A few weekends ago I was invited to attend a super fun event hosted by the American Lamb Board and Craig Rogers of Border Springs Farm. Together with the other bloggers, writers and photographers, I visited four DC restaurants and tried out different lamb dishes they had on their menus. This was such a delicious and boozy afternoon.
At the end of the tour (we visited Union Market, Zaytinya, Ripple and Bourbon Steak), Craig gave each participant a boneless leg of lamb. Because I was going to a friend's house for Passover the following day and asked nicely, Craig also provided a shank (that way I could bring it to my friend Cindy's house to use for the Seder plate).
By the time I got home and went grocery shopping for the week, it was already 7 pm. But I was itching to make the lamb. I turned once again to Barefoot Contessa's Foolproof. Yes, I've been making quite a few recipes from Ina's book.
The recipe for the 4 Hour Lamb is time consuming, but there is very little you actually have to do.
You first season the lamb with salt and pepper and sear it in a large oven safe heavy-bottomed pan. (I used my beloved Le Creuset that I scored at Marshalls).
Once the lamb has been seared on all sides, you take it out and add garlic cloves, bay leaves, white wine and herbs to the pan. Ina called for rosemary and thyme, but I only used thyme because I'm not a fan of rosemary.
Once the mixture has been cooking for a few minutes, add the lamb back into the pan, cover and roast for 4 hours in the 300 degree oven, basting it occasionally.
Easy, right? My condo smelled AMAZING.
At about 11:30 pm the lamb was done and it had very little time to cool before going into the refrigerator. Please don't tell the food police this ;)
The next day, this is what I had:
I'm actually really glad I made this lamb dish the night before: it allowed all the fat to come to the surface and to solidify, making it very easy to remove unnecessary calories!
Ina says to remove the lamb from the pan, strain out the herbs and squeeze the garlic cloves into the pan before heating up the sauce and reducing it. I did just that. I also served the lamb with Ina's white beans. You'll have to come back for that post ;)
This was such an incredibly satisfying dish. I shared the lamb with one of my friends' daughters because she loves it. I also froze a large portion for later.
Do you love lamb? How do you cook it?
2 comments:
That looks that so much food! No need to buy lunch at work all week ;)
This sounds so good. And I'm so jealous of that event -- how fun! I actually just made a boneless leg of lamb for Easter. I stuffed it with arugula and rubbed it with a mixture of garlic, oregano, and lemon zest. Then I roasted it with carrots, potatoes, onions, and asparagus. It was a lovely spring dish!
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