There’s a wonderful Alsace prep which can be found in Andre Soltner’s book The Lutece Cookbook: Gigot d’Angeau a la Puree d’Ail (Leg of Lamb with Garlic Puree). It’s a bit of work, as it involves peeling and blanching 5 whole heads of garlic, but the puree is sublime, and freezes very well. The blanching makes it very mild and gentle.
The lamb itself is simply rubbed with salt and pepper, then roasted. Anyone who knows me knows that I firmly believe the better the ingredients, the less I want to do to it, so this is the my go-to prep for the best lamb I can get.
A colleague here raises lamb on a dike near the north sea. I got some chops and a leg from him.
Very tender, with lovely flavor. The French have angeau salé.
Anyway, with that I did traditional. Garlic slivers deep inside. Outside rub of Rosemary, s&p, and a bit of powdered ginger. Very hot oven to set a crust at first, then lower.
Basically what I ended up doing, except without the ginger. Simple and trying to get the utmost out of the lamb. Remainder went into a fine shepherd’s pie.
I did one on Sunday, 4lb rubbed the inside before I tied it up with a paste of olive oil, garlic and rosemary and the same on the outside. 15 minutes at 450 and then down to 350 till the internal temp hit 125 degrees. Tented and left to stand for 15 minutes. Perfect medium rare. Lots of leftovers making their way into gyros and a shepherd’s pie.
Last one I did - scored & slathered with mustard powder, added salt, pepper, herbs and sous vide for around 18-20hrs then seared on a super hot Weber, while reducing the juices to make a red wine sauce. It was pretty amazing, and awesome to see the magic of sous vid make a big thick piece of meat like that perfectly MR all the way through.