Nothing beats a roast leg of lamb, properly cooked, blushing pink in the centre for an epic Sunday dinner.
We British have a reputation for overcooking everything, especially meat. Maybe it’s fear of undercooking and giving your dinner guests food poisoning but go to any good restaurant and all red meat including game is served medium-rare. You risk offending the chef if you ask for it well done.
Lamb, in particular, should be cooked very hot and fast or slow-roasted at a medium temperature for a long time. Anything in between and it will be tough.
This recipe is for a leg of lamb cooked hot and fast, left to rest for an hour to relax and finish cooking and served blushing pink in the centre.
No red meat is cheap nowadays, but buy the best quality lamb leg you can afford. An ideal size is 2.75 – 3.0kg for this recipe.
Roast Leg of Lamb
Ingredients
- 2.75 – 3 kg leg of lamb bone-in
- 1½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp Freshly ground black pepper
For the rub:
- 1½ tbsp fresh rosemary finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic finely minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
For the base:
- 2 whole heads garlic
- Few sprigs rosemary optional
Instructions
- Take lamb out of fridge at least 1 hour before roasting.
- Preheat oven to 240°C/475°F (220°C fan) with oven shelf in the middle.
- Rub – Mix rosemary, garlic and olive oil.
- Prepare lamb – Place lamb leg in a roasting pan. Coat with the rub using your hands, the sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Place garlic and rosemary sprigs underneath the lamb, garlic cut face up.
- Roast lamb leg for 20 minutes. Turn the oven down to 200°C/400°F (180°C fan) and roast for a further 1 hour or until the internal temperature reaches 53°C/127°F for medium rare (Note 5 other doneness). Check first at 45 minutes – everyone’s oven is different!
- Rest – Remove lamb from oven. Transfer lamb to plate, loosely cover with foil and rest for 20 minutes to 1 hour (it will still be warm enough for serving!).
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