Roasted Leg of Lamb with Tzatziki Sauce (p. 231)

Merry Christmas! Ok, I know, I'm a little late but it's never too late to celebrate the birth of Christ! This post is about the main course of my families Christmas Day dinner, roasted leg of lamb. You'll have to wait for my next post to read about the Tzatziki Sauce.

My wife & I are by far the most adventurous eaters in my family. I grew up in a mostly meat & potatoes family and did not stray far from beef. While growing up, I remember eating a lot of hamburgers, meatloaf, Swedish style meatballs with mashed potatoes & brown gravy, frozen fish, macaroni & cheese, ham, sloppy joes, hamburger casserole in many different forms, spaghetti, lasagna, corn, carrots (only raw, never cooked!), & green beans. My Mom did all the cooking and did most of it from scratch. Like many kids, I was a picky eater. I hated chicken, sausage, beans, most vegetables, and many other things. Some where along the way that drastically changed and now there isn't much I won't eat. I can’t even imagine what the 15 year old version of me would say if he knew what I liked to eat now.


A couple years ago when preparing to host Christmas I asked my Mom if she thought the family members that were coming over would eat lamb or duck. She gave a resounding no and suggested I should stick to the basics (we ate ham or turkey at nearly every holiday I remember). I still wanted to do something a little different so I cooked a whole beef tenderloin & it was very well received. It was my turn to host again this year and I decided I would make something safe - the best ham I've ever tasted from the pig we bought from Bluebird Meadows Farm this fall - and something that would push my family's comfort zone - leg of lamb. 

Prior to making this dish I had only eaten lamb (excluding gyros) a handful of times, including one of my best meals ever - the lamb breast at Lola. I had also never cooked lamb before so it was going to be a new challenge for me in the kitchen.

Lamb is easy enough to find in the Cleveland area. One of the best local sources is The Great American Lamb Company, , a small farm that raises humane, all natural lamb and sells it out of Shaker Square Farmers Market, at the farm, and even deliver. Michael Symon recommends Jamison Farm out of PA; their website claims the world's best chefs use their lamb and their meat can be shipped directly to your door where ever you are. You can also easily find lamb at Heinen's, Blue Ribbon, or the Westside Market, which is where I made my purchase. There were a couple stands selling lamb and I decided on Turczyk's. Turczyk's has been a family owned and operated business since John opened it in 1954. John's son Michael Turczyk now operates the stand and he buys locally raised lamb & goat from a handful of farmers an hour or so south of Cleveland, brings them into the market whole, and cuts them to order on site. Michael told me the lamb I purchased had been grazing the field just 2 days earlier. Yes, they are even pasture raised lambs, not from a factory farm. The recipe called for a 6 pound, bone in leg of lamb but I had to choose between a whole leg (9+ pounds) or half a leg, I decided on the latter.

All the ingredients required, did I mention I was a leg man?

Like many of the other recipes in Michael Symon's book, this is dish is easy to make but time intensive. The recipe calls for the lamb to be covered in a rub and set in the fridge to marinate for 24 hours before the roasting begins.

 

The rub mixture

So while I was making the Spicy Tomato & Blue Cheese Soup for Christmas Eve dinner, I also started working on the lamb for Christmas day. First, I minced all the rub ingredients and mixed them in a bowl.

 

The rub all mixed up

 

Leg rubbed down

Once the rub was well mixed, I covered the entire leg with the mixture.

 

The other side of the bone in leg

 

Shameless Glad plug a la Top Chef 

After the leg was well covered with the rub, I wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for the next 24 hours. With all the cooking I was doing at Christmas time, sometimes it felt like I was a Top Chef contest so I thought I should give Glad ClingWrap a free ad (no, unfortunately they are not sponsoring this blog - seriously though Glad, call me and we'll talk business).

 

Rinsed leg

Late Christmas afternoon I took the leg of lamb out of the fridge and rinsed the rub off and dried it with paper towels. I set the lamb in the roasting and let it sit at room temperature for the next hour until I was ready to put it in the oven.

 

Browning

About two hours before we were ready to eat I put my roasting pan over the center burner on my stove and once it was hot I browned the leg on all sides. I should have left each side on a little bit longer to get more char so be patient and let the pan do it's job.

 

Beautifully roasted leg of lamb

After about an hour and a half the lamb was at 140 degrees so I removed it from the oven, covered it with aluminum foil, and let it rest for 20+ minutes while I worked on the rest of dinner.

 

The fat cap, nice & charred

 

Sliced & ready to eat

Once everything else was ready to go for our dinner, I sliced into the lamb and found it to be perfectly cooked to medium rare. The meat was tender, juicy, & succulent. Even the most picky eaters at the table enjoyed the lamb. Lamb definitely has a stronger taste than beef, but the tzatziki sauce paired perfectly with it. My Aunt commented that she really enjoyed how the citrus and yogurt in the sauce masked the earthiness of the lamb. Unfortunately, since everyone enjoyed it so much, that means I didn't have as many leftovers as I was hoping for :) Nonetheless, I was very happy that everyone enjoyed it as much as they did. I also learned that everyone would be open to trying other "strange" meats in the future, e.g. duck. So hopefully come Easter, I'll be able to cook something else on the creative side and continue to expand my family's palate.

PS I was only kidding about the leftovers. This roast, along with an amazing ham from our pig from Bluebird Meadows Farm, easily fed the 10 of us and left my wife and I with plenty of left overs. I had some Pita in the freezer from Aladdin's Baking Company and made some delicious gyro's!

Cost
I will provide the approximate cost for each recipe in the book, as well as the source of the products used.

It cost approximately $30.40 to make the Roasted Leg of Lamb for 10 people + leftovers. The cost broke down as follows:

Leg of Lamb, approx 5 lbs - $26.90 (Turczyk's, Westside Market)
Shallots - $1.50 (Heinen's)
Rosemary - $1 (The Basketeria, Westside Market)
Misc (garlic, sugar, coriander (Spicehound), crushed red pepper, salt) - $1

Nutritional information:
I am not a nutrition expert but I will provide some information about the key ingredient of each dish.

Lamb is a good source of protein, niacin, iron and zinc. Lamb is also rich in most of the B Vitamins. The fat content of lamb depends upon the cut. The leanest part is the leg, the most fatty lamb comes from the shoulder and rack. Also, for anyone reading that is on the Atkins diet, lamb contains no carbohydrates.