 meals – two dinners each, and three lunches for me.
It also tastes delicious. I told you I was nervous because I had never used some of the ingredients before, like garam masala and tamarind sauce – but I loved it. The flavor of the crust is bold, but in a great way, and it also has lots of familiar tastes too. I was also worried about preparing and cooking the meat. However, that also turned out to be easy. All it took was preparing a marinade, letting the meat sit in the marinade, and baking this in the oven. The magazine says you can also cook it on the grill – and that would give it a gorgeous dark brown crust – but I don’t have a grill. So I used the oven, an that was perfection because I could set it and walk away. After about 30 minutes I had a fully cooked lamb leg that smelled good, looked good (once it’s cut, the whole leg is sort of overwhelming to look at), and tasted even better. Moral of the story: attempt your cooking fears people! Sometimes it turns out great.
Adapted from Great British Food Magazine
Messy level: Three spoons, but only because of the marinade. Making it in the blender is easy enough, but then you have to massage it into the lamb, and then get that lamb into a container to rest. I used a large bag and while trying to get the lamb in and out, I ended up with marinade all over my arm. Messy and yucky. Yeah, yucky is the technical term.
- 1.5 kg/3 pound, well-trimmed boned and butterflied leg of lamb
- 1 yellow onion, quartered
- 30g/1 oz/ a big handful of mint leaves
- 3½ tablespoons vinegar
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 3-4 cloves garlic
- 35g/thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled
- ½ teaspoon red chili powder
- 120g/ slightly less than ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 120g/ slightly less than ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 120g/ ½ cup tamarind sauce
- mint leaves, chopped - amount to your taste (I used about 2 tablespoons)
- Ask your butcher to prepare the leg of lamb. Or if you're awesome, do it yourself.
- In a blender or food processor, add all the marinade ingredients and blend until fairly smooth. It's ok if it's a little chunky, but it should be blended enough that it can be poured together as one thick sauce.
- Put the lamb on a large cutting board, plate, or storage container. Piece the lamb all over with the fork.
- Place the lamb into a large bag or in a large storage container (something that will fit in your fridge). Pour the marinade over the lamb.
- Use your hands to massage the marinade into the lamb. Close the bag or cover the container. Put in your fridge and let it sit overnight - or if you have less time do it for as long as you can.
- minutes before your ready to start cooking, remove the lamb from the fridge.
- Preheat your oven to 425°F/220°C.
- Place the lamb into a large shallow baking dish. Put the dish in the middle of the oven and roast for 15 minutes.
- Turn the oven down to 350°F/180°C and roast for another 15 minutes.
- After these 30 minutes, make a small cut in the thickest part to see if the lamb has been cooked to your preferred level of doneness. For me, the edges of the lamb were well done and the middle was still a slight pink (medium). Cook a little longer if you want less pink.
- Turn the oven off, remove from the heat, and cover loosely with foil. Let the meat rest for 15 minutes.
- While the lamb is resting make the sauce. In a smallish bowl (a cereal bowl size works) stir together the yogurt, tamarind sauce, and mint leaves. Taste and adjust flavors as needed. Add salt and pepper to taste also.
