This is one of my father's epic preparations for lamb. We usually have it once or twice a year around Thanksgiving/Christmas time. It is amazing. It's actually a hybrid of three different things:

1. The Memsahib’s Lamb Raan recipe found in this book.
2. The Moghul-Style Roast Lamb recipe found in this book.
3. My father’s own vast, past experiences cooking meat. Things are always delicious, though never the same twice. :-)

You want to marinate the lamb the night before you plan on cooking it. If you can’t do it over night, I recommend at least 6 hours in the fridge. The acidity of the yogurt and the lemon juice work to tenderize the meat, and make it über-juicy.

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Ingredients

1 four to five pound leg of lamb (size varies, depending on where you get your meat)
1 average size red onion
4 garlic cloves
¾ inch of ginger
3-4 small green chilies with seeds (how spicy do you want it?)
1 cup of low fat yogurt
1-2 tsp lemon juice or white vinegar
1 teaspoon of haldi
2 teaspoons of garam masala OR the following:
[1 teaspoon cardamom seeds, 2 teaspoons of ground cumin, ½ teaspoon of ground cloves]
Salt to taste (approximately 2 tablespoons for 4-5 pounds of lamb)

Preparation

Prepare the Meat

1. Trim and cut away fat from leg. You want to leave about 10-15% of the fat on the meat for flavor. Just throw away the rest.
2. Rinse and wash the meat off with cold water.
3. Cut it into two or three equal sized pieces. (optional)
4.Using a sharp object (like a wooden skewer), poke the meat in several places in order to allow the marinade to completely permeate the meat.
5. Dry the meat by patting it down with a paper towel.

Prepare the Marinade

1. If you’re not using garam masala, grind the cardamom seeds, cumin, and cloves to a fine powder.
2. Mince the onion, garlic, and ginger to a paste in a blender or food processor (or just finely chop them with a knife).
3. Mix the spices, haldi, paste, yogurt, and lemon juice (or vinegar) together in a bowl.

Now, coat the lamb thickly all over with your marinade. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it marinate in the fridge overnight (at least 6 hours).

Cooking the Meat

Preheat the oven to 375F. Place the meat in the smallest deep baking pan you have (the smaller it is, the more juices will collect under the meat, resulting in a juicier final product. You don’t want the edges to be low though, or else it’ll make a mess. In a pinch, a disposable aluminum baking pan works fine.) After you place the meat in the baking pan, cover it with some aluminum foil.

When the oven is ready, cook the lamb for 45 minutes. Then flip the meat, and bake for another half an hour and be sure to leave the aluminum cover on. After this, remove the cover an turn the oven on broil. It should take another 15 minutes on broil. You can modify these times depending on how well done you want your meat.

After it’s done, remove the meat from the oven and cover it with some aluminum foil again. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes. This step is very important as it lets the juices permeate throughout the meat. Carve and serve immediately after that. Enjoy!

Copyright RK Mallik & RK Mallik, © 1949