YES! The big day has arrived! We are going to slow roast some lamb. This roast will have three layers of bright joyful lavender notes. Almost provencal actually as I shall also add a little rosemary and garlic. I want the scent of the herb in each different prep step of the lamb. Each separate preparation adds another note. I call this layering. Like the perfume! I am sure there is some fancy-pancy culinary term that I don’t know!!
The first layer of lavender was introduced in the field. You will remember that this roast (aka a Murphy) was grown on our own fields of fresh green clover, lambsquarters and grass. Every week they were fed garlic, cider vinegar, yoghurt and thyme for health. In the last 6 weeks I introduced piles of lavender tips to this mixture. So the first layer of seasoning comes from the field.
The next two layers of lavender are added in the RUB and then the CRUST.
THE RUB: Lamb Massage! I bought a lavender plant when I arrived in California. We used branches of it to smoke the prime rib last night and the rest will be snipped for tonight’s lamb. Poor little denuded lavender. Third son will plant it after I have gone and nurse it back to health.
Salt, pepper and chopped lavender and rosemary are massaged into the meat then I cut little slits and poke in lavender and rosemary tips. Then grab some good big unchopped hunks of the herbs and press all over the meat. Wrap the lot tightly in plastic wrap to keep all those scents inside, and sit for a few hours in the fridge. 
OK after a few hours bring the roast back to room temperature, and pat dry.
THE CRUST
My mother coated the lamb in a thick layer of salt. A similiar principle is used when roasting a whole salt encrusted fish. It holds in all the juices and creates a good crust. Lamb does love salt.
Often, I coat the skin with a crust of wholegrain mustard, peppercorns, garlic, lemon, salt and olive oil.
Today we are going to brush the lamb in a Lavender and Rosemary Mayonnaise. This will hold in all the juices and adds another lavender note. The egg in the mixture will help the crust adhere to the meat.
Lavender Mayo.
Make this in the food processer.
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 clove garlic
- Juice of half a lemon
- 3/4 cup of olive oil
- 2 teaspoons of flax seeds
- 1 small teaspoon each salt and pepper
- 6 or 7 Lavender and Rosemary tips
Blend egg yolks and garlic first until good and fluffy, then drizzle the oil in slowly, slowly, then pulse in the herbs, lemon, flaxseed and salt and pepper. Brush this all over the top of your roast. Keep some for later as well. 
Pour a cup of water into the roasting dish. Surround your roast in whole onions and garlic and more green lavender and rosemary. Allow 25 minutes per pound. This roast is about 6 pound. So 30 minutes at 400 then down to 325 for 2 and a 1/2 hours. Keep in mind that the meat will keep cooking after you have removed it from the oven to rest. Every time you check it, throw a few more sprigs of herb in there and continue to brush with the mayonnaise to create a very popular thick crunchy crust.
About an hour before you eat, hook out all the left over burnt sticks from the herbs and add your potatoes and vegetables to the dripping. Cook with the meat for maximum taste and crunch. (After I transfer the meat to another dish to rest I also transfer the potatoes to another roasting dish so they keep crisping while I make the gravy. mmm GRAVY!.. Homer Simpson Voice)
When you can poke a carving fork into the meat and turn it easily, with no deep red juices flowing you are cooked. Lamb prefers to be cooked to a slight blush of pink. Now rest – no not you, the LAMB! 
Now, we make the GRAVY! Don’t forget the sweet chilli and marmite!
As Bad Baby (Beautiful Daughter) would say “Nom Nom Nom”..
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
53 responses to “Roast: Slow Roasted Lavender Lamb with a side of Joy”
I shared the link to this fabulous recipe with my daughter, who has put it on her facebook page. Prepare for lots of new visitors!
Vx
That sounds amazing…not just the recipe, but all the love that went into planning it. All the way back to the lamb’s diet.
Bravo, Celi-Mama! Your family is quite blessed to have you!
The kitchen must have smelled incredibly good during that roasting period. This recipe will be made for Easter. Of course one layer of flavor will be missing. I don’t think the lamb I buy will have been feed lavender tips.
Dreaming of lamb… and I just happen to have LOTS of lavender growing in the garden! I think I might just have to sneak this by the hubby though. He doesn’t like new or different, that is to say, if he knows about it before it hits his pallet. ~ Lynda
Lavender mayo sounds so good. I haven’t seen it before so thanks for posting about it.
Oh, dear Cecilia, lavender… This is amazing. I have never heard this before. I mean in cook… Otherwise I know lavender and we use in our homes… This should be really delicious… To be honest I can’t eat lamb, I don’t like its smell… But you roast seems so delicious with all these beautiful herbs… Lavender fascinated me in here much more dear Cecilia, Thank you. On the other hand I remember my UK travel last summer. In everywhere I saw so many lavender plants… They are so beautiful…. With my love, nia
Cecilia…you are teasing us so!! This sounds absolutely amazing! Truly delicious! Now I can certainly follow your recipe, but the quality of your lamb, the attention and time in feeding and raising this lamb can never be found in my market! And for that, I am so jealous!!
That sounds delish! So, do you really get a taste of the food that animal eats?
Perfect, beautiful, stunning, awesome… I don’t have enough compliments!
It was completely stunning and will be repeated at Christmas! c
Aha, the Fed Ex Lamb makes it’s entrance! And what an entrance.
When you’ve finished can you send the leftovers, including the gravy with MARMITE 🙂
Just a touch of marmite is an essential ingredient! I love gravy. c
Mmmm…I can smell it roasting now! 🙂
It was a heady day in the kitchen.. c
Ohmygod, C. The lavendar in my daughter’s organic detangler is the limit of that lovely herb in my house. And you have made plain what a great tragedy that truly is. I must remedy this immediately. My poor husband is going to come home to see our spice cupboard emptied of all of our year-old spices and dried herbs, and the kids and I waiting impatiently for him to drive us off to the specialty grocery store. We’ve got a free-range lamb roast in the freezer that he is cooking for us tomorrow. (*conspiratory snickers*) 🙂
I can only make it like this when I have a whole lavender plant.. in the winter there is no scented smoke! And you are so right to throw away those old dried spices, they don’t last very long do they! John and I have a standing argument about it, as i will NOT cook with stale herbs!! c
I love lamb. Husband doesn’t like. I’m going to figure out how to remedy this eventually!! But Celi, this post has me fainting with the mere imagination of the smell of that roast and all of the fabulous things with it. I do like lamb pink (especially chops, which should never be insulted by overcooking), but unlike some *unnamed persons* above, I also adore slow-cooker roast of lamb that is essentially melted into a pot-roast, caramelized right through with the garlic and salt and other encouragements it’s been given. Gracious, I had better quit this page soon, or —
I’m MELTING! MELtinnnng . . . .
tell poor husband he would love my lamb as it has the most fragile gentle delicate drooly taste, nothing like store bought hogget masquerading as lamb! And (weirdly) I love the completely overdone lamb as well. This one was just pulling off the bone nicely and still very moist. But the scents in the house whilst cooking were just heavenly.. we all floated about.. though sadly the cali in laws have never had lamb and also had no intention of trying it, well maybe not that sad as we are having lamb rissoles tonight so ALL GOOD! c
This looks so heavenly! And with gravy to boot, yippee!! I have not had lamb very often, but I think it must be similar to chevon (young goat). If it is handled and prepared well, it can’t be beat. Prepared poorly and it will put you off forever. 🙂
Not my lamb!! you can cook it any way you like and it will always be GOOD!c
Heavens no!! After seeing (and reading about it), I would think GOOD to be a mastery of understatement!! 🙂
Love this line “Now rest – no not you, the LAMB!” was laughing alone after I read that line.
I had a wee giggle when I wrote that line too!.. c