lamb & oven veggies

the leg of lamb used to be attached to one of our neighbours' lawnmower, namely a lamb. the neighbours bought 4 lambs last spring to take care of their lawnmowing. late autumn when there wasn't any grass for the lamb to eat...well, the ugly thing happened. you figure out what, or not, if you don't want to.

here's certain someone starting his cooking school by trying to debone the leg of lamb







certain someone did a good job. the dog got his share in form of the bone later on







fresh mint, thyme and rosemary







there was some leftover tapas in garlic oil that i used as base for the marinade. poured all that into a sturdy plastic bag, added the peel and juice of one lemon, 5 smashed gloves of garlic, few sprigs of the above mentioned herbs and a few tbsp of olive oil







placed the meat into the plastic bag and gave, sorry, certain someone gave it a good rub. the meat was then placed into the fridge for approx 5 hrs, overnight would have been optimal







after 5 hrs i took the meat out, removed herb springs and lemon peels and made a rub out of minced thyme, rosemary, mint, parsley, salt, lemon juice and olive oil







did leave the dried tomatoes of the tapas in, added the rub and tied the meat into a tight package and placed it into a oven roasting bag (see, i've now learned something)







the meat took about an hour in 200C, inside temp was 70C. after taking it out of the oven, poured the juices into a saucepan, covered the meat with foil and a kitchen towel. defatted the juices and made a sauce with a slurry (all purpose flour + cold water) and cream







still slightly pink, very tender







as a side dish i roasted these, potatoes, eggplant, carrots, parsnip, sweetpotatoes with minced thyme and rosemary and olive oil







love oven roasted veggies, would have been happy with eating just these







this went nicely with the meat







as did this







my portion plated. still feel a bit qualm about the taste of lamb... will eat it if i cooked it myself but have never ordered it in a restaurant, anywhere. have probably missed quite a number of decent lamb dishes but what do you do...







as usual i had bought a big punch of parsley as it freezes great. took out the top parts, minced them and placed in ice cube tray for easy use later on







tied the sprigs into tight bundles, bagged them individually and placed in freezer. the bundles come in handy when making stocks and stews







ps. this morning we woke up to -22C temp and no cold water... oddly the warm water was running. by the time we were done with breakfast (salmon omelett) the cold water was running again. don't call this place shack for nothing...