What’s Cooking in Kelli’s Kitchen

Various intersecting factors made this weekend the perfect opportunity for a Lazy Sunday Supper–and I have had Pot Roast on my mind.  But a quick tour around the butcher section at Safeway had me second-guessing my plan.  Have you seen beef prices lately?!?!  Rather than spend $50 on a chuck roast much larger than what Neil and I need, I opted for a (surprisingly) less expensive leg of lamb.  Americans don’t eat much lamb in comparison to other types of animal proteins (about 0.8 pounds annually compared to 100 pounds of chicken)--a statistic that I am bewildered by.  When I worked at The Slanted Porch, Lamb Burger Thursdays were one of our most popular days and we regularly sold out of lamb specials during dinner service. Maybe our collective Churchill County love of lamb makes us a bit of an anomaly–if so, I am here for it.

The leg of lamb is a fairly adaptable cut of meat to prepare in your home kitchen. You can butterfly and roast or smoke a leg of lamb until it reaches 130 degrees, then slice it for a tender and delicious pink-centered cut; it can be braised in a flavorful liquid low and slow until the meat is fork-tender; you can even have your leg of lamb cut into steaks to grill over high heat.  Neil and I love the flavor of lamb, even its slight gamey funk–however, if you prefer a less robust lamb flavor, the secret is to remove the interior fat.  Fat is flavor and nowhere is this more true than with lamb.  A beef burger cooked in lamb fat tastes more like lamb than like beef.  While the exterior crisp fat on the leg is fantastic, the intra-muscular fat can turn soft, greasy, and may be excessive. 

I choose how to prepare a leg of lamb based on my desired cooking method.  A boneless leg of lamb produces superior results for grilling, smoking, or slow-roasting.  Ask your butcher to bone out and butterfly the leg, then remove the hard intra-muscular fat before seasoning thoroughly and tying it into a sturdy bundle.  The lamb “football” that results will cook evenly on a smoker or in a low-heat oven. A finished core-internal temperature of 130 degrees and a 20-minute rest period after cooking will give you a perfectly medium roast that slices like a dream.  For a braised leg of lamb, there is absolutely no need to debone and butterfly the cut.  Once the meat is done braising, the bone pulls right out of the fork-tender meat; and the hard areas of intra-muscular fat transform into God’s butter. 

Kelli’s Braised Leg of Lamb Lazy Sunday Dinner

INGREDIENTS:

1 bone-in (or partially boneless) leg of lamb

Kosher salt & black pepper

EVOO

¾ c frozen pearl onions

3 carrots, scrubbed and cut into 2” chunks

5 small gold or white potatoes, cut in half

8 crimini mushrooms, stems trimmed and cut in half

1 head garlic, top cut off

3-5 rosemary stems

3 bay leaves

1 T tomato paste

1 ½ c fruity white wine or champagne (it’s what I had in the fridge, don’t judge)

24 oz beef bone broth (or chicken stock if you don’t want to buy the good stuff)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees.  Generously season lamb with kosher salt and black pepper and set aside.  Let the lamb rest at room temperature for 30-60 minutes.  The meat will start to look wet and then dry again–that’s how you know it is ready to cook.
2. In the meantime, heat 2 T of olive oil in a large braiser or Dutch oven.  Saute pearl onions, carrots, and mushrooms until they are golden brown.      Add in tomato paste and cook stirring frequently until slightly darkened.  Add in white wine and scrape up any sticky bits on the bottom of the pan.  Bring to a simmer and reduce the liquid by half.
3. Add in potatoes, the head of garlic, bay leaves, and rosemary stems.  Pour in enough bone broth to just cover the vegetables.  Place the leg of lamb on top and drizzle with olive oil, then put the dish, uncovered, into the oven and roast for about 30 minutes.
4. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.  Pour in the remaining bone broth, cover, and return to the oven to cook low and slow.  After 2 hours, rotate the leg, cover, and continue cooking.      When you hit the three-hour mark, flip the leg of lamb over one final time.
5. The braise is finished when the bone easily pulls out of the leg and the meat shreds easily with a fork.  Serve in a bowl as is, or on top of mashed potatoes or polenta.