Lamb is a favorite dish of many gourmets. Flavored and soft meat is traditionally served on the Easter table, but it can also decorate any meal. Many novice cooks undeservedly bypass it, assuming that lamb is difficult to cook. And in vain, because this is a versatile and easy to prepare meat. Especially if you bake the lamb in the oven.
It is necessary
- Oven-baked leg of lamb with mint sauce
- - leg of lamb on the bone with a total weight of up to 3 kg;
- - 5 garlic cloves, cut into slices;
- - 50 g fresh thyme;
- - 50 g fresh rosemary.
- For a spicy mixture
- - 15 fresh mint leaves;
- - 4 cloves of garlic;
- - 4 tablespoons of olive oil;
- - 2 teaspoons of mustard seeds;
- - ½ teaspoon of mustard powder;
- - 1 lemon;
- - freshly ground black pepper.
- For the sauce
- - 6 large fresh mint leaves;
- - 1 teaspoon of whole grain mustard;
- - 2 tablespoons of heavy cream;
- - ½ teaspoon of honey;
- - ½ cup chicken broth.
- Lamb shoulder baked with herbs and honey
- - lamb shoulder on the bone with a total weight of up to 2 kg;
- - 50 g fresh thyme leaves;
- - leaves from 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary;
- - 12 crushed sage leaves;
- - 1 tablespoon dried oregano;
- - salt and freshly ground black pepper;
- - juice of 1 lemon;
- - 1 tablespoon of honey;
- - 2 tablespoons of olive oil;
- - 125 ml of water.
Instructions
Step 1
How to choose lamb for roasting
A leg of lamb or a shoulder is best for baking in the oven. If you like leaner meats that are pink and juicy on the inside and crispy golden on the outside, you should go for the leg of a lamb. The shoulder portion of the carcass is fattier, but the meat on it is more tender and has a fuller taste. Both the leg and the shoulder blade of the lamb are marketed both with the bone inside and already cut. Bones take longer to cook and are harder to cut before serving, but lamb is more flavorful. On the other hand, bone-free meat cooks faster and is easy to portion.
Step 2
Choosing lamb, give preference to "marble" pieces - with small splashes of fat inside the muscle tissue. The meat should be pink and the fat on it should be white and hard. The younger the animal was, the paler its flesh, and the opposite is also true. Dark meat is not suitable for baking. Good lamb has a pleasant aroma, a specific musky smell occurs either in improperly cut carcasses, or in the meat of elderly animals, especially non-castrated ones.
Step 3
A whole leg of a lamb weighs up to 3 kilograms, there is enough meat from it to feed from 6 to 8 people. Lamb shoulder on the bone rarely weighs more than 2 kilograms, but it has more meat, so when buying it you can also count on 6-8 servings. When buying cut meat, you should make a simple calculation by multiplying 230 grams of meat by the number of eaters.
Step 4
How to prepare lamb for baking
Frozen lamb must be completely thawed before cooking. To do this, it should be transferred from the freezer compartment to the lower shelf of the refrigerator in advance. Fresh or thawed meat should be removed from the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking so that it is fully warmed to room temperature. Otherwise, the lamb will cook unevenly and may remain raw on the inside, while the crust begins to burn. Warm lamb must be rinsed under running water and patted dry with paper towels.
Step 5
It is not necessary to marinate the meat, it is quite tender. Marinade softens tough muscle fibers, while soft ones can strip texture. Additional taste and aroma of lamb is given by sprinkling with rosemary and garlic, and the meat is rubbed with a mixture of various spices. If you do decide to marinate, do not marinate the lamb for more than 2-3 hours.
Step 6
How to bake lamb in the oven
The roasting time of lamb depends on the cut, the presence of bone in it, and what degree of roast you want to achieve. The leg with the bone is baked at a temperature of 160-170 ° C. To get meat with blood, it is cooked at the rate of 15 minutes for every 500 g, for medium roasting, the meat must be baked for 20-25 minutes for every 500 g, for full - 30 minutes for every 500 g. To get a crispy crust, you can start baking lamb at a temperature of 220 ° C, and after 20 minutes reduce the heating to 170 ° C. The shoulder blade takes longer to cook than the leg. Cover this meat with foil before baking to keep it juicier. Remove the wrapper 20-30 minutes before cooking. After you remove the finished meat from the oven, let it rest for another 20 minutes so that the juices are evenly distributed over the roast. To do this, cover the lamb with a lid or wrap it in several layers of foil.
Step 7
Oven-baked leg of lamb with mint sauce
Chop the garlic and mint leaves, put them in a small bowl and add the zest and lemon juice, add the mustard seeds and mustard powder, add olive oil and season with pepper. Celebrity chefs advise against salting the leg of lamb when cooking. Make punctures in the leg of lamb that has been brought to room temperature with a sharp and long knife. Insert sprigs of rosemary, thyme and garlic chunks into the cuts. Rub the meat with the spice mixture.
Step 8
Place the lamb in a roasting pan and place in an oven preheated to 170 ° C. Roast the lamb for 2 ½ - 3 hours, depending on the desired doneness. Remove the meat from the oven, drain the juice into a saucepan and cover the roasting pan with foil. While the meat is resting, make the sauce. Pick the mint leaves into large pieces with your hands. Remove excess fat from meat juices in a saucepan, add chicken stock and bring mixture to a boil. Add mustard, heavy cream, honey and mint leaves. Stir well and remove from heat. Rub the gravy through a sieve and pour into a gravy boat.
Step 9
Lamb shoulder baked with herbs and honey
In a small bowl, combine sage, rosemary, thyme, and oregano. Season with salt and pepper. Use the tip of a narrow, long, sharp knife to make many shallow cuts, cutting through the skin and fat, but not the meat. Rub the spicy mixture into the lamb, massaging the cut well. Place the lamb in a baking dish, sprinkle with freshly squeezed lemon juice, sprinkle with the remaining herbs and drizzle with honey and olive oil. Add some water to the bottom of the brazier, place the lamb in the oven preheated to 200 ° C. Bake the shoulder blade for about 3 hours, the cooked meat should come off the bone easily. Remove the lamb from the oven, cover with foil and rest for 10-15 minutes.
