Sunday Night Dinner - Father's Day Lamb

This year my parents were in town for Father's Day. Rather than going out for dinner, Brent and I decided to make dinner for my parents at our place. One of my dad's favorite meals is lamb, and I boldly decided to try my hand at it. Needless to say, I was very nervous as I've never made lamb before, and have always heard that while it may not be difficult, if it is not cooked properly it can be less forgiving than other meats. While searching through my cookbooks I found a recipe for Herb-Roasted Lamb in Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Family Style. The recipe looked fairly easy, roast the lamb on potatoes.

So off we headed to Granville Island (which also happens to be one of my dad's favorite places to visit while in Vancouver) to purchase what we needed for dinner.
One of the great things about Ina Garten's recipe is that she includes in it the instructions to give the butcher. So I just marched myself over to Tenderland Meats and told the guy at the counter: 'I need a 6-pound leg of lamb, remove the leg bone but leave the shank intact'. That's a bonus of talking to an actual butcher, they got my leg of lamb ready for me and I was ready to go.


As we were trying to decide what green veggie to get for dinner, I spotted some fiddleheads, and decided, why not try my hand at these. Luckily I was able to text a co-worker who is a bit of a fiddlehead aficionado, and he gave me the instructions:

Fiddleheads - Steam or boil for 20 minutes. Pan fry in a bit of butter, garlic and sea salt. Splash some lemon or vinegar on at the end. So good!

Back to the lamb, it was surprisingly easy to prepare, and another great thing about the recipe is that you roast the lamb on the potatoes, so once that's in the oven, half of your meal is complete. Pair with a nice salad to start, some greens, and there you go. For dessert we had some home made ice cream with fresh strawberries.

Herb-Roasted Lamb (from Ina Garten)
- 12 large unpeeled garlic cloves, divided
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary leaves (you need fresh rosemary!!!)
- Sea Salt and Pepper
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 1 6-lb boneless leg of lamb, trimmed and tied
- 4-5 lbs small unpeeled potatoes (16-20)
- 2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and place rack in the lower third of the oven.
Peel 6 of the cloves of garlic and place them in the bowl of a food processor with the steel blade. Add rosemary, 1 tbsp salt, 1 tsp pepper and butter. Process until garlic and rosemary are finely minced. Coat the top and sides of the lamb with rosemary mixture. Allow to sit at room temperature for 30 mins to an hour.

Toss the potatoes and remaining unpeeled garlic in a bowl with the olive oil. Sprinkle with salt. Place in the bottom of a large roasting pan. Place the lamb on top of the potatoes and roast for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the internal temperature of the lamb is 135 degrees for rare, or 145 degrees for medium. Remove from oven and put lamb on a platter; cover tightly with aluminum foil, allow to rest for 20 minutes. Slice and serve with potatoes.