Lamb in the oven with red pilaf

LAMB IN THE OVEN WITH RED PILAF

Ingredients

1 leg of lamb about 1200 g or more

2 cups rice for pilaf

5 large ripe tomatoes

Salt, pepper, oregano, savory

120 g olive oil

Instructions

Preparation and cooking the meat

Buy the meat from the day before.

Wash it well. If you find any small broken bones on the meat, take them off.

Sprinkle the meat with salt, pepper, oregano, savory and grease it all around with oil.

Place the meat in a deep baking pan and put it in the fridge overnight.

The next day put the tomatoes in the blender and make them pulp.

Take off the pan, with meat, from the refrigerator.

Spread the tomato pulp on the lamb as a thick red layer that covers it.

Pour water in the pan until it covers the 2/3 of the meat.

Put a non stick baking paper over the meat to protect it from burning.

Bake at 250 C degrees longer than 40 minutes.

The meat eventually begins to smell crisp.

Take off the non-stick baking paper.

Nail a sharp fork ladle into the meat and turn it around.

The part of the meat that was in the water goes out of it.

The upper part of the meat descends down and plunges into the water.

Cover the pan again with the non stick baking paper and put it in the oven.

Let the meat boil for another 40 minutes.

Nail a sharp fork ladle into the meat to see if it is soft.

When the meat is cooked, the fork goes easily in it.

If the meat is hard and the fork finds resistance, bake it longer.

Reduce the heat to 180 degrees.

Let the meat simmer until it becomes soft and unsticks from the bones

Take the pan from the oven.

Take the meat from the pan and put in a serving platter.

Cover the meat with aluminum foil and put over it a fluffy towel to keep it warm.

Pilaf

Measure the broth of the the pan.

For the pilaf you need 2.5 cups broth for each cup of rice.

If the broth is less than 5 cups, you must put less rice in the pan.

Put the pan in the oven again.

Put the rice in a colander and rinse it. Leave it for some time to drain.

Put the rice into the pan.

Stir it with a long spoon ladle and add salt.

Let the rice in the oven, to bake for 15 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Taste some rice, to see if it is done and if its flavor is correct.

Put again the lamb in the pan over the rice.

Cover the food with greaseproof paper so it won’t dry.

Leave the food in the oven to remain warm.

The lamb is delicious when it's warm, so served it so.