Roast lamb with saffron honey | Bibbyskitchen recipes (2024)

There’s a regal-ness to lamb that speaks of tradition and lavish celebration. It signifies generosity and extends open-handed hospitality. Although our festivities might be smaller and more intimate this year, roast lamb uphold its glorious reputation as the feasting table’s centrepiece. Because of my great love-affair with Middle Eastern food, I’ll be making Roast lamb with saffron honey.

While slow roasting requires time and patience, the preparation is hardly any effort at all. After the initial overnight marination, it’s into the oven for a few slow hours under a lazy eye. The reward? Meltingly tender meat that you can cut with a spoon. Because slow roasted lamb yields willingly, I prefer to pull the meat into uneven chunks rather than neatly carved slices. It’s not the kind of food that requires precision or exactness. I then swoosh the meat in the glossy gravy, making sure every mouthful sings with sweetly scented saffron honey sauce. The flavourings are earthy and deep, imbued with desert warmth and soulful spices. Helpful here, is a bread of some sort, maybe warm Turkish milk bread or fluffy flatbreads, to mop up golden-hued oil slicks.

Roast lamb with Saffron Honey

Marinade

  • 60ml (1/4 cup) olive oil
  • 45ml (3 tablespoon) honey
  • 60ml (1/4 cup) lemon juice
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 clove garlic, finely minced
  • 10ml (2 teaspoons) cumin seeds, toasted
  • 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, toasted
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
  • 1/2 – 1 teaspoon dried red chilli flakes
  • a pinch of saffron threads, steeped in 1 tablespoon hot water
  • 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt flakes
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • olive oil, for roasting
  • 2.5 -3kg free-range leg of lamb
  • 3 red onions, peeled and sliced into wedges
  • 1 garlic bulb, halved
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 125ml (1/2 cup) chicken stock
  • salt and cracked black pepper
  1. For the marinade, place all the ingredients in a small mixing bowl and stir to combine.
  2. Rub the marinade into the lamb making sure the entire surface is covered. Place the lamb in a non-metallic dish, cover tightly and chill overnight.
  3. Before roasting, bring the meat up to room temperature.
  4. Preheat the oven to 180º C.
  5. Place the onions, garlic and bay leaves in a large roasting tin. Drizzle with about 2 tablespoons olive oil and season lightly with salt and pepper. Flake a little more salt over the lamb and place on top of the onions, fatty side facing down.
  6. Add the stock to the roasting tin, cover loosely with foil and roast for about 2 1/2 hours.
  7. Remove the foil and carefully turn the lamb over with the fatty side facing up. Roast for 50-60 minutes uncovered. To render the fat and caramelise the top, increase the oven temperature to 220º C and roast for a 15-20 minutes until deeply golden.
  8. Remove the lamb from the roasting tin and cover with foil. Rest the meat while finishing the gravy.
  9. Place the roasting tin on the hob. Reduce the pan juices over a high heat until desired consistency. Or, for a thicker gravy, add a cornflour slurry and simmer until glossy and thickened.
  10. Taste and adjust seasoning with either a smattering of salt or a squeeze of lemon to brighten the flavours. Return the lamb to the roasting tin and heat through gently.

Cook’s Note: To make the cornflour slurry, combine 1 1/2 teaspoons cornflour with 45ml cold water.

If you need a quick and easy flatbread to serve alongside, you may want to try this recipe:

Easy yoghurt flatbreads

For those who have the Bibby’s Kitchen cookbook, the Turkish Milk-Bread on Pg 66 is incomparable. Alternately, the Chickpea and Cumin Flatbreads on Pg 68 are excellent too.

To serve as a side, the Bulgur Wheat Tabbouleh is really delicious.

6 Comments. Leave new

  • Tori

    19 March 2021 6:53 pm

    I know this is every cook’s most hated question, so I’ll apologize in advance. This recipe looks amazing, however my partner has a severe allergy to coriander, so I was wondering if caraway or (more) cumin would be a good substitute, or if it would be better to simply leave the coriander out altogether?
    Thank you!

  • Dianne Bibby

    20 March 2021 5:13 pm

    Hi Tori. No problem at all. Food is very flexible so we can always make a plan. In place of the coriander, I’d add 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin, which has a slightly more mellow taste than the crushed cumin seeds. To that, add 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice or all spice and you’re good to go. I hope that helps somewhat. Best regards Di

  • Christine K Glossman

    1 November 2021 2:53 pm

    This lamb was delicious, my dinner guests loved it too. I served it with Freekeh and the beautiful gravy. The spice blend was perfect and not overpowering.

  • Dianne Bibby

    7 November 2021 6:35 pm

    Hi Christine. I’m so delighted your guests loved it. It’s quite a regal roast to bring to the table. And the freekeh sounds just perfect too. Thank you for popping in to let me know.

  • Mikey

    27 December 2022 6:19 am

    This was absolutely delicious, I’ll certainly be making it again! I served it with cubed roast squash and a herb salad. The gravy is truly life-changing.

  • Dianne Bibby

    5 January 2023 10:46 pm

    So lovely to hear it was a raving success Mikey. Roast squash makes an excellent side. Isn’t gravy just the making of a good roast?

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Roast lamb with saffron honey | Bibbyskitchen recipes (2024)

FAQs

How does Gordon Ramsay cook roast lamb? ›

And when you have a gorgeous cut, like a rack of lamb, you can cook it the good ol' Gordon Ramsay way—which is to say, lightly pan-sear it first, then baste it with an herby, garlicky butter, and finally finish it off in the oven until it's still pink and juicy in the middle. It comes out perfectly every time.

Do you need to brown lamb before roasting? ›

For the perfect roast lamb, we recommend seasoning the surface of the meat, and then searing it, especially fat side down in a pan before roasting. Why bother with searing? Contrary to some stories, searing is less about locking in moisture, and all about improving the flavour!

How do you keep roast lamb tender? ›

Lower temp = more succulent meat – Tough cuts like lamb shoulder need slow-cooking to tenderise them. The lower the roasting temperature, the less total moisture evaporation and thus juicier meat. 3-hour lamb is cooked at 180°C/350°F, while the 12 hour lamb is cooked at only 100°C/212°F.

How do you keep lamb moist when cooking? ›

All the lamb needs is a sprinkle of salt and pepper, drizzle of olive oil. Add beef broth/stock and water into the pan (keeps everything all nice and moist + makes pan juices for gravy), cover then slow roast for 5 hours until tender and fall apart.

What is the most popular seasoning for lamb? ›

Fresh rosemary, fresh garlic, lemon zest, black pepper, and salt are simple but amazing flavors that pair amazingly with the lamb! Each of these ingredients adds its unique warmth and depth to enhance the flavor of the dish.

What is the best temperature to roast lamb? ›

Roast leaner cuts of lamb in a hotter oven (450°F) to get a lovely brown crust and a well-cooked center; cook fattier cuts of lamb low and slow (325°F) to render all the fat and allow the lamb to cook in its juices. Due to residual heat, your lamb will continue to cook even after you pull it out of the oven.

Is it better to cook lamb slow or fast? ›

Slow cooking in liquid transforms tougher cuts of lamb into fork-tender meat. Neck, shoulder and belly, either diced or as whole joints, are the best cuts for slow cooking and need to be cooked for at least 2 hrs at 150°C to soften the meat.

Does lamb get more tender the longer you cook it? ›

It depends on the cut. If you cook a lamb shank low and slow, it will become more tender as long as you don't let it dry out. A lamb chop, on the other hand, will reach optimum tenderness at medium rare. After that it will become tougher as it cooks.

Why is my lamb roast always tough? ›

When meat is sliced with the grain, it often results in tougher, chewier pieces. Follow this tip: The grain of the meat refers to the direction in which the muscle fibers run. Always slice lamb against the grain, cutting across the muscle fibers rather than with them.

What is the preferred cooking method for lamb? ›

Fattier cuts of lamb should be roasted long and slow at a low temperature, while leaner cuts of meat should be cooked at a high temperature for the first several minutes and then at a lower temperature the rest of the time. Braising is a popular technique for cooking less-tender cuts of lamb.

Should lamb be brought to room temperature before cooking? ›

Immediately putting this large cut of meat in the oven after removing it from the fridge can lead to uneven cooking and an even longer cooking time. To ensure a leg of lamb cooks evenly, remove it from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for an hour before cooking. Rare, Well-Done, Or Something In Between?

How do you cook lamb so it's not chewy? ›

Temperature is by far the most critical aspect of cooking lamb chops. Undercooking even tender lamb chops can render them unpleasantly chewy, while overcooking will lead to tough, dried-out meat. Rib chops should be cooked to about 130°F, while loin chops are better at 135°F or even 140°F.

How to cook a roast in the oven Gordon Ramsay? ›

Directions. Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Season the beef with salt and pepper; sear in a hot roasting pan with the olive oil to brown on all sides, 3 to 4 minutes each side. Transfer to oven; roast, allowing 15 minutes a pound (450g) for rare or 20 minutes a pound (450g) for medium.

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