Sorry for the long span of time between my last post and this one. A brief hospital visit including surgery (don't ask...) and general lack of anything so compelling that I had to post has led to this information drought.
I say to you, my faithful followers: the dark times have passed! The information (like the Spice) must flow!
So I submit the following for your approval - the Easter Lamb Challenge
Anna's parents have been visiting over the Easter holidays and, despite my horrible cold, I wanted to grill up something memorable. The fun began on Good Friday...
Anna likes fish on the grill. We've done a few variations of this but her favorite is whole Dorade with a Caribbean-style marinade/filling. I consulted Raichlen, How to Grill and found the appropriate passage. Here is the result:
As a side, we made rice with peas and corn with bacon bits. A bit of Emmentaler mixed in didn't hurt either... ;-) Also, there was spinach from the Biokiste that needed to be used.
The final result:
The fish was super tasty, the marinade/filling was the perfect counterpoint to the fattiness of the Dorade. Everything was grand!
Now, I noticed on Saturday night, I wasn't feeling so great but I blew it off and thought nothing more of it....
Sunday morning arrives and at 0700, Kali (Agent of Chaos) decided that she was hungry. After feeding the girls, I figured that I could start with the deep prep - I wanted to have garlic in oil as a garnish instead of making a sauce (difficult from the grill). So, I began the process of peeling and grating 4 heads of garlic:
Right around this time I noticed that i was starting to really feel like shit. It was not to be ignored - I was officially ill.
This matters nothing to a seasoned grill chef such as myself and I pressed on.
So, we purchased 2 bone-in legs of lamb, each approximately 6 pounds. We knew there would be NO WAY we could eat all that but then we would have leftover lamb and doing two is the same as doing one.
Again, Raichlen was consulted and Anna and I prepped the lamb. Spiked with fresh rosemary and garlic slivers, I rubbed a mixture of olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, and Herbes de Provence.
I put the legs on the grill and grilled them indirect for 2.5 hours at roughly 120'C. Target temp was 60'C internal which would net us a nice medium rare in the middle, leaving the ends more done for those who wanted it so.
In the mean time, I'm beginning to feel like I'm dying and the meal needs to continue. Anna and I decided that we would make green beans wrapped in bacon and rosemary oven potatoes as our veg and starch. These were slam-dunk choices: the potatoes go in an hour before the lamb should be done and the beans get done à la minute.
When the meat was done, I realized that I didn't know how to carve such a thing. This is why the Internet was invented. I made a YouTube search and found from the fine folks at Mahalo.com a video by Chef Eric Crowley on how to portion out a lamb leg. Armed with this info (and having rested the meat for 30 minutes), I proceeded to carve the meat for serving. As is the chef's right, I snuck in a few pieces for myself.
The meat was indescribably tender and juicy. Seriously, this is only something that you can experience as words just don't do it justice. People thought I was having a crisis at the cutting board from the sounds I was making.
The final plate:
A truly epic meal for Easter! I have rarely been so proud of myself but this was something that turned out far better than my expectations.
Damn, that was good.
Until next time, I bid you Peace.
Jake
No comments:
Post a Comment