Day 364: Leg of Lamb & Game Day Quesadillas!

About a week ago I took some requests for meals to make my last week of this blog.  Today I'm fulfilling two of them.  Because I like rich Sunday dinners like roasted chicken, pot roast, etc, I thought the leg of lamb that someone requested would be a good Sunday dinner after church.  And then tonight is game night for our New England patriots and I'm serving up some good game-food:  Quesadillas, homemade guacamole, and restaurant-style salsa with tortilla chips.  We're ready!

Leg of Lamb
I could only find boneless when I went shopping, and I suspect that bone-in would be a bit better.  But you can easily apply the same concept, here, just increase the cooking time.  With bone-in or larger cuts of meat, I like to roast them at high temps for a half hour or so before decreasing the temp to let it finish cooking.  Starting at a high oven temperature helps to get the outside a little crispy, and then reducing the temperature will ensure that you don't burn the meat while still continuing to cook the inside.  My boneless leg wasn't all that big, so I simply seared the outside for that crispness and then roasted it at an even temperature in the oven.

1 leg of lamb
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 TB rosemary, chopped
olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
salt, pepper
1/4 cup chopped onion
herb medley: fresh rosemary, chives, parsley, chopped
flour
red wine
chicken stock

Just a couple hours or so before you cook the lamb, drizzle it with some olive oil and lemon juice.  Then rub it with the salt, pepper, garlic, and rosemary and massage the meat with your hands.  Let it refrigerate until you're ready to cook.
Preheat the oven to 350*.  Heat a cast iron skillet and sear the meat over high heat on all sides.  Place the skillet in the preheated oven and roast for about 20 minutes, or until a thermometer reads 150*-155* for medium/medium rare.
For the sauce, start sautéing the onion in the pan drippings on the stove over medium-high heat.  Add the fresh herbs and some salt and pepper.  Add a tablespoon of flour.  Whisk in the red wine, cook for 1 minute.  Add twice as much chicken stock as red wine.  Whisk and cook until reduced.  Serve over the lamb. 
Of course, lamb has to be served with cous cous!  For my recipe, click here (also a recipe for lamb meatballs). 

Tonight we hosted our Bible study, which is usually at our friends' house.  Obviously, we had to make the arrangement to accommodate the football game!  We had an early study and then turned on the game and ate dinner.  The guacamole and salsa are perfect game food!  Here's a recipe for quesadillas that was shown to me on facebook.  I glanced at it and then just tried to re-invent it myself when I made them tonight.  They were excellent!  I made a bunch so just know that this recipe makes a lot!

Cheesy Quesadillas

3-4 large chicken breasts, skin-on, bone-in
cumin
2 garlic cloves, minced
16 oz  cream cheese, softened
8 oz sour cream
4 cups shredded Mexican cheese
1 can of diced tomatoes with green chiles
salt, pepper
tortillas

Sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper, and cumin.  Roast in the oven at 400* for about a half hour.  Let cool.  Pull the meat off the bone and shred it.
In a large bowl, combine the softened cream cheese, sour cream, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper, and tomatoes with green chiles.  Mix well.  Add the shredded chicken and Mexican cheese and mix again.  Fill each tortilla with the mixture and fold in half.  Place in the oven (at 400*) for 10 minutes.  Serve warm!

Guac to my left, salsa to my right!  That's my kind of dinner!