Roasted Garlic Leg of Lamb

Do you wake up at times with envy of eating certain things? I do. Sometimes I dream of those meals my mom used to fix, but I don’t get to prepare. I don’t because noone in my surrounding family like those dish, and when I invite, cautious to please my guest, I fix more generic food that are bound to please. This week I was dreaming of osso bucco and lamb roast. I did not want to go to a restaurant, I just wanted to prepare them. Food tastes so much better, I think, when you prepare it yourself. So I went to my nearby grocery store and bought a leg of lamb. There are two ways to prepare a leg of lamb. You can leave it as such and season it on the outside. It is very difficult to cut around when it is cooked, and the meat is not the best since you have all the nerves… Or you can debone it, trim the fat and the muscle inside and make a tenderloin, and the meat is much tender This is what i did. There are also several ways to cook a leg of lamb. I cook it the French way which involves searing the meat.

Ingredients: 1 leg of lamb, salt and pepper, 4 garlic cloves crushed, thyme or rosemary, olive oil.

First turn your oven to 500 F. Then debone the leg of lamb. Trim all the fat, muscles and nerves that you see in it, but DO NOT remove the layer of fat on the outside of the meat. You will know what I am talking about when you buy a leg of lamb. Once you have removed the bone and trim all the “bad stuffs”, the meat should almost look like a flat rectangle. Rub the crushed garlic, and the chopped thyme all over the meat. Season with salt and pepper. Roll the meat onto itself to make a tenderloin. Keep the meat together by winding some cooking twine around the “tenderloin”. Rub the garlic and the thyme on the outside of the tenderloin, and season with salt and pepper by sprinkling salt and pepper all over the meat. Place the meat on a grande silform and place in the oven. Lower the temperature to 450. Cook the meat for 10 minutes at that temperature to burn that layer of fat on the outside of your “tenderloin”. Then reduce the temperature to 350 and cook for 10-12 minutes per pound for rare (130F), 12-14 for medium rare (140), 14-16 for medium (150-60), and 16-18 for well-done (160-65).

I would place a meat thermometer inside the meat to keep track of the cooking. Since all oven cook differently, you want to be sure to cook the meat perfectly. Thermometer help you with that! Once the meat is cooked, let it rest outside of the oven for at least 10 minutes for the meat to reabsorb its juices, and stay tender.