Roast Leg of Lamb
The New Zealand Sunday lamb: garlic and rosemary studded leg, roasted pink, with real mint sauce instead of the jelly.
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 1 h 40 min
- total
- 2 h
- serves
- 6
- level
- medium
New Zealand raises roughly five sheep per person, and the Sunday lamb roast is the national thank-you. The method is classic: a leg studded deeply with garlic and rosemary, started hot, finished gentle, and rested longer than feels polite.
The mint sauce deserves rehabilitation: made fresh with vinegar and sugar it is sharp and grassy, nothing like the wobbling green jelly that gave it a bad name.
Roast Leg of Lamb is one of the world's classic dishes from 67 countries.
method
Stab the lamb deeply all over and push a garlic sliver and rosemary tuft into each cut. Rub with oil, salt and pepper and bring to room temperature.
Roast at 220°C (430°F) for 20 minutes, then at 180°C (350°F) for 60 to 75 minutes more, until the center reads 55°C for pink.
Rest under foil for 25 to 30 minutes; the reading climbs to about 60°C.
Make the mint sauce: dissolve the sugar in the boiling water, add the vinegar and mint, and let it stand 15 minutes.
Carve across the grain and serve with the mint sauce, pan juices and the roast vegetables.
chef's tips
- Stud deep; surface garlic burns while buried garlic perfumes.
- The thermometer is the recipe: 55°C pulled is pink perfection after resting.
- Fresh mint sauce takes five minutes and retires the jelly forever.