Lamb Leg Red Wine Recipe

We just ate lamb leg for the first time. It was unanimous. We all loved it. In fact I should have taken a picture of it....it looked sooooo good.

I grew up living in the country on a couple acres, but my family never raised any animals other than a pet dog and rabbit. When I think about it I kind of wonder why we didn't.

This lamb leg was small from one of the whether lambs we had processed this fall. When we told our families we were raising sheep, they all said yuck about the meat, but I doubt very much that they ever even tasted any kind of lamb meat. The leg of lamb roast we ate tonight would be considered real gourmet fare. Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1 cup red wine
4 cloves minced garlic
1 t thyme
3 T minced fresh rosemary
a pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 T extra virgin olive oil

Put all the ingredients into a ziplock plastic bag along with the lamb leg and marinate. I put the lamb in the refrigerator and marinated all day. Before I baked the leg I rubbed it liberally with plenty of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. I baked it on a small rack in my roasting pan and because I couldn't find anything on-line that was consistent with how long you should cook your roast I cooked mine until a thermometer read 140 degrees in the center. I wanted the meat done a little more than medium rare and I have to say it was perfect. I had a bone-in leg so that usually needs a little more time than a boneless leg. One of the directions I read said to start with a hot 425 degree oven for 20 minutes and then turn down to 300 degrees so that is what I did and I have to say for my very first time I was delighted it turned out so delicious!