Raan Indian Roast Lamb Marinated in Spiced Yoghurt

I have just had a couple of relaxing days in the Southern Highlands with seven girlfriends for our annual sewing sojourn! Yes, sewing, quilting mainly with a bit of knitting thrown in. Whilst I may not have been blogging, I certainly ate very well. All of these girls are great cooks and we dined on Hungarian Goulash, Jamie's Fragrant Chicken, Smoked Trout and Fennel Lasagna, Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon, Sauteed Mushrooms on Sourdough, Simone Logue's Little Pies and of course lots of chocolates and alcohol.
I only thought of this dish after the event, but it would have been a great one to do as it takes 48 hours of marinating and then cooks for 5 hours. Perfect whilst you do other things, like sewing !
Don't be put off by the list of ingredients or cooking time. It is actually very easy! If you like Indian food then this makes a nice change to a curry, and great for a number of people.

1 leg of lamb 2-3 kilos
1 piece fresh ginger peeled approx 100 grams 
8 garlic cloves peeled
thinly pared rind of a lemon
5 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 tablespoon of cardamon seeds
6 whole cloves
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon minced chilli, from a jar or 1 fresh red chilli
1 cup almond meal
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/4 cups of plain yoghurt
1/2 tablespoon salt


Prick the lamb all over with a fork and make deep gashes in the meat and set aside, in a pan.
I use a Tupperware marinating covered container, but you could also use the baking dish in which you are going to roast the lamb, for the marinating part of the dish. Use foil, if the dish doesn't have a lid.
Put ginger, garlic, lemon rind and juice, cumin seeds, cardamon, cloves, turmeric, chilli and salt into a food processor and blend to a puree.
Scrape out and spread the lamb all over with the puree and set aside for an hour.
Mix the almond meal and brown sugar with the yoghurt.
Spread this mixture all over the spice mixture on the lamb and set aside in a covered pan in the refrigerator for 48 hours.
Remove the dish from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before cooking.
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Place the pan in the oven for 20 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 180 and roast for a further hour.
Then cover the dish, reduce the heat to 160C and roast for a further 4 hours, basting occasionally.
These temperatures may vary in different ovens, if your oven is very hot adjust accordingly.
You may also find the marinade is catching and burning on the bottom of the pan, remove any burnt bits and cover earlier if you find this is happening too early in the process.

Serve with basmati rice and a vegetable curry, with some yoghurt and Baxter's Mango Chutney as an accompaniment.