Here’s your basic roast lamb with potatoes recipe. A Sunday family favorite in Greece and any day favorite in my family, except for my daughter who’s not big on meat.  This recipe is too basic to give credits to any single chef.

Recipe

Ingredients (for 6)

• 4-5 pounds boneless lamb
• 4-5  pounds potatoes (I used idaho), peeled and cut
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled, whole
• ground or fresh rosemary
• 2 lemons

How to make: Wash the lamb and place it in a large pan. Pierce with a knife in 3-4 different spots and put one clove in each pierced hole. Rub with salt, pepper and ground rosemary (I only had ground rosemary, you can, of course, use fresh rosemary). Squeeze one lemon on top.  Put a little water in the pan. Start with just a little and check while it’s cooking to be sure there’s always a little bit of water at the bottom. Cover with aluminum foil and slow cook in a 150C or 300F oven for about an hour. Take the pan out of the oven, arrange the potatoes around the meat, add salt, pepper and rosemary on the potatoes, squeeze the second lemon on top, drizzle the olive oil, add a little water if needed and put pan back in the oven covered. Raise the temperature to 200C  or 400F and cook for another hour. When the meat is almost done and the potatoes are soft, uncover and cook a little more. Better yet, for this last bit put the broiler on so that the meat and potatoes get a nice color. In my case, I had to take out the meat because it was  done before I was ready to serve. Having to leave it in the oven to keep it warm made it  too dark already. I did put the potatoes under the broil, though.

Notes and tips: I do not believe in recommended cooking times with the meat. You always have to check while cooking to know where you are.  Plus, I always use a meat thermometer to check internal temperature. In our family, nobody likes rare meat. Our anxiety is to not see bloody meat on the plate!  So, my recommended cooking times almost always will give you well-done meats.  For this reason, I tend to prefer meat recipes whose cooking method will ensure tenderness rather than the degree of doneness. Also, I have found no great way to keep meat warm, yet juicy, if  it’s ready before  serve time. If you have any good advice, share!