Roast leg of lamb

It‘s been more than a month since I last posted here...Really? How could it be? Time clearly flies… The only thing I could blame is the post-holiday syndrome that usually comes to visit me after the Christmas and New Year period. After all this excitement that I star feeling much earlier than Christmas comes, I simply feel down for some time. However, there is nothing that couldn’t be fixed - taking a break from EVERYTHING really helps to get on the right track again.

So, continuing what we started, right?

Roasting the whole leg of lamb has always been a frightening thing for me. All the times I have tried to do that, my dinner turned into complete disaster – meat was really dry and tasteless. Since then, I have simply been using completely safe method of cooking and prepared only various stews from it, like the one with Guinness or red wine (promise to give you those recipes!). However, it seems that the main secret of the perfectly roasted leg of lamb is slow cooking! Roasting the leg of lamb under 150 - 170ºC degrees really helps to save all the juices and makes it falling off the bone and melting in your mouth.

Next to my leg of lamb, I also prepared some baked onion-stuffed apples and some simply boiled potatoes.

 Serves: 6-8

Preparing time: about 2 hours

Ingredients:

• 1 leg of lamb (about 2kg), bone in
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 30 grams butter
• 1 tablespoon rosemary leaves, chopped
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C.
2. Crush the garlic into the paste and use your hands or fork to mix it with butter.
3. Chop the rosemary leaves and add to your garlic butter. Add some salt, freshly ground pepper and mix everything well.
4. Take your leg of lamb and rub it with the butter. Make sure you cover all the surface of your meat.
5. Place it in the roasting tin, cover with foil and roast in oven for 30 minutes. 
6. Now reduce the heat to 170 C, remove the foil and continue to cook for about 1 hour. Continue checking for the meat juices to prevent burning!

For the stuffed baked apples:

• 6 apples, halved and cored
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 2 tablespoon cranberry jam
• 1 tablespoon butter
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the onions. Continue cooking them over the medium heat until they get golden color, for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the cumin, cranberry jam, salt and pepper. Wait until your onions get caramelized.
4. Spoon the stuffing into your halved apples and put them into the oven for 20 minutes.