Roast Lamb with Potatoes and Garlic

Certainly has been a busy cooking day for me! Made scones for breakfast (sadly not from scratch, though they were amazingly tasty), cooked a delicious soup for lunch, and finally made the dinner I'd promised my parents. I love how the recipe turned out, it was everything I'd hoped it would be. My mom even commented that it might have been the best lamb that she'd ever had. While she may have been using a touch of hyperbole, both my parents went back for seconds of the lamb and the potatoes, so I guess that says something. Personally, I loved it, and would definitely recommend this recipe to anyone interested in trying out lamb. This was the first time that I'd cooked lamb, and if I can pull this off, anyone can do it!

So, on to the recipe, as always, notes and comments follow afterwards.

1 whole leg of lamb (~4 1/2 lbs)
4 large garlic cloves, quartered lengthwise
2-3 heads of garlic, halved
2 lbs potatoes, peeled and quartered lengthwise
Juice from 1 lemon
2 cups hot water
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
Salt & Black Pepper
A few sprigs of fresh thyme to garnish.

Preheat the oven to 425F. Place the lamb in a large roasting pan. Make several incisions in the meat, pressing the point of a sharp knife deep into the flesh, and insert one or two quartered pieces of peeled garlic in each.

Arrange the quartered potatoes and halved heads of garlic around the meat. Pour over the lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. Add half the water to the dish, pouring it around the lamb and not on to it. Sprinkle over half the oregano and thyme. Season with salt and pepper.

Roast the lamb for 15 minutes at 425F, then reduce the oven temperature to 375F. Roast for 1 hour, basting occasionally.

After an hour, turn the meat over so that the other side browns as well, sprinkle over the rest of the herbs and seasoning, and turn the potatoes over gently. Add the remaining hot water to the pan and cook for another 25-30 minutes, basting occasionally with the pan juices.

Remove from oven and cover the meat with a clean dish towel and rest it for 10 minutes before serving. The cloves of garlic can be popped out of their skins and eaten with the meat, they make a deliciously creamy accompaniment.

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I followed this fairly closely, and it came out great. I did go the lazy route and leave the skins on the potatoes, which I liked, and will probably do in the future. My parents suggested adding carrots to the potatoes, and I think that would be a good selection. Definitely use the roasted garlic as a spread on meat if you like garlic a lot. It was fantastic. The tips of the roast were a touch dry, but only just. The rest of the meat was fantastically moist and tender, and I'm really not sure there is anything I could have done to prevent that one very, very minor problem. I also used far more liberal amounts of the herbs than the recipe called for, largely because whenever I buy a pack of herbs like fresh thyme, I invariably don't get back to use the rest before it starts to mold, so use as much as you have, and it'll come out great. Likewise, I probably doubled or tripled the amount of oregano it called for, but I also applied it to the potatoes.

So, now I'm going to go collapse into a food coma for a few hours and let this most excellent meal digest. Leftovers tomorrow are going to be fantastic.