A bit of an experiment in photographing this Rolled and Stuffed Leg of Lamb. I decided to take the pictures in real time, that is while we were eating our dinner with two faithful friends who did not mind being models while being guests. It resulted in some interesting photos, including the one shown here and as part of our dinner party.
Tip : It is far less difficult to prepare the roast and the vegetables the day before, and then just roast the next day.
Ingredients
- 1 leg boneless New Zealand or Australian leg of lamb
- 1 lb ground pork
- 12-16 pieces dried apricots soaked in hot water
- 2 sprigs rosemary or 2 tsp dried
- 6 leaves fresh sage or 1 tsp ground
- 1 tspn freshly ground black pepper
- 1-2 tspn kosher salt
- 1 recipe Port Wine Sauce
- 8 small heirloom carrots peeled, but left whole
- 4-5 cloves garlic
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients before starting recipe.
- Trim the leg of excess fat and set aside until your are ready to stuff and tie.
- Soak dried apricots in hot water while preparing the herbs and ground pork filling.
- Finely chop the herbs and set aside.
- Place the ground pork in a large mixing bowl and add the herbs, salt and black pepper and mix using your hands until all combined.
- Strain the apricots reserve 8 whole apricots and and chop the rest finely.
- Unroll leg of lamb, season with salt and pepper and spread the ground pork mixture evenly on the inside of the roast, that is the side that does not have the fat, then, top the filling with the chopped apricots.
- Roll the leg up and tie with kitchen twine, maybe 4 or 5 lengths across the leg, and then 1 or 2 lengths the other way. Try make a nice round or oval shape. Season with salt and pepper again. At this point, you can place in a glass baking dish, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate over night.
Next Day
- Remove lamb from the refrigerator at least 2 hours before roasting.
- Pre heat the oven to 400° and prepare the vegetables.
- Peel carrots and combine with garlic cloves and remaining apricots on a foil lined cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Compute the time to roast the lamb
- Compute cooking time for roast. Divide the total weight by 20, this will yield total cooking time. So, a 3 pound roast will require 60 minutes of cooking, or 3 pounds divided by 20 minutes/pound.
- There are two cooking temperatures. The roast has to be cooked for 30 minutes at 400°. If we have the 3 pound roast, then we need to deduct the first 30 minutes from the total time, which was 60 minutes, leaving 30 minutes to cook at 350°. The same formula applies for any weight,
Roast
- Place the roast in a pre heated oven for 30 minutes at 400°. Set the timer. When the 30 minutes are complete, reduce the oven temperature to 350° and set the timer for the time remaining. This method will yield a medium rare roast. Remove roast when the cooking time is done and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.
Vegetables
- Place vegetables and reserved apricots in the pre heated oven about 10 minutes before the roast is done and roast for about 20 minutes.
