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Thursday, July 23, 2009

Easiest Slow Cooker Leg of Lamb Recipe Ever

I love my slow cooker. When we got married, my first request for a wedding gift was for a slow cooker. It does wonders to meats, stews and soups. Often I am pressed for time and I prepare my food overnight or leave it turned on low in the slow cooker while I'm away at work.

I made the simplest ever leg of lamb dish a week ago. Lamb is fantastic for winter. Its such a warming dish, so much more so than beef. That week I was literally 'Old Mother Hubbard' except I wasn't looking to feed the dog but my husband. I didn't have anything in my crisper to go with the lamb so all I used were mushrooms. Even that had to be canned champignons.

If you replicate this recipe, feel free to toss carrots, potatoes and onions into the slow cooker or even vary up ingredients for sauce. It will work just the same. Most recipes call for browning the meat before cooking it in the slow cooker but really, if I had time to brown I probably wouldn't be using the slow cooker now would I? Rest assured that not browning before cooking in a slow cooker will not cause your meat to lose much of its juices. Cooking in an oven or a pot however.. is a different thing altogether.


LEG of LAMB

1 leg of lamb
2 cans of champignons
2 pinches of oregano
3 dabs of butter
1/4 cup of water
Salt & Pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Turn the slow cooker on high while you prepare the ingredients.
2. Spread the olive oil on the base of the slow cooker. This prevents the meat from sticking to the bottom during cooking and makes cleaning easier for you.
3. Rub salt over the entire leg of lamb and load it into center of pot.
4. Drop champignons all around the lamb, pour the water in and place dabs of butter on top of the lamb. Sprinkle the oregano and grind generous amounts of black pepper over everything.
5. Turn the slow cooker on low and cook for 10 hours.

The addition of water is not really necessary because a slow cooker typically does not loose much moisture during cooking. Because I really hate eating dry meat, I added water to maintain moisture throughout the 10 hours that I am away.

The meat was so very tender, full of natural flavour with a hint of mushroomy, buttery smokiness and it fell off the bone as I cut through it. I would definitely cook this again next time.

cheryl

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