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Sunday Dinner – Roast Lamb
Served with roasted potatoes and endive salad
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Serves 4
Prep time: 15 minutes Total time: 90 minutes* |
- 8 large potatoes (we like Yukon Gold), preferably organic
- 1 lb. Belgian endive
- 1 lemon
- 1 bunch rosemary
- 1-3/4 lbs. boneless lamb shoulder, in one piece
- ½ cup walnuts
- 1 baguette
Shopping List
- Bay leaves
- Black pepper
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Garlic
- Sea salt
- Walnut oil – optional
Pantry Items
- Bread knife
- Chef’s knife
- Dutch oven
- Instant read thermometer
- Large stockpot or pasta pot
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Mixing bowls
- Paring knife
- Roasting pan
- Roasting rack
- Sheet pan
- Spatula
- Strainer
- Tongs
- Whisk
- Wooden spoons
Tools
- Wine: Try a Gigondas
- Dessert: Apple tart
- * Total time will be greater if marinating the lamb
Suggestions
- When you walk in the door
- Don’t’ refrigerate the lamb
- Preheat the oven to 400F
- Get out Pantry Items
- Get out Tools
- Assemble the ingredients
- Open the wine, pour yourself a glass to savor while you cook
- Prep
- Peel and finely dice 3 cloves garlic.
- Strip 1/3 cup rosemary leaves. Coarsely chop them, put them in a bowl and cover with 6 tbsps. olive oil.
- Rub the lamb all over with 1 tbsp. of the olive oil and rosemary mixture. Rub 2 of the diced garlic cloves over the lamb.
- Set the lamb on the roasting rack in the roasting pan. You can let the lamb sit at room temperature for up to 3 hours at this point. Or you can roast it immediately.
- When you’re ready to start cooking, scrub the potatoes. Don’t peel them. Make a deep slit in each potato, lengthwise, almost cutting it in half.
- Rinse and pat dry the endive. Remove any damaged leaves.
- Start Cooking
- Put ½ cup walnuts on the sheet pan and put them in the preheating oven to toast.
- Check the walnuts. Remove them from the oven if they’re toasted.
- Sprinkle the insides of each potato with salt and pepper. Slip a bay leaf into the slit in each potato. Set the potatoes on the sheet pan you used for the walnuts and put in the oven. They’ll take about 1 hour to roast.
- Put the lamb in the oven and roast it for about 45 minutes total, for rare lamb.
- After 15 minutes, baste the lamb with the olive oil and rosemary mix.
- You’ve got some free time here, but don’t go too far because you need to baste the lamb twice more, at 15 minute intervals.
- About 10 minutes before the lamb and potatoes are cooked, make the endive salad.
- Coarsely chop the walnuts.
- Squeeze half a lemon through your fingers into a bowl (you should have about 1 tbsp. lemon juice). Add the remaining clove diced garlic, and a generous pinch of salt and pepper and whisk in 1/4 cup walnut or olive oil.
- Cut the endive into 1/2-inch rounds and add them to the vinaigrette. Toss, toss, toss. Add the chopped walnuts, adjust the seasoning and toss again.
- Season the lamb generously with salt and pepper, and let it sit for at least 10 minutes. You can leave the potatoes in the oven, even if they’ve already roasted for 1 hour – they’ll be fine.
- Slice the bread, give the endive salad another toss and take both to the table.
- Remove the potatoes from the oven and put them on a platter.
- Transfer the lamb to a cutting board. Pour any cooking juices into a gravy boat for the table.
- Either slice the lamb at the table (impressive and elegant but potentially messy), or slice it in the kitchen and put it on a warmed platter (elegant but keeps people waiting). Either way, garnish with fresh rosemary sprigs.
- Take the lamb, the potatoes and the wine to the table.
