Roast Leg of Lamb with Pomegranate, Garlic & Herbs - Easter Lamb Recipe

hello this is chef john from foodwishes.com with whole roasted leg of lamb that's right this easter inspired video features whole legal lamb flavored with pomegranate garlic and herbs and take it from someone that's made many whole lego lambs over the years this is one of the most delicious versions i've ever had and not only is the taste spectacular but this is also very easy to make and requires absolutely no special or hard to find ingredients except this one pomegranate molasses and all this is a very thick reduced pomegranate syrup and i'll give more info about this on the blog but if you live in the middle east or large city or have internet access this is not that hard to find and as i'll explain in the post you can actually make your own but anyway we're gonna start with some pomegranate molasses and then to that we're gonna add a whole bunch of things that are famously delicious with lamb the first of which would be some chopped garlic we're also gonna add some freshly chopped rosemary some aleppo pepper and you know that's a syrian chili flake kind of a medium heat very delicious you can of course use regular chili flakes or in a real pinch cayenne we're also going to want some freshly ground black pepper and then of course we're going to need some salt so we're gonna put in a nice big spoon of kosher salt we'll also toss in a little bit of ground cumin and then last but not least some dry mint and you could certainly use fresh mint for this but there is something about the dry mint that i do prefer for this wet rub and then all we're gonna do is take our spatula and mix this until it looks like something you totally would want to smear over a large hunk of meat which is exactly what that looks like right there okay so our wet rub slash marinade is done and it's on to the aforementioned large hunk of meat and there it is a leg of lamb it's about five pounds it's not a full leg because it doesn't have the shank and they're perfectly fine to roast just like that but for this kind of recipe we need the leg to be deboned and butterflied which the butcher will be happy to do for you of course they're going to charge you extra though so for me i like to save a few dollars i like to buy it like this and i'll just take that bone out myself and you can too it's super easy so check it out just take your knife make one cut there and then we'll make another cut there and then boom that bone comes right out i mean how easy was that okay sorry i'm totally messing with you that was way too fast to see what i actually did but don't worry the next video we post is going to be how to debone and butterfly that lego lamb yourself like a professional butcher so please stay tuned for that if you want to do it yourself and save a few dollars but regardless whether you do it yourself or get it from the butcher you're going to need one deboned butterflied lego lamb which is what i have right here and then once we've created or procured a deboned and butterflied lego lamb we're going to go ahead and open it up and make a couple extra slashes here in the thickest parts like two on each side maybe about an inch deep not too far and why we're doing that is to create a little more surface area for that marinade to get into and speaking of marinade getting into we'll also flip it over and we'll make some slashes on the fat side but not too deep i just want you to barely go through that fat just barely touching the meat and those can be totally random slasher film style so go ahead and slash it all over and that's going to help that wet rub permeate that surface a little better and then once we've completed our gashing and slashing stage let's go ahead and grab our wet rub and spread three quarters of it onto this meat side and if you're not into math that means almost all of it and we want to make sure this is completely coated i'm talking every nook every cranny and even every crevice they all need to be thoroughly spread with this mixture and then once we spread about three quarters of that mixture on that side let's go ahead and gather that together and flip it over into a bowl and then we'll take the last quarter of that wet rub also known as the rest of it and spread it all over that fat side and then once that's been completed we're gonna go ahead and wrap this in plastic and refrigerate this overnight and we'll work with a shorter marination time possibly but i don't know i've only made this and done it overnight and it is quite amazing so that's what i'm recommending so we're going to refrigerate that overnight and then the next day we're going to go ahead and pull it out of the marinade and i didn't show it here but there will be some accumulated juices in the bowl just let any excess drip off but we're still going to be left with all that goodness inside it will look something like this and then the next step here to prep this for the roasting pan would be to tie it up so we're going to gather that together with the seam side down fat side up and we're going to use our standard tying giant pieces of meet up knot so you're going to go underneath and we'll do this first high right in the center you're going to loop that string through about three times which will allow you to cinch it up and you'll finish your knot just like that and then just in case you're new here once more with feeling slide that string underneath cross it over twist it through at least three times and because you've twisted it through a few times when you pull it this first time it's gonna cinch up nice and tight and the friction will keep that cinched until you finish the knot just a very simple and effective way to tie up large pieces of meat like this so i went ahead and did five of those total and as you can see under here everything's being held together very nicely all right what you're shooting for is what we call in the business a nice tight package okay at that point we can go ahead and transfer that into our roasting pan and i'm gonna put mine on a rack because i have one and the nice thing about using a rack is it's going to let me pour some water underneath this roast and not only is that going to humidify the oven and make for a great roasting environment it's also going to prevent any of that pomegranate molasses from burning onto the bottom so i'm suggesting you set yours up this way as well right but you decide you're in charge of hydration administration and then before we pop this in the oven i am going to go ahead and salt the outside which i really should have done on the cutting board i wish you guys would have said something but anyway no big deal i just sprinkled mine on in the pan and of course as always no not enjoy put lots of salt it's a giant hunk of meat so it looks like a ton but it's not and at that point our lego lamb is ready for the oven so we're gonna go ahead and pop that in a 350 degree oven for about an hour and 45 minutes or until we have an internal temperature of about 135 to 140 and when it comes out it should look something remarkably similar to this and yes because we use that pomegranate molasses you're definitely going to get some burnt ends which are absolutely delicious and then a piece of meat this big you're gonna have to let rest at least 15 minutes and while you're waiting you can do a couple things of course anytime we have a roasting pan that's got stuff in the bottom we love to add a splash of stock or water and deglaze that amazing fond and that plus maybe a pinch of salt is going to make for an amazingly simple and extraordinarily delicious panju to serve with that and then the other thing i like to do besides cut off the strings and transfer this into some kind of gorgeous serving platter with appropriate herb garnish is that i also like to paint over just a little bit more of that pomegranate molasses just to shine it up a little bit that stuff has such a beautiful color it's just going to give it a little more of an appetizing glow when you bring it to the table but anyway i went ahead and shine mine up a little bit so by this time the meat has rested we've gotten our uzinas at the table our pan sauce is done and i think we're ready to start slicing and the beautiful thing about a lego lamb is there's something for everybody you like well done or medium well these outside slices are going to be your thing and even these slices from the driest most well done portion of the roast are still incredibly juicy and tender look at that in fact i'm gonna eat a piece right now oh yeah just so juicy and tender and again that's the outside driest most well done pieces and of course as you continue to slice in it's going to get juicier and pinker and then let me fast forward to the cross section here and you can see it's just absolutely perfect you like medium rare we got it you like medium we got it you like medium well we got it all right so lego lamb really is great for a group which is obviously one reason it's such a popular special occasion roast and then of course it was time for the official taste test so i sliced myself off a few pieces spooned over those natural pan juices and that my friends is just a spectacular way to eat like a lamb all right i already mentioned how tender and juicy the meat is and of course everybody knows that garlic and herbs go perfectly with lamb but when you combine it with that little bit of sweet and sour tartness from the pomegranate it just takes it to a whole nother level just amazing and like i already said stay tuned for the how to debone and butterfly your own lego lamb which i will demonstrate in excruciating detail in the next video so anyway please stay tuned for that or not like i said you can just buy this already butterfly from the butcher but either way i really do hope you give this delicious legolam recipe a try so head over to foodwishes.com for all the ingredient amounts and more info as usual and as always enjoy you

Channel: Food Wishes

Views: 712,064

Keywords: Lamb And Mutton (Gender Or Age Specific Animal Name), Roasting (Culinary Technique), Pomegranate, Garlic, Leg, Herbs, Easter, Recipe, chef, john, foodwishes

Id: ZP1HWvCvhWY

Length: 8min 38sec (518 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 16 2014