Homeric Leg Of Lamb With Blood Orange Glaze, Fregola, Feta And Mint
- 2 1/2 pound boneless leg of lamb. It's pretty easy to bone out yourself if you are so inclined and you can put the bone to other uses but otherwise ask you butcher
- 7 or 8 blood oranges (tarocchi)
- 1/4 cup red wine, preferably Sicilian
- 1/2 cup Sicilian olives (big fat ones, I used a combination of black and red)
- 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese divided (that would be two 1/4 cups if I have my math right)
- 1 cup fregola grassa (sardegnan couscous)
- 1 medium red onion
- 1 bunch mint, the freshest you can find
- 1 clove garlic
- Sea salt (of course)
- Ground black pepper to your taste
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Pit the olives and chop them roughly, this will be for the filling
- Open up the lamb and with a very sharp knife cross hatch the meat without going through to the skin. Season with salt and pepper. Add the olives and a portion of the feta and spread over the interior surface
- Cut a single length of kitchen string, long enough to tie up the whole piece of lamb in a jelly roll form (you know how to do this right? Be sure to keep your seams straight)
- Cut the garlic into slivers. With a sharp knife put some small slits into the lamb. Lard with the garlic slivers.
- Season generously with more sea saltrnHeat your oven to 350? to 375? (you decide)
- Peel and thinly slice the red onion. Oil a roasting pan and cover the bottom of the pan with the onion slices
- Juice all but two of the blood oranges. You will need about 1/2 cup of squeezed juice. In a small sauce pan combine the orange juice and the wine and heat up slowly. You will want to keep this warm on a burner (maybe over a flame tamer) for the duration
- Baste the lamb with the warm juice and wine mixture---I assure you will be fragrant. Place the lamb in the oven. Allow about 1 to 1 1/2 hours cooking time. Baste every twenty minutes. Check the lamb temperature with an instant read thermometer. When it hits 140? remove the pan and tent with aluminum foil. Let this rest for ten minutes. Personally I don't like lamb "well done."
- While the lamb is roasting/resting prepare the couscous to package directions. Chop up a big old handful of fresh mint. Throw some of that on top of the lamb while it's still tented. Peel the remaining two oranges and cut them into segments (supremes).
- To plate, carve the lamb, spoon out couscous and top that with crumbled feta and more chopped mint. Garnish with blood orange segments.
us pretty, oranges, red wine, olives, feta cheese, fregola grassa, red onion, mint, clove garlic, salt, ground black pepper, extra virgin olive oil
Taken from food52.com/recipes/3502-homeric-leg-of-lamb-with-blood-orange-glaze-fregola-feta-and-mint (may not work)