10 Leg of Lamb Recipes I Briefly Considered Making Yesterday

By Jonathan Gold Mon., Apr. 5 2010 at 4:00 PM

Categories: Cookbooks, Cooking, Top 10 Lists

Flickr/One from RM

1. Julia Child's gigot a la moutarde. Bea Arthur's favorite, sure. But powdered ginger and pounded dried rosemary? Even on Easter, this one requires a leap of faith.

2. Chorizo-stuffed leg of lamb from Suzanne Goin's Sunday Suppers at Lucques. The Mexican-Moroccan-Provencal approach, of course. I'll get around to it someday.

3. Greek Easter leg of lamb from Michael Psilakis's How to Roast a Lamb. This year's marquee lamb dish, unless it was last year's: a kind of herbed lamb jelly roll stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes.

4. Simon Hopkinson's roast leg of lamb with anchovies, garlic and rosemary. Like everyone else, I've made this one a dozen times - the vast quantity of anchovies really does melt into the lamb, leaving behind nothing but pure umami.

5. Gigot a la Ficelle, from Richard Olney's Lulu's Provencal Table. Tie a string to the end of the shank and fix the other end to the fireplace mantle, suspend before a roaring bonfire of vinewood, give a good twirl and come back in two hours when it's done. I once almost bought a house because its massive fireplace seemed made for this dish. If it wasn't for the burros and sombreros carved into the ceiling beams, I might be living there today.

6. Mark Peel's Leg of Lamb with Rosemary from Mark Peel & Nancy Silverton at Home. Roast with 8 bunches of rosemary, then torch the herbs into flame. There's a reason people to go to Campanile to order this dish. They have fire extinguishers there.