Slow Cooked Lamb Ragu, Rotini, Parmesan

Winter storm Nemo dropped almost 2 feet of snow on us, and it took almost 2.5 hours for us to dig our car out of the snow this afternoon. On the bright side, after we were finished, we came back to a warm home and enjoyed a bomb-ass lamb ragu over pasta. So good!

Yesterday since we had the Sous Vide Supreme up and running, cooking our thai style pork ribs, I also threw in some leg of lamb that we picked up earlier in the week. While I've previously done a slow-cooked leg of lamb at 133 degrees (read more about it here), we decided to go in more of a braised direction since the water bath was already set at 160 degrees for the pork ribs.

First step was to make a pretty traditional red wine marinade. I sweated down some basic mirepoix, including diced onions, celery, carrot and garlic, and then added in some dried rosemary, thyme, and a few bay leaves. We actually got the bay leaves from my wife's boss and her husband who own a real bay tree. To the sweated vegetables and herbs I added a few glassfuls of red wine and let this cook down. I finally added some tomato puree that we had also gotten from my wife's boss and husband who process and jar their own tomatos from ones grown in their garden during the summer.

After adding the tomato, I let the marinade simmer away for a few minutes and then I added it to the zip loc bag containing the leg of lamb. I removed as much as air from the bag using the water displacement method and then dropped the sealed pouch into the Sous Vide Supreme at 160 degrees, letting it cook overnight for about 24 hours.

The next day after coming home from shoveling our car out, I took the lamb out of the water bath and it turned out ridiculously good. The meat was incredibly tender and easily flaked apart using two forks.

I cooked up some rotini since that's what we had on hand (parpadelle would have been even better) and then topped it off with the shredded lamb and rich, dark brown lamb jus. Some aged parmesan cheese finely grated on a microplane was the perfect way to finish the dish. So f-ing delicious. I can't wait to make this again.

24 Hour Sous Vide Leg of Lamb with Cous Cous

Over the weekend, my wife and I had to make a stop at BJ's to stock up on paper supplies and toilettries and while we were there, we picked up a small piece of boneless leg of lamb for around 6 dollars a pound. I don't cook leg of lamb that often and the one time I did a few summers ago over my parents' house on their propane grill, it didn't turn out quite as tender as I would have liked. This time around I wanted to try cooking it sous vide.

Since my wife and I were just cooking for the two of us, we cut the 3 pound leg of lamb into two pieces, reserving about a third to be frozen for a future use. I also butterflied the meat to make it more even and also allow for more surface area to be marinated.

I threw together a quick marinade using my Vitamix and blitzed together one head of garlic, a handful of dried rosemary, salt, pepper, onion powder, olive oil, and ground coriander until a loose paste formed. To a large ziploc bag I added the leg of lamb and then slathered the marinade all over the meat.

Using the water displacement method, I removed as much air as possible from the ziploc bag and then threw it in my sous vide tool to begin cooking. I have an old school Sous Vide Supreme, but there are many better, cheaper sous vide options available now such as Joule and Anova. I went back and forth on the time and temperature to use for the cooking based on conflicting research. In a video on youtube, Douglas Baldwin cooked his leg of lamb at 130 degrees for 24 hours. In Volume 6 of Modernist Cuisine under "Best Bets for Cooking Tough Cuts", leg of lamb isn't listed as a protein but lamb shoulder is with a recommended temp of 133 degrees for 48 hours. Then I found a post on the Serious Eats blog that recommended between 8-12 hours of cooking time, advising against anything over that due enzymatic forces adversely affecting the texture of the meat. Ultimately, I decided to go with 133 degrees for 24 hours.

24 hours later after I came home from work, I pulled the leg of lamb out of the water bath. When I opened up the bag, a super intense, garlicky aroma hit me in the face. I was a bit concerned at first, worried that I created a garlic bomb by putting too much garlic in the marinade, but after tasting the meat later, it was actually perfect. After removing the meat from the bag, I tried off the meat and quickly seared it in a hot pan.

After the meat developed a nice brown crust, I removed the meat from the pan and let it rest. Using the same pan I used to sear the meat, I added the leftover juices and oil from the zip loc bag to make a quick sauce. To this, I added a few spoonfuls of dijon mustard along with some white balsamic vinegar in order to make a vinaigrette of sorts.

Meanwhile, in a seperate pot on the stove, I brought some water to a boil to cook some cous cous. Cous cous is probably one of the easiest side dishes you can make and takes hardly any time at all. Once the cous cous absorbed the water, I seasoned it with some salt and pepper and mixed in some dried cranberries.

Overall, this dish was very tasty and I would absolutely make it again. My wife who typically does not enjoy lamb ended up going back for extras. The lamb was incredibly tender and not too gamey. The quick sauce we made also paired nicely with it, providing a little acidic kick from the mustard and vinegar. Cous cous and lamb naturally make sense together, but the dried cranberries also added a nice touch with just a little sweetness.