This one is definitely not my recipe, but I was a bad little recipe-follower and followed the original loosely. I happen to love leeks. A lot. I love them soft and slime-y and sweet. So I doubled the amount of leeks in the recipe. I may have also overdone it on the white wine, trying to make up for the extra leeks.
Sautéing the leeks
The other thing I changed was after roasting it at the higher first temperature, I wanted to put it in the slow-cooker to finish long and slow. This is the any-idiot-can-make-amazing-lamb way of guaranteeing success. Except the lamb leg was too big for the slow-cooker. Imagine grabbing a seared leg of lamb with your two hands and trying to rip it apart or bend it so it stuffs into the cooker. Yes, I did that. I tried a knife too, but that didn’t work. Just before giving up and resigning myself to oven-cooked, most likely overcooked lamb (I really don’t have much faith in my oven abilities), I finally managed to stuff it in to the slowcooker.
Everyone loved this lamb. Leg is a pricey cut, and you don’t get that much meat from it, but that’s why you have the extra leeks to round out the dish. Just don’t overcook it and wreck it. Medium-well is a little too “well” unless you like chewing rubber.
Oh, and because I love mortar and pestles, I ground the spices that way instead of in a food processor or coffee grinder. It was a little more work but an easier clean-up.
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