Spiced Cube of Lamb

Ingredients

• 1.5kg boned out leg of lamb / half a leg of lamb - bone removed
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons turmeric
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon green cardamon pods - crushed and husks removed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 6 minutes
Serves: 4

Method

1. Remove the bone from the leg of lamb (or get your butcher to do this for you).
2. Cut out roughly 180g portions of lamb (they should be about 7cm × 7cm cubes) from the thickest parts of the leg.
3. Crush the cardamon pods in a pestle and mortor, remove the husks (the outer pod) and crush the seeds. Put the crushed cardomon into a bowl with the rest of the spices and mix them together. Then add the oil and mix it into a paste.
4. Rub the lamb cubes all over with the spice paste, bearing in mind that a little goes a long way. Then, ideally, put the lamb cubes into a container and put them into the fridge for 12-48 hours to allow the flavours to develop and sink into the meat (of course, the lamb can be cooked straight away but it won’t have the same depth of flavour).
5. Remove the lamb from the fridge 1 hour before you are going to cook it (to allow it to come up to room temperature).
6. Preheat the oven to 200°c or fire up your BBQ!
7. Put the lamb cubes into a roasting tin and then put them into the oven for:
   5 minutes for rare
   10 minutes for medium-rare
   15 minutes for medium
   20 minutes for medium-well
   30 minutes for well-done
8. Remove the lamb from the oven and allow it to rest for 15 minutes before serving. We served it with couscous salad and a tzatziki.

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Useful Information

Can it be frozen? Yes, at stage 5.
Can it be prepared in advance? Yes, to stage 5, up to 2 days in advance.
Will leftovers be nice? Yes, for up to 3 days if eaten cold.

Notes