Roast lamb

I mentioned yesterday that I brought lemons back from Mum and Dads. As well as the lemons, we also came home with a lot of lamb. Mum breeds sheep as a hobby, so there is always lamb to be had. She's just at the stage where she is getting too many for the two of them to eat, so she sells them to friends and family, and is trying to start selling them commercially. And, as Mum would say, it's not organic, but it is ethically raised.


FH Alphie and I brought (the equivalent of) one back with us - in cuts mind you, not a whole sheep in an esky! We now have two boned shoulders, four shanks, a boned leg, two 'half' legs (just the right size for a roast for two - but I'll get to that), a backstrap, 12 (or 18?) cutlets, a few chops, some mince, and stir fry strips in the freezer. So it seemed fitting that we had a lamb roast tonight.

I have never really been a big fan of lamb roasts, I generally prefer beef or chicken (weird, since don't like chicken all that much the rest of the time...). I find that roast lamb is often tough and frequently over cooked. So with this in mind, I turned to my cooking bible, Margaret Fulton's Encyclopedia of Food and Cookery. If anyone was going to tell me how to cook a perfect lamb roast, it would be Margaret (p.s. she was on MasterChef last night, and was just adorable).

In the words of Faux Fuchsia, vegetarians, look away now. Everyone else, here's a shot of the gorgeous lamb on its way to the oven.


I used one of the half bone-in legs, about 850g, and cooked it for an hour - 20 minutes at 220 degrees, then 40 minutes at 180 degrees. The 20 minutes on a higher temperature was Margaret's suggestion, as was resting it in the oven for 15-20 minutes. And, no bias here, I promise, it was easily the best lamb roast I have ever had. The lamb was tender and super tasty, and I didn't over cook it, it was perfect, just pink in the middle.

As is customary for a roast, I served it with roast potatoes, carrots & pumpkin, steamed greens (broccoli & beans today), and gravy.

-Alphie