Roast lamb leg with peach and mint salsa

In the cooler-load of completely gratis farm-fresh meat my sister sent back with us on the July long weeknd there was a lamb leg roast. Sigh. It was pretty cold and dreary last night, plus, I wasn't feeling great - I've been off with a chest infection for 10 days now - I have the lungs of a 90-year old chain smoker. I was looking for comfort food and I thought a nice roast dinner would sort me out. I'd made a brief foray to the local Planet Organic as well, and had returned with some organic red onions, mint and the first good smelling peaches I'd found in a long time! I never bother to buy peaches or apricots unless, holding them up to my nose, they smell like a good peach should taste- juicy sweet and fragrant with peachiness. If a peach doesn't smell like that, it won't taste like it either.

I always seem to get pretty small lamb roasts. I guess because it's just Cakes and me. Unfortunately, a small roast doesn't get enough time in the oven to really crisp up on the outside the way a larger roast would. Pity. There's nothing quite so nice as lamb that's all crispy and brown on the oustside and pink and juicy in the middle. Still, as the lamb was so fresh and sweet, it didn't suffer much for the want of a brown and crispy outside. Cakes and I gobbled it up and Matty and Fitzy were pretty keen on fighting over the pink meat still clinging to the legbone when we were through.

Rather than the traditional mint sauce, which I've never been really keen on, I thought a nod in the direction of summer by way of a fruit salsa was in order. The blend of spicy mint, tangy onion and fragrant organic peaches was perfect for the rare roast lamb. The salsa is even better if prepared a few hours before and left to allow the flavours to blend.

The recipe below is for a 1 kilogram (2.2 pound) roast, to make a larger roast, increase the quantity of rub and increase the roasting time by 12 to 16 minutes per additional 500 grams.

• 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced very fine
• 1 kilogram bone-in lamb leg roast

Blend all ingredients except lamb to make a paste. Rub paste on lamb and set on roasting rack in pan. Allow glazed lamb to rest for 30 to 60 minutes, in order to allow it to come to room temperature and the flavours of the paste to blend.

Preheat oven to 250oC.

Roast lamb in oven for 15 minutes at 250oC. Reduce heat to 200oC and roast for 17 (rare) to 20 (medium) to 23 (well) minutes more. 

Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes beofre carving. Serve with peach and mint salsa.

For the salsa

• 1 ripe organic peach
• 10 - 15 large fresh mint leaves
• 1/2 a medium red onion
• 1/4 teaspon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Halve the peach, remove the pit and gently peel the skin from it. Dice finely and set aside in a small bowl. Roll mint leaves into a tight roll, chop finely and add to bowl containg the peach pieces. Thinly slice or mince the onion and add it to the peach mixture, along with the sea salt and pepper. Set the salsa aside to allow the flavours to blend.

Comments

[clare eats]

YUM Lyn!!!!
I think it must be the Australian thing... I LOVE Lamb *baaa*
The salsa is a great idea!

[sam]

It must be a commonwealth thing - I am mad for lamb too. It was the undoing of 10 years vegetarianism for me.
+ I really love the taste of crispy lamb fat.

I used to make a recipe back in the UK 5 or 6 years ago, I think I got it in a magazine - anyway it was a tabbouleh (cous cous grain) with nectarines, red onion and mint intead of tomato, cucmber and parsly. It was a delicious, so I know for a fact your salsa must be wonderful too.

[anthony]

As a lover of rare lamb roasts I salute you. Nicely captured pic too, I might add.

Rural cognoscenti will argue for mutton but I don't want to get into that here.

[Barbara]

Hey, we Americans love the lamb, too!

Well, at least, I do. And I admit to being weirdly European in my tastes for an American--it is because on one side of the family, I a set of great grandparents were British immigrants (Welsh and Ango-Irish) so on that side of the family, we ate Brit food that no one else had heard of in West Virginia. On the other side of the family, my great-grandparents were German immigrants who were farmers and butchers--so I grew up eating lamb and mutton and saurbraten and suchlike as that. Again, stuff that most West Virginia kids would turn their noses up at.

So here I am. Looking lustfully upon your lamb roast and thinking about that leg of lamb in my freezer....

[megwoo]

Lamb is amazing just on it's own but your peach and mint salsa is a brilliant idea! Well done!

[Fatemeh]

Oh... this just sounds so delicious.

Did you read my little rant about a wine education? I always used to think of lamb as "red wine" meat, until I had a bit of an education a few weeks ago.

I bet your lamb would be absolutely amazing with a crisp rose.