Spit Roasted Leg of Lamb with Preserved Lemon, Saffron, Olive, and Vinaigrette

Another fantastic Friday of coming home from a less-than-fabulous week of work and sitting down with a glass of wine while Derek prepares a gourmet meal for the two of us. I don't think this is something I will ever take for granted...I know I am so lucky to have this service provided to at no cost (though I do have to deal with his little quirks daily).

On the menu this night was lamb - a leg roast that had been picked up a few days earlier at our local meat market.

The recipe came from FoodNetwork.com - a Cat Cora recipe.

Note: Derek made at most a quarter of vinaigrette that the recipe provided calls for. I would have gone in shock if he had used up that whole expensive bottle of delicious champagne vinegar!

Spit Roasted Leg of Lamb with Preserved Lemon, Saffron, Olive, and Vinaigrette

Ingredients

1 cup champagne vinegar
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
2 cups pure olive oil
1 tablespoon preserved lemon, small diced
1 cup oil cured olives, finely chopped
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
1 (5 to 6 pound) leg of lamb
8 small sprigs rosemary
3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon dry oregano, crumbled
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped fine
1 lemon, juiced
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Directions
In a small saute pan, bring the champagne vinegar and saffron to a boil for 1 minute. Pour into a bowl and whisk in the olive oil slowly as to incorporate it. Add the chopped preserved lemon and black olives. Season with pepper. I do not add salt to this because of the saltiness of the olives. This recipe makes a quart and will last for at least a month.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

Make sure the lamb leg is cleaned well and any hard fat is trimmed off. Make 8 slits in the leg and stuff them with the rosemary sprigs and garlic cloves. Rub the leg with the olive oil, dry and fresh oregano, lemon, salt, and pepper. Tie with kitchen twine to create a uniform shape to ensure even cooking.

Roast at 500 degrees F. for about 30 minutes. Lower heat to 375 degrees F. Add water to the pan if needed. Cook until internal temperature reaches 135 degrees.

Remove the lamb from the pan and let rest. Skim the fat from the pan juices and pour the juice onto the bottom of a platter. Slice the lamb into thin slices and serve topped with the preserved lemon sauce.

I think the picture make the piece of meat look odd - it was actually pretty lean for a piece of lamb. And it was SO tender. I really have to give Derek props for cooking this perfectly. It makes up for our overcooked lamb (though still tasty) on Easter. I'm glad he didn't follow the original recipe because it called for cooking the meat for over 3 hours. Mind you, it was probably a slightly larger piece of meat that it called for, but even if the timing had been adjusted accordingly, it still would have been far too long. This is why it is important to have a meat thermometer gauging cook time rather than a number in a recipe.

The meat actually took far less time than anticipated so we ended up eating dinner at 6:30 PM - that is completely unheard of at our place. Luckily I was hungry so I just omitted my usual post-work snack and went right on to dinner. Gave me the whole evening to work on our bottle of Syrah and go to bed fairly early...it was a Friday afterall.

The only negative critique that we both agreed on was that the rosemary was a bit too strong. While rosemary provides wonderful flavor, it slightly overpowered the meat and the tanginess of the preserved lemons.

This was served with an israeli couscous mixed with some roasted pumpkin seeds, shallots and currants.

The Syrah was a fantastic Arrowood - my favorite winery in Sonoma - and went nicely with the lamb.