Honey roasted lamb with cassava

I remember when I was in class 3, I would walk to school with my classmates in the morning. On our route to school there was a lady who sold cassava by the side of the road. She had raw, boiled or roasted, then a choice of kachumbari, coconut sauce and chili to put ontop. She would serve it on a piece of newspaper. Once in a while we would have enough change in our pockets from our parents so we’d buy and share. It didn’t matter that we all just had breakfast, it was just tasty (^_^)

My mother-in-law brought me some cassava from her shags shamba this weekend. Memories came flooding in.

When I pulled the lamb out of the fridge in the morning I knew it would be roasted but I hadn’t planned on what flavors to add. The honey was added at the last minute but it really pulled all the flavors together nicely.

Ingredients as follows:
Some lamb (lamb chops are nice for this)
5 garlic cloves, grated
1 tablespoon ginger, grated/crushed
1 tablespoon oregano
2 tablespoons paprika
Juice of half a lemon
lemon rind/grates, from the half lemon
2 tablespoons honey

Wash the lamb, cut to serving size pieces and set aside

Mix all the remaining ingredients together and coat the lamb. I did it right onto the foiled pan I would use for baking the lamb

It would be nice if you could let it marinate in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight if you have time. I didn’t have time. I let it sit for about five minutes then put it in the oven, at 180°C for an hour.

There are three ways to do this:

1. Cover it with foil when it’s in the oven, the lamb stays very moist and you get some soup at the bottom of the pan which you can later put in a frying pan, add wine and butter to make a sauce.
2. Keep it uncovered in the oven, make it a dry roast. It will need to be turned often and grazed with something so it doesn’t dry out too much
3. Roast the lamb over charcoal fire. This is probably the tastiest option.

I went with option one. Still had to prepare the kachumbari and coconut, didn’t want to have to watch the oven closely as well, so option 2 wouldn’t work. Option 3 is just not available yet (^_^) After the hour, sprinkled some salt, turned them over and put them back in the oven for ten minutes uncovered.

On the way way home I passed by the market and got a coconut. I don’t know how they make the coconut sauce I remember from childhood but I like the crunchiness of coconut shavings and the flavour they add.

I enlisted my husband to help with the coconut this time (^_^)

I saved the juice for later use (I’m thinking for the next time I make rice).

The lamb is ready and needs to be salted

The mihogos were already boiled when I got them. All I had to do was salt and warm up. I mixed some salt with cooking oil and glazed them with it, them put them in the over for a few minutes.

When everything is ready, it’s time to serve!

Husband Rating:
meat was very tasty