Épice

Roast Leg of Lamb with Cloves

Leg of lamb studded with garlic and whole Madagascar cloves, roasted in the oven. For 6 people, ready in about 1 hour 30 minutes, including resting.

  • Prep 15 min
  • Cooking 60 min
  • Total 75 min
  • Serves 6 servings
  • Difficulty Medium

Our family grows cloves in Vangaindrano, in the southeast of Madagascar, and sells them whole. Pushed into the flesh, they flavour a roast from the inside throughout cooking.

Studding a leg of lamb with garlic and cloves before roasting is a classic French technique, similar to the one used to flavour a ham. This recipe serves 6 people.

Method

Preparation

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (gas mark 6 to 7). Take the leg of lamb out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking so it comes back to room temperature.
  2. Peel the garlic cloves and cut them in half. Using a small knife, make about a dozen small incisions in the surface of the leg, and push in alternating half a garlic clove and a whole Vanille Désiré clove.
  3. Rub the leg of lamb with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, then place it in a roasting dish with the rosemary sprigs.
  4. Put it in the oven and roast for about 1 hour, turning the leg halfway through cooking and basting it once or twice with its juices.
  5. Take the leg out of the oven, cover it with a sheet of aluminium foil and leave to rest for 15 minutes before carving.
  6. Carve into thin slices, perpendicular to the bone, and serve with the cooking juices.
Chef's tip

The little extra that changes everything

Push the whole cloves directly into the flesh, alternating with the garlic: they flavour the leg from the inside during cooking, using the same technique traditionally used to flavour a ham. Spot the cloves by eye when carving, to remove them from the slices before serving. Letting the meat rest under a sheet of foil before carving stops the juices from escaping all at once. To find out more about this spice, read our Madagascar clove page and our page on cloves in savoury dishes. Another way of cooking lamb, this time braised with cinnamon: our cinnamon lamb tagine. Our products for this recipe: Madagascar cloves

Frequently asked questions

About this recipe

Can garlic be replaced with something else in the leg’s incisions?
The recipe alternates half a garlic clove and a whole clove in each incision; this combination is what is described here.
Should the cloves be removed before eating the leg of lamb?
Yes, they flavour the meat during cooking but are easy to spot and are removed from the slices before serving.
Why let the leg of lamb rest before carving it?
So the juices spread through the flesh instead of escaping all at once when carved, which would dry out the meat.
In the kitchen

Four moves with one bean

What to do with a whole bean, from the first cut to the sugar jar.

01 Split 30 s

Knife tip halfway through, one single pass along the whole length.

02 Scrape 1 min

Scrape both halves with a spoon. That black is the flavour.

03 Infuse 20 min

Seeds and bean into the hot milk, off the heat, covered.

Vanilla beans laid on a white plate
04 Reuse 1 week

Rinse the emptied bean, let it dry, then slip it into the sugar.

One bean serves twice
Exceptional ingredients

Our products for this recipe

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