Nothing like a leg of lamb

In all the universe and all the worlds there is nothing quite like a roast leg of lamb. The tenderness and juiciness of the meat, the flavour and texture. Roast leg of lamb will beat roast beef any day of the week in my humble opinion. This week we cooked arguably one of the best pieces of lamb I have ever had. This was a cut from the whole lamb we bought a couple of months back from a local farm here in Oregon.

You would not believe how tender this meat really is. It can make roast beef taste like an old shoemakers boot. We covered the roast in garlic and herbs before roasting to give it that extra flavour and it paid off.

I really enjoy photographing food, especially roasts, they have an ability to make you instantly hungry, to make your mouth water in anticipation of the coming meal.

Even though I've said it before I'm really stunned that lamb is not more popular here in the USA. It would seem to me that it is easier to produce than beef and probably less harmful to the environment.

Served with white scallop squash and garlic along with mashed potatoes. If I was back home I'd probably add some Bisto gravy to the mix, however, we are currently out. We will order more in the future though (can't do without a bit of Bisto).

As always, if you haven't tried lamb you should give it a go. Try getting it from a local producer if possible as it will always be better. If you can't get it from a local producer then I'd recommend New Zealand or Irish lamb as an alternative. Both countries produce fantastic lamb and you won't regret buying it. If you need recipes try Google or drop +Linda Dean a note.

Lamb shoulder roast

The roasting of the lamb continues, tonight we had a lamb shoulder roast and it was melt in your mouth good. We slow roasted it for four hours packed with onions, potatoes, garlic and broccoli. It's almost hard to believe how tasty and tender lamb is if you've never had it. It is a completely different eating experience to beef and pork. Beef is much tougher and can dry out while roasting if not done correctly, lamb on the other hand stays moist and tender.

The onions add a nice flavour to the meat and potatoes and the dripping makes a really delicious gravy for your meal. +Linda Dean is particularly good at making gravy.

Linda can best describe the cooking method of this meal though. My fun begins when the meal is cooked and I get to photograph it in the hopes that my images make your mouths water. That they stir the hunger in your bellies for decent home cooked meals and flavours that you might not have tried before.

I really do love photographing good food, it's not always easy to get the right image because you want your pictures to cause a reaction in the viewer, to inspire a desire in your audience.

I know several people back home that will be eating a roast this week because of this blog post. In fact they will probably be eating several over the coming weeks.

I'm still in shock at the lack of lamb in the USA, maybe these posts will stir more of a desire to try it and we'll start seeing it turn up in the shops. If possible try and get it from a local farmer though as it will be less processed and should be a superior cut of meat. We're lucky in Oregon that we have several very high quality farms willing to sell lamb at a good price.

The potatoes were cooked in with the meat and other veg and so soaked up all those flavours, we then mashed them with garlic and the onions and they turned out great.

The final meal was just fantastic and we have plenty of left overs for a snack later and tomorrow. For more information on the cooking method feel free to drop +Linda Dean a message.

Linda's first lamb BBQ

One of the strangest things for me moving to Oregon from Ireland was that there was no lamb to be found in the supermarkets, I mean literally no lamb at all. Back in Ireland it might be expensive at times but lamb chops and lamb roast are a common sight in every butchers. So I found myself really missing the taste of lamb as I've never really been a huge beef eater apart from the odd steak during the summer or a beef stew during the winter. Then one fateful day last summer +Linda Dean with the help of Google discovered a local farmer who was actually willing to sell us lamb at an affordable price. We had struck gold and a week later we cycled out to the farm to collect our lamb. It was Linda's first taste of a lamb roast and she was blown away by the flavour, lamb really is an incredibly tasty meat and even mutton is fantastic if cooked correctly.

So this year while at the local farmers market here in Corvallis, Linda once again came across a farmer that was willing to sell us Lamb at a reasonable price. So we bought an entire lamb to freeze and keep for the months ahead (better value to buy in bulk if you can) and tonight we had our first lamb chop BBQ. 

Our still newish grill was put to good use tonight and not for the last time this summer cooking some great lamb for us.

If you look very closely at Linda in the above picture you can actually see her drooling at the thought of eating the lamb.

Lamb is much more pink I think than beef and takes a bit longer to cook, it is normally very tender and the taste is completely different to beef.

They sizzle nicely with a drop of olive oil and their own juices. The smells of lamb cooking on the BBQ are delightful and will have you drooling just like Linda in anticipation of the coming meal.

They definitely cook a lot slower than beef steak so you have to watch that but they don't burn like beef either as lamb is a very juicy meat.

Lamb is very, very succulent, tender and incredibly flavoursome, we didn't have any tonight but mint sauce can be great with lamb and we really should make some as we have a ton of mint growing in the garden (we've been using them for Mint Juleps).

Next I think we'll try a nice Lamb roast or possibly rack of lamb with mint sauce made with fresh mint picked in the garden.

And that's about it for now, so the lesson here is, if you haven't tried lamb you seriously need to...unless you're a no meat person in which case you need to try some fresh garden mint in a Mint Julep.