Lamb is a popular meat in Morocco and mechoui is one of the most famous lamb preparations. It involves spit-roasting a whole lamb over hot coals and basting it liberally with butter. This is an approximation of that dish. Since spit-roasting a whole lamb is not exactly accessible for the average home cook, Wolfert presents this recipe that involves roasting a lamb quarter in the oven.

I'm really happy with how this came out overall. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. And I think the leftovers actually tasted even better the next day! I'd love to try the real thing done with a whole lamb sometime. Although that's definitely not something I could do at home.

I served this as the centrepiece of my Thanksgiving dinner this year. It ended up being a pretty nice spread. I cooked lamb, purslane salad, couscous, harissa, red pepper sauce, eggplant zaalouk, byssara, tagine bread, and poached pears. My brother brought a great cucumber-tomato salad with tahini and pitas. And my mom did some lovely Moroccan-spiced squash and made a delicious orange cake for dessert.

Getting the lamb ended up being a bit of an adventure, but I managed to get it sorted out eventually!

Roast Forequarter of Lamb

From The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert

Ingredients

• 1 lamb forequarter (4.5-5.5kg)
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
• 2 Tbsp. coriander seeds, ground
• 1 Tbsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/2 Tbsp. sweet paprika
• coarse sea salt and ground cumin, for serving

Directions

1. Make a deep incision under the foreleg and along the breastplate of the lamb.
2. Combine the garlic and sea salt in a mortar or molcajete and grind to a paste.
3. Combine the garlic paste, olive oil, butter, coriander, cumin, and paprika and mix well.
4. Rub the buttery spice mix into the meat and let stand for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 250°C (475°F).
6. Place the lamb (fatty side up) on a large roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet.
7. Place on the middle shelf of the oven and roast at 250°C (475°F) for 15 minutes.
8. Reduce heat to 150°C (300°F) and continue to roast for 4-5 hours, basting thoroughly with the pan juices every 15 minutes. You should be able to easily pull the meat from the bones with your fingers when the lamb is done. It will be very tender with a crispy outer layer.
9. Serve with bowls of salt and cumin.