Lamb Roast

Warning, this is not a recipe to cook on those hot days that Sydney has been experiencing lately.

The lamb roast was always a special Sunday lunch as a grew up. My parents labored away, preparing the lamb, battling with the pumpkin and peeling the potatoes. This was a two hour preparation including cooking time and then my favorite Sunday lunch was ready. I had my lamb with horseradish cream, like wasabi, use to clear out my nostrils. The lamb had garlic in it. I love the cooked soft garlic that left me with some degree of garlic breath. I had my crunchy roasted potatoes. I did not have the pumpkin. I have not be inclined towards pumpkin since I can remember and I even tried it recently. The taste did not agree with me and neither can I tolerate it.

I had a few days off  from work just recently. I became rather ambitious a few days prior to my much too short break to make a lamb roast, with roasted potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potato. Also some green beans on the side. I had doubts in my mind if I could really get away with it. All those years my parents made roast lamb, what was I doing? Sitting around, reading books, writing, drawing, studying. I was rather the somewhat the creative sort way back when. That is pretty much all gone now. So I cursed myself for not paying more attention to my parents roast lamb all those years ago.

Here is the meal that I created. I will not do I step by step picture process for this one. The recipe I used is below and then further down, another image of the creation.

The ingredients

A leg of lamb, which ever size you require

1/4 cup of olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, peeled

6 unwashed potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters

1 kilo of butternut pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and cut into desired size

1 sweet potato

400 grams of green beans

The method

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius. With the lamb in a roasting pan season it with salt and pepper. Rub it over with some olive oil. Make 1 cm deep silts in the lamb and insert the garlic. I used about 7 garlic cloves, love garlic. When I was a teen and had lots of time on my hands which did not require me to go out. I would have garlic bread with practically raw garlic. I had bad breath for days and so do not do that anymore. Also, this is the step where my daughter told me that the leg of lamb looks disgusting. A week later she told me that she was having thoughts about becoming and vegetarian. Perhaps that thought grew from me telling her if she would like to become when she grew older.

After 15 minutes of roasting the lamb in the oven reduce the temperature to 180 degrees Celsius. Now the time required in roasting the lamb varies on how rare or well done you want it to be. I am no expert on this. I like my meat cooked well done, burnt, well no not really. I read on a website that I cannot recall, that if you skewer it and the juices run clear then it is well done. 

Now on a separate baking tray, place the potato, pumpkin and sweet potato on it and brush them with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place them in the oven so as to time it with the removal on the lamb. They should take about 40 minutes. Leave them a touch longer if you want you potatoes crispy. 

Meanwhile, I pan friend the green beans with some olive oil and salt until soft.

When done, remove the lamb and the vegetables from the oven and allow the lamb to rest. Carve the lamb and serve with the vegetables.

It was not as good as my parents but I am somewhat impressed with myself on my first attempt. The lamb was not as well done as I would have liked, lets say it was medium well, if there is such a thing. The vegetables were fine.