Australian Lamb

During the holidays, Wegmans had an incredible sale on lamb; refrigerated floor bins filled with legs and racks. Good prices too. Of course the sign just said “lamb.”

A tedious search of the packaging finally turned up, in some of the tiniest print I’ve ever seen, “product of Australia.” Wouldn’t you know it! They imported lamb but they imported the wrong one! Apologies to foodisthebestshitever but everybody knows that if you’re importing lamb from way over in that direction, it should be from New Zealand! Boy howdy! What’s wrong with our education system?! Of course I bought a couple of packages to freeze. Australia can’t be that far from New Zealand (I never was strong in geography) and after reading The Thorn Birds, I figured they would know more about raising and eating sheep than we do. I was right :)

Quite a while ago I made a fabulous pork roast using a Jamie Oliver rub of garlic, rosemary and fennel seeds. I thought this would be interesting for lamb also. Jamie did say something about bashing this mixture around in a mortar to create a fine paste. My suggestion is that if you don’t have a coffee grinder that is dedicated to the grinding of whole spices and herbs, buy one. This will take the fuss and aggravation out of preparing Indian cuisine and Jamie Oliver’s innovative recipes. Sometimes Jamie goes too far :)

Australian lamb is so good! But of course you Australians know that ;)

I roasted some cauliflower, zucchini, mushrooms and shallots with olive oil and herbs. Couldn’t go wrong there, I’ve done it so many times :D Perfect with the lamb.

I thought I would try to make an attractive sandwich photo but I just wanted to eat it and couldn’t be bothered :D

Fennel and Rosemary Roasted Lamb Leg

1 semi-boneless leg of lamb roast

Leaves from 2 sprigs of rosemary

3 heaping tbsps fennel seeds

3-4 garlic cloves

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

3 whole rosemary sprigs

Aggressively stab the roast all over with a large knife. Grind the rosemary leaves, fennel seeds, garlic cloves, salt and pepper together and rub into the lamb. Allow the lamb to rest for about 30 minutes.

Place the whole rosemary sprigs on the grill of a roasting pan and lay the roast on top. Preheat the oven to 425 F, then roast the lamb for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 F and continue to roast for an hour.