Just in time for Easter, here’s a recipe with a twist — a leg of lamb coated in spices that infuse the meat with a seductive Moroccan flavor. Add a little couscous on the side, and you will have an exotic Easter meal as memorable as the painted eggs left around your house or garden by a certain rabbit. And once the Easter holiday has passed, you can make this recipe time and again, for it’s a crowd pleaser and quite easy to prepare.
Gigot d’agneau à la marocaine / Roast leg of lamb, Moroccan style
The French tend to serve their lamb rare and the Moroccans well done, so how to approach this roast? My rule of thumb (with a caveat) is to forget about how other cultures prepare their meat and serve the roast as you — and your family and guests — like it. The caveat is that I’ve lived in France so long I’ve been influenced by the local style, and have come to believe that the meat becomes tougher and arguably less flavorful the longer you cook it. In my kitchen, I roast the lamb just long enough for the meat in the broader parts of the leg to be medium-rare — pink with perhaps a tiny spot of red in the middle. The meat toward the bottom of the leg will be more well done, allowing a choice for the diners around the table. Happy cooking!
This is the longest and dreariest winter I can remember in my more than 30 years in Paris. Gray, gray, gray every day, and it keeps snowing at a time of year when the café tables have usually started to come out, giving Parisians a chance to sip an apéritif in the sun and enjoy the lift that comes with the feeling that spring is just around the corner. By late February I normally get an itchy feeling in my fingers telling me it’s time to go down to Burgundy and trim the raspberry bushes. None such this year. Instead, I’m working on creating cheery winter dishes that can warm the soul on a cold and blowy night.
