Leg of lamb with pomegranate molasses and root veg

It's what's for Easter dinner, here at Camp Borepatch.

Ingredients:

One leg of lamb, 5-6 lbs.  Have the butcher de-bone it for you.
A mess or carrots, chopped into thumb-sized pieces
A mess of parsnips, chopped into thumb-sized pieces
A mess of potatoes, chopped into thumb-sized pieces
One large sweet onion, chopped into thumb-sized pieces
Salt and pepper
One bottle of Pom pomegranate juice
2 tbsp sugar

 Making the Molasses:

Combine the sugar and juice in a sauce pan and reduce by three quarters.  This may take as long as half an hour.  You'll know that you're getting close when the bubbles pile up on each other.  Remove from the heat and let cool.

Important: the reduction will thicken when it cools.  Don't cook it too long or you'll get pomegranate candy.


Assembling:

Toss the veg and potato with olive oil and spread in a roasting pan.  Lay the lamb flat and pour the molasses over the lamb.  Close the lamb back, and truss with butcher's twine.  Don't worry about how the twine looks, just lash it closed - it's all getting cut off in the end anyway.  Pour more molasses on the outside of the lamb and put on top of the veg.

Bake at 350° for an hour, and then test with a meat thermometer - it's very hard to do this by time, so you'll have to get all scientificy and everything and collect data.  Just don't play Climate Scientist and "adjust" the data to what you want it to be - at least if you want something decent to eat.  You want this to be 130° for medium rare or 145° for medium.

Personally, I think that most people over cook lamb, but chacun à son goût. Let rest for ten minutes after removing from the oven, and serve to your admitring public.


This goes very nicely with a good Spanish rioja.  I particularly like Marques de Riscal, around $20 at Trader Joe's (who knew that Trader Joe's had wine that expensive?  But this is worth it, and remember that this is not your every day meal, it's a feast.  So feast).