Sprout & Pea

While most of the recipes on this blog are veg­e­tar­ian or vegan, I do con­sider myself a part-​​time car­ni­vore. It has just been some time since I’ve cooked any meat. That all changed last week when I had a han­ker­ing for some lamb. I don’t know what brought on this crav­ing but it was strong and I spent a few days dream­ing about it and then one night, my room­mate asked me if I wanted to cook din­ner with her and at the men­tion of lamb, she was on board.

I’ve never roasted a lamb before — even in all of my years help­ing my mom cook when I was grow­ing up — so I was really excited to give it a whirl. My room­mate and I tossed mari­nade ideas back and forth and finally we decided on the clas­sic rose­mary and gar­lic com­bi­na­tion, but instead of the com­mon use of lemon, I thought orange might be nice. We were hun­gry so we only let this mar­i­nate for thirty min­utes, but had we let it site overnight, it may have been even juicier and more ten­der. Despite our quick-​​marinade, this lamb emerged from the oven cooked per­fectly and with beau­ti­ful fla­vor.  The cit­rus from the orange zest and juice really came through. I think Mom would be proud and I hope to make this for her one of these days. I plan to make this again really soon, this time let­ting the lamb mar­i­nate for much longer. Here’s how to make it…

2 lb leg of lamb
1/​2 cup extra vir­gin olive oil
Juice of 2 oranges
Zest of two oranges
1/​2 cup sherry
8 cloves of gar­lic minced
1 tbs salt
Few pinches of pep­per
3 sprigs of fresh rose­mary finely chopped

Mash gar­lic with 1/​2 tbs of salt so it forms a paste and rub on inside of lamb. Add orange zest and rose­mary to inside of lamb. Roll leg of lamb up and place in large zip lock bag, add olive oil, sherry, orange juice and more salt. Let mar­i­nate overnight in refrig­er­a­tor. When ready to cook, remove meat and let it come to room tem­per­a­ture. Place lamb in roast­ing pan and pour mari­nade over it. Sprin­kle out­side of lamb with a lit­tle more salt, pep­per and orange zest. Place in the oven at 375 degrees. Roast for 30 min­utes, flip and roast for another 30 min­utes or until the out­side begins to brown a lit­tle. Cut into it and check that inside is cooked to your lik­ing. Remove and let sit for 10–15 min­utes. Slice and serve.