Mean’s Lamb You Can Eat With a Spoon

Mean’s Lamb You Can Eat With a Spoon

  • Prep Time: 40 mins
  • Total Time: 6 hrs 40 mins
  • Yield: 1whole leg of lamb
  • About This Recipe

    “This is one of the most succulent lamb dishes you will ever taste. Long slow cooking makes the dish. This is an adopted recipe from the RecipeZaar account, and I am delighted to be the new owner of such a winning recipe. The size of your leg of lamb is everything in this recipe so please use the Zaar measurement converter ( bottom of the page) to calculate your cooking time as if will vary greatly if you have a very small or very large leg of lamb. (For example 2.8 kg leg = 6.1 lb and would cook for just over 6 hours after the browning stage) If you like this sort of meat, then I’d also recommend my recipe “New Zealand High Country Sheep Station Roast Lamb#186000″ because it gives a similar result with fewer steps… (admittedly without the excellent gravy though) Since my home country that my DH jokingly calls Kiwistaan has an excellent reputation for Lamb, I will be assigning this one to ZWT REGION: New Zealand.”

    Ingredients

  • 1leg of lamb
  • 2onions, peeled & quartered
  • 6garlic cloves
  • 10shallots, peeled
  • 1 (750ml) bottles red wine( Zinfandel)
  • 4cupsbeef stock
  • 2tablespoonsolive oil
  • 4ouncespancetta, chopped
  • 4tablespoonstomato paste
  • fresh rosemary orthyme
  • 4bay leaves
  • Directions

  • Cut most of the fat from the lamb.
  • Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  • Heat 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in the pot and brown lamb slowly on all sides, about 15 minutes.
  • Or you can brown in the oven in a roasting pan on high heat.
  • preheat oven to 325°.
  • Remove browned lamb& set aside.
  • Sauté onion, shallots and garlic ( with pancetta, if used) until caramelized–about 20 minutes.
  • Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
  • Discard fat in pan.
  • Add wine and 2 cups stock and boil rapidly until reduced by half, scraping up any browned bits.
  • Add herbs,tomato paste and reserved vegetables to pan.
  • Return lamb, fat side up, to the pot.
  • If needed, pour in enough additional stock to reach two-thirds of the way up sides of meat.
  • Cover tightly and bake until done, basting often to keep the lamb from becoming dry.
  • As the meat cooks and is constantly basted, the rich sauce is absorbed and the meat becomes very succulent.
  • The dish is done when the lamb falls off the bone in pieces when prodded with a fork – this takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour per pound (lb) (metric = 1 hour per 450 g).
  • (after browning).
  • Plan on seven hours total for an entire leg of lamb. ( example calculation is based on a 2.8 kg / 6.1 lb leg).
  • Remove the lamb to a platter.
  • Cover with heavy foil to keep warm.
  • Pour off all the liquid into a saucepan, skim the fat and boil down about 20 minutes, until it is rich and thick.
  • Correct the seasoning and serve as a sauce over the lamb and vegetables.
  • SERVING SUGGESTIONS: Serve with Potato & Root Vegetable Mash or Roasted Vegetables.
  • Reviews

  • “Honestly, this is pretty much the only way I cook lamb. Be sure to make a LOT of mashed potatoes to go with it, the sauce makes an incredible gravy, and lots of it. The meat is fall-apart tender, and wonderfully flavored from the wine and aromatic veggies… perfect comfort food.”

  • “This was great. The only problem I had was knowing what I should do with all the onions, garlic and shallots after I caramelised them. I decided to lay them in the bottom of the baking dish with the lamb on top and cook it all! It worked a treat. Then I just reduced the whole lot to form the sauce. A dish just made for mashed potatoes.”

  • “I made this with fresh local lamb from my butcher. I only had to make one change, because you cannot buy pancetta within 5 miles of here, so I used ¼ pound of chopped, uncured, slab bacon instead. The recipe calls for 6 cloves of garlic but, fortunately, I could only find 10 in my pantry, so I had to make do with just the 10. One comment regarding the cooking process – I tossed about 5 sprigs of fresh rosemary into the liquid and, the first time I opened the oven to baste the lamb, the smell of the rosemary was very strong and almost overpowering. But I’m glad I went with my gut instinct not to remove any of the rosemary, because the eventual taste of the sauce had a most agreeable, distinct but quite subtle, hint of rosemary. Speaking of the sauce – after I had reduced it and skimmed off the fat, I returned the caramelized onions and garlic to the sauce and pureed the whole shootin’ match in the blender – this was about the richest, most savoury meat sauce I have ever had. This review can be summed up in the words of one dinner guest who said, simply, “This lamb is well beyond excellent.””

  • “Have wanted to make this recipe for a long time, I picked one of the hottest days of Summer to do it, but it was worth it.Over the months Ive read discussions on here and been surprised at the amount of people who dont care for lamb.For them I’d say make this!I couldnt get Zinfandel so subbed with Merlot, loved the rich vegetable sauce and served with lots of mashed potatoes as others suggested.I used rosemary as the herb.Thanks for sharing.”

  • “If you are lucky enough to have leftovers, cover the dish with lettuce leaves and hide it in the vegetable drawer. I used the sirloin half of a leg and reduced the ingredients by half (I cheated a bit withthe pancetta) and substituted with Merlot. I have Rosemary, Thyme and Bay leaf growing in the back yard so I used a combination of all three. Make extra mashed potatoes!”

  • “Delicious!!I had a leg in the freezer (butt portion only) and it worked perfectly using this recipe.I didn’t change a thing and yes, you could eat it with a spoon!Thanks, MC!”

  • “When I started cooking this, I thought that if I was using a whole bottle of wine (Ernest & Julio Gallo Zinfandel) it had BETTER be good and I wasn’t disappointed! I had a 1.7 kg leg of lamb (bone in) and it took about 3-1/2 hours to cook, basting every 20-30 minutes. In the seasoning, we used thyme and lots of pepper, regularly ground over the lamb. Also, I didn’t have a big enough covered roasting tin, so I used aluminium foil to cover the lamb and that worked just fine. All in all it was a gorgeous meal, just perfect with a huge mound of mashed potatoes.”

  • “This really was the most delicious lamb I have ever tasted! I used a 1kg bone in half leg. It was frozen so I defrosted it fully first. I cut off as much of the fat as possible and this is definitely an important part of the process. I didn’t use shallots as I forgot to buy them but the taste was perfect. I used red Zinfandel which I got from Sainsbury’s for £3.99. I left the garlic cloves whole and used 6 as directed. I used 4 sprigs of resemary. I also used the pancetta which definitely added to the flavour of the gravy. Once it went in the oven it took 2 hours and I basted it every 20 minutes. The lamb really was so tender and the gravy was just quite possibly the most amazing I have ever tasted. My husband adored it and said that it tasted like food you would get in a restaurant. I used the full bottle of wine and 4 cups stock and it made a lovely amount for the mash! I will definitely be making this one again. I am also going to try making it with beef, but using a different herb.”

  • “My wife does not lamb, but she liked this lamb. The cat did not care for it, but she does not like and meat from an animal too big for her to bring down.”

  • “This was superb, Mean Chef! We made this for the main course of our Valentine’s Day feast, and it was just perfect. After I browned the meat and prepared the sauce, I finished cooking it in the slow cooker because the oven was in use with other things. It turned out wonderfully. I will try it again some other time in the oven to see how it differs. Thanks for a delicious lamb recipe! “

  • “This was our Christmas dish. I defrosted the New Zealand leg of lamb at about midnight the day before and left it near the window as it is winter and wouldnt spoil but wouldnt remain covered in ice either. It had been thickly covered with ice from blast freezing from the butcher´s.I got up at 5:00 a.m. The leg of lamb had defrosted but still cool. Then Istarted preparing the ingredients and immediately started cooking at about quarter to 6:00 a.m.It was fork-extra-tender by 11:00 a.m. and was about to fall off the bone. The nice thing about this recipe is that it remains whole, browned, but should you move it a bit with a fork, you can see how tender and juicy the meat is. THIS IS THE MOST SUCCULENT, SOFTEST LEG OF LAMB WE EVER HAD. We didnt change anything in the recipe, but I did place a lot of herbs because we like the smell. The basting, slow cooking, are the main points of this superb recipe. I kept basting as instructed and the long wait was indeed worth it.This is an excellent, sumptuous DISH-TO-IMPRESS even those with highly discriminating taste for meat dishes.I would not change anything in this recipe and am just too grateful Mean Chef shared it. Thank you Mean Chef !!! I give you 10 stars for this !!!!!!! We DID run out of mashed potatoes. The sauce made excellent rich gravy, even the day after. It just becomes richer and thicker the next day and it was just great for the holiday season.Next time I make this, I will invite more guests and make more mashed potatoes. This is gourmet as it should be and I´m not even a great chef. The recipe is just excellent.Grateful,Polar Bear”

  • “What else can I say yuummm!!Bella”

  • “This is probably the wrong time to choose to eat a slow-cooked lamb dish (June, 90’s, lots of humidity…), but so be it.I used a boneless leg of lamb.Due to this, I was slightly off on my cooking times, and the lamb came out a little overdone.Nonetheless, the flavours were just perfect.I think it should be noted here and now that this recipe CANNOT be made without mashed potatoes.That killer gravy begs for a fluffy, white mound of starch to soak into.This is lamb perfection- thanks.”

  • “amazing lamb recipe.i cook this for my family as a treat once a month or so and it always goes down a storm.thanks a lot kiwidutch, 5 stars!”

  • “Excellent lamb right here!”

  • “This is a very forgiving dish; with all the variations shown, everybody seems to have loved it.I salted and peppered a small boneless leg of lamb, in a mesh with with surface fat off;put it on a rack to roast with 2 peeled and halved onions, a good handful of baby carrots, and four peeled garlic cloves.Forgot to pour a bit of olive oil over it.Roasted 1/2 hr at 400F, 1/2 hr at 350.Removed the lamb and veggies to an ovalcasserole that fit it fairly snugly. Poured off the fat, saving the fond in the pan.deglazed with 1 cup of our boxed everyday drinking wine, Franzia Chianti.Added 1 bay leaf, 1 tsp dried thyme, two more peeled garlic cloves, 1 tsp each salt and pepper, about 2 cups of tomato sauce, a dash of powdered cloves because I didn’t have a couple of cloves to stick in each onion, chicken bouillon paste for one cup bouillon (Better than Bouillon)Sealed the casserole with parchment paper tucked down over themeat and veggies.Picked over and soaked a pound of white beans overnight. (Great Northern)Put the oven timer on 6 hours at 200F.Flopped the meat over after two hours and went to bed.Put the casserole in the fridge in the morning.Poured out the soak water, rinsed, and then covered the beans in a dutch oven with fresh water (getting rid of the flatulence-causing indigestable sugars.Julia Child says if it bothers you losing the nutrients in the soak water, eat more beans.)Brought the beans to a boil and stuck them in the oven at 250F until tender.Near serving time, removed the meat, removed the net, skimmed the congealed fat from the casserole, microwaved the sauce until warm, removed bay leaf and a couple of charred onion layers.Pureed sauce in the casserole with a nylon potato masher. Restored meat.At serving time, seasoned beans to taste with salt, pepper, pureed garlic, and basil.Heated lamb in sauce in microwave and served the lamb and sauce on the beans.As succulent and delicious as everybody has been saying.I may do this for a family feast.Served with an Argentine Malbec.”

  • “I had a small boneless leg of lamb and decided this was the recipe to try.Excellent choice for the lamb I was using and one that will be tested in my kitchen until I become a pro making it!We loved everything about it!Served with Hasselback Potatoes and Sauteed Garlic, Onions and Zucchini, this was one meal my family and I won’t soon forget!Delicious!”

  • “Amazing…..i could not find a red zinfandel so i used the red wine we were also drinking along side of the lamb.My guests said it wasthe best lamb they have ever eaten!A Keeper!Thanks!”

  • “Amazing.According to this recipe it my leg should have taken 6 hours in the oven – but it took less than three.Be sure to use a meat thermometer so that the lamb isn’t overcooked.I placed the cooking liquids, vegetables, etc (minus the rosemary sprigs) in a blender rather than boiling them down to make a gravy and it was delicious.I definitely plan to make this over and over again!”

  • “WOW!There’s not much to say about this recipe that hasn’t already been said.This lamb is absolutely amazing.Lots of mashed potatoes are definitely a must to slather in the delicious gravy.I will most definitely be making this again and again.Thanks for posting this fantastic recipe Kiwi!”

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