Lamb Roast - Boneless Leg

Bought a boneless leg of lamb roast at Costco so one morning I started the prep process.

·         Lamb — a young sheep that is less than one year old

No, there is not a 3-legged lamb hopping around a field somewhere and No, they have not been able to breed and raise boneless sheep, but here we are, nonetheless.

 

In a small bowl, add:

2 Tablespoons of fresh oregano (or 1 if dried)

1 Tablespoon of fresh rosemary (or ½ if dried)

½ teaspoon of salt (I accidentally bought a Coarse Sea Salt a while back, but the chunks are so big, you can’t use it for regular cooking or even for rimming a margarita glass.  Between the marinade time and the slow cooking process, I’m hoping it breaks down in this dish so that we don’t chomp into a chunk of salt :(  (Follow-up report: It worked perfectly!)

½ teaspoon of ground pepper

5 cloves of garlic, sliced thin or chopped

3 Tablespoons of lemon juice (I just bought a bunch of lemons to make Limoncello so I squeezed the juice for this, but bottled would be okay…I guess…if you have to).

¼ cup of your best tasting olive oil.

Mix this up and then set it aside for a few minutes.

The boneless roast is usuallywrapped in a string mesh to hold it together, since the bone has been cut away. Remove the mesh and I usually cut whatever big sections remain of the meat so the entire roast lays flatter.

Place in a glass container (metal containers react in unpleasant ways to the acid in the lemon juice).

If you bought a bone-in roast, make a bunch of little slits up to 1” deep all over the roast.

Smother the mixture all over the roast, being sure to get it into those slits.

Lay out some plastic wrap and on top of that, a long piece of cooking string (not coated in or made from plastic and not twine which leaves fibers behind - Double YUK!).

Roll the roast and tie it as best you can with the string, then wrap the roast in plastic wrap or wax paper.  Rest it in a bowl in the refrigerator for no less than 2 and up to 6 hours.  The longer, definitely the better (which is why I am prepping this in the morning).

Dum dee dum dee dum…6 hours later:

Remove the roast from the refrigerator for about an hour without unwrapping it.

 Oil a pan or rack or grill (I used a pan today).

Unwrap the roast and place it in the bowl, fatty side up.  Insert your oven or grill-safe temperature probe

PreHeat the over to 400.

Put the roast in on a middle rack, uncovered for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, drop the temperature to 250.

 Fuggetaboutit for 20+ minutes per pound then watch the internal temperature climb to 145.

Remove the roast and place onto a cutting board (hopefully with a drip trough because there will be run-off that you’ll want to catch!

If you’re making gravy which takes another half an hour, lightly cover the roast in foil, but I’m skipping that today because the juice is Plenty Good!

After resting for 10 TEN X (get it?) minutes, slice the roast, ladling some of the juice over the top!

Eat with . . . oh yeah, I’m sure there were vegetables of some kind.  Right?

 

Later, pour all of the juices into a measuring cup and refrigerate.  The next day, pop-off the fat and toss, leaving this thick, delicious juice that when re-heated with the lamb, will continue to please for days!