Kitchen Adventures

Leg of Lamb (stuffed with bacon, rosemary, sage, garlic, and scallions), Roasted Honey-Mustard Baby Red Potatoes, and Cranberry Sauce

J gave the cranberry and lamb combo a good-spirited try, but in the end it wasn't gelling with his pallet.  I can't really blame him, since it's a type of combination (tangy fruit + gamey meat) American's seem to avoid except on holidays.  What's up with that anyway?  Why are we comfortable with Ikea's meatballs with lingonberry sauce, yet we never think to boil down some cherries for our steak?  Maybe that's just it; the extra work.

Anyway, I pulsed the lamb's "stuffing" in a food processor until it was a mealy pulp.  I'm looking for the correct term but coming up blank.  "Stuffings" or "dressings" seem to normally be bread-based.  This was more of a fatty herb mixture.  I pounded the lamb and rolled it tight with the bacon/garlic pulp, cooked it at 450 for about an hour and a half, and then let it rest for fifteen minutes.  I was all prepped to make a pan sauce, but I let the drippings cook a little too long, and they burned as a result.  Next time I'll pour off the drippings after about an hour so that there is something to work with.  The potatoes were pretty damn delish.  You can see in this image the honey-mustard glaze, pre-whisking.  I started them at 450 in the convection oven and then dropped them down to 325 after the outer layer was crisp (about an hour total).