"rolling with the punches," or how a shoulder became a leg

When you cook, and when you cook seasonally and locally, you have to learn that, as Mick Jagger once put it "you can't always get what you want." And when that happens, whether you find sometimes "you get what your need" or not, you have to learn to roll with the punches, as they say in boxing (a sport I never "got," but what do I know).
So, where is this leading? Well, you should know better than to ask that by now. We'll get there. Last week, I invited bday boy Keith to come to dinner this week. Keith's favorite protein might very well be lamb. And Keith is one of the big handful of people who can have whatever he wants when he comes to dinner. So he asked for lamb, which provoked the question "what kind of lamb?" Now, Keith is one of my better kitchen students, too, so he said "well, I guess leg of lamb is out of the question, it's a weekday" and suggested some other things, including lamb shoulder which he really thought would be great.
So did I. Except.... see, if lamb leg is out of the question because it takes too long, shoulder is as well. Leg of lamb, you can sear and roast at high temperature. It takes time, but it doesn't take forever. Shoulder, however, is tough. It needs a long, slow cook. Remember that shoulder is almost always what is used in lamb stew. I make some wonderful shoulder dishes, but most of them are for winter meals: slow cooked, in liquid, with dried fruit, or quinces or sweet potatoes. So I hunted around for something more "summery," figuring I could make it over the weekend. And I found a GREAT recipe: it called for making small slits in the lamb shoulder and filling them with a chopped mixture of pancetta, garlic and parsley. To me, that sounded like a combination made in heaven. The cooking time, was six hours, at 300 degreees. Not something for a weekday meal, but hey, it was the weekend, and wotthehell. So off I went to the farmers market to visit Ms. Karen, the queen of grass fed lamb. I hadn't seen her in a while.

After the mandatory reacquaintance, I found out that Karen had no lamb shoulder that day. She had chops (which Keith would have been fine with), but then she said she had a small, boned leg - about 3.5 pounds. Would that do?

I thought about it for a minute and decided, well, let's give it a try. I'm glad I did. It's sitting in the fridge, waiting for slicing and serving on Thursday. I suggest you make this. It is really good.

First, of course, you start with your meat, and as always, Annalena suggests you buy local, and buy grass fed. This was, as I say, a 3.5 pound, boneless leg. What that means is that you will have a cavity in a large piece of meat. You should keep this in mind. Pat the meat dry, and put it in a small baking dish 8x8 is fine for this size. Don't salt it. You won't need to with this preparation. And preheat your oven to 425. You're not going to keep it here, but you'll use it, as a start.

Make the filling. You need a good 1/4 pound of pancetta, in a chunk. cut it into smaller pieces, and dump it into a food processor with eight cloves of garlic (I used new garlic), and the leaves and upper stems of a small bunch of parsley. Grind it fine. Taste it. Good huh? If you feel it needs salt, then put it in, but you probably won't.

Take a small, sharp knife, and make small incisions, all over the leg of lamb. Then, don't be afraid to get your fingers dirty (God knows they've been in worse places than cuts in a leg of lamb, my dear), and shove filling into those incisions. You'll have more filling than you need.

Remember that cavity? Hmmmm???? Put all that extra good stuff into the cavity, and then put the whole thing in the oven and roast for 30 minutes.

Here is where you will see a difference, between shoulder and leg. The pancetta, as it cooks, renders off its fat. In a shoulder, the meat will absorb it. In a leg, it does not. CAREFULLY pull that pan out of the oven, and pour off the fat. It will be almost clear.

Put the pan back in the oven, and lower the temperature to 325. And let the meat bake away, for anywhere from an hour and a quarter (my choice), to an hour and a half (pick this if you like your lamb more cooked). Don't go beyond that. More fat will render, but this time, it will have a richness to it and a lovely brown color. You want this.

Remove the meat and let it rest. Let it rest for several days if you like, or if you're using it NOW, slice it . Take those drippings, and if you can, skim off some of the fat. If you can't, don't worry.

Now, you can pour the drippings directly over the meat, which is what I would do, but if you wanted to make a thicker sauce, well, here's a cheater's way to make something quick. Dissolve a tablespoon of cornstarch into two of cold water. Stir all that into the drippings, but them back in the pan, and cook at medium heat, stirring, until it thickens. Then , pour that over the meat.

The filling will have flavored the lamb nicely, and there will be loose filling to pick up on your fork as you eat your second helping - because you will have second helpings, trust me on this.

I plan to serve this with potato gratin (don't tell Keith), and some green vegetables. Maybe the oil poached green beans. Yes, it will be a rich meal, but emblematic of a very rich friendship.

Celebrate your friends. Make a roast. It says "I really cherish you."