lVOASTED LEG OF LAMB
with Roast Garlic, Mint, Pine Nuts, and Figs
This dish benefits from advance planning. I like to flavor the meat with the garlic, mint, and fig mixture for a day or two before roasting, for more flavor. The dish requires no sauce; its own juices will provide that. But some new potatoes, blanched and roasted in lamb fat and rosemary, are perfect alongside.
Serves 4 to 6
20 cloves Roast Garlic (page 200) or 10
cloves raw garlic, roughly chopped Ч2 cup pine nuts, toasted % cup roughly chopped mint leaves
About % to % cup olive oil or roast garlic oil
A 9-pound leg of lamb, bone in
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup diced dried figs, soaked in enough Madeira to cover
6 tablespoons (% stick) butter
IV2 cups chopped carrots
IV2 cups chopped onions
l'/г cups chopped celery
1 whole head garlic, cut in half crosswise
1. Mix together the chopped garlic, pine nuts, and the mint leaves and combine them with Уз to У2 cup olive oil or the oil from roasting the garlic.
2. Butcher the lamb, removing the pelvic and upper leg bone (or have your butcher do it, but save the bone to flavor the roast). Leave the hindshank bone in. The meat will be divided into two parts, one large, one small. Bisect the large part vertically, as evenly as possible. Cut away any silverskin that might toughen the roast.
3. Lightly salt but rather heavily pepper the meat. Rub the mint and garlic mixture generously all over the meat.
4. Drain the Madeira from the figs and reserve it for later. Cut slits all over the lamb and push the diced figs into the meat.
5. Now, with butcher's twine, start tying the lamb and reshaping the meat into its original form. Starting at the hip end, tie the string at intervals around the meat, trying to keep the meat compact and uniform. When it is all tied, refrigerate the lamb.
6. When you are ready to roast the lamb, preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a roasting pan on top of the stove, heat the butter and 6 tablespoons oHve oil or roasted garlic oil until just foamy. Place the carrots, onions, celery, halved garlic head, and lamb bones, if any, in the roasting pan. Saute briefly, then add the lamb, fat side up.
7. Put pan in the oven and roast about 1V2 hours, more or less, to your liking. (My taste in lamb varies with the cut and preparation, but while I enjoy my lamb racks rare, I prefer the leg about medium-rare. The more developed musculature of the leg requires more temperature than the delicate meat of the loin.) Remove lamb to a cutting board and allow to rest.
8. Pour the vegetables and collected meat juices through a strainer into a bowl. Reserve juices, discard vegetables. Allow juices to settle.
9. In a small saucepan reduce the Madeira reserved from the figs.
10. Skim the fat off the strained pan juices and discard. Add these juices to the Madeira and reduce to desired consistency.
11. Remove the strings as you slice down the lamb toward the hind shank. If the diced figs fall onto the cutting board as you sUce the lamb, spoon them over the lamb after you have arranged the meat on plates. Top with the warm juices and serve.
Note: To obtain more juices you can add some lamb stock to the bones and vegetables as the lamb roasts.
This subtle, less intensely flavored leg of lamb calls for a medium-bodied Bordeaux from Margaux or St-Julien, or a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Napa Valley.