Christmas Roast Lamb Leg
Ingredients for 4 people
- 1 lamb leg in 1 piece
- 1 large onion
- 1 small glass of port wine
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 100 gr opine kernels
- 50 gr raisins
- Black peppercorns
- Rosemary
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 garlic cloves
- Salt
Preparation: Wash and rinse the lamb’s leg. Using a sharp knife, make 2-3 deep diagonal cuts along the fleshy side.
On a large ovenproof glass tray, set the lamb’s leg and add the port, lemon juice, peppercorns, bay leaf, rosemary to taste and chopped garlic. Cover and leave to marinade in the fridge overnight. Use aluminium if your glass tray doesn’t have a glass cover.
3.5 hours before serving time, pre-heat the oven to 150º. Take the lid off the lamb’s leg tray and turn the leg so the dry part is now immersed in the juices. Add salt to taste, cover again and place in the oven. Lower the temperature to 130º and leave for 1 hour.
Remove the lamb from the oven and add the sliced onion, pine kernels and raisins. Cover again and return to the oven, raising back the temperature to 150º.
After 1 hour, remove the tray from the oven once more, turn the lamb and return the tray to the oven, uncovered. Raise the oven to 170º.
45 minutes later, remove the tray and carefully tip the juices into a saucepan. Be careful not to remove any of the pepper, pine kernels or other bits, just the liquid. Check the lamb to see if it’s done yet by piercing with a skewer and ensuring any juices run clear. Return the lamb to the oven (keep it on 170º if it’s not yet done, otherwise switch oven off to keep lamb warm). Place the saucepan over a high fire to reduce the juices a bit into a thin gravy.
Presentation: Slice the leg (will be very soft to carve) and add some of the pine kernels, raisins etc to each plate. Ladle some of the gravy onto each slice and bring the rest of the gravy to the table.
Serve with roast potatoes and steamed vegetables.
Cooking tip: Try adding some apple purée, mint or red wine to the juices to add different flavours to your gravy. You can also use a teaspoon of corn flour to thicken the gravy a bit more.
About this dish: Lamb is one of Spain’s favourite meats, especially during Christmas. The larger parts such as legs or even entire suckling animals are prepared in this way and carved at the table for a great family meal experience.
Curiosity: Lamb is so popular in Spain for Christmas that prices routinely double on the run-up to the festive season. Few people will let that affect them – ’tis the season for eating well!
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