Monday, July 12, 2010

Leg Of Lamb On The Spit

On Fathers Day, we had a Greek meal because we had some lamb eaters here and Bev doesn’t like it well enough to cook it just for us. Saturday night, we had the lamb lovers here, in Rhett and Beth, and I had another leg of lamb that I’d been saving for them.

Unlike those on Fathers Day, this one was bone in, but I still cooked in on the spit. I had to tie it with butchers twine to force it into a rounder shape, then cooked it using the same method as I’d used previously.


We decided that rather than sides, we’d have two appetizers then just the lamb and Greek salad. For appetizer one, we made Baba Ganoush using a slightly modified recipe from Mary at One Perfect bite. Mary mentioned that her’s was tangy due to the amount of lemon juice, so we added half the recipe amount to start. We decided it could use more lemon but not the additional liquid, so we added the zest of a half lemon and decided it was fine with that, so in the fridge it went for a couple of hours for the flavors to get happy. This is the finished eggplant after about 30 minutes of direct fire grilling.


For appetizer number two, Beth made humus using a recipe that she had developed over the years. This is the two of them ready to eat (hummus on right) with the first round of pitas that I warmed by tossing on the grill with the lamb and closing the lid.


I cooked the lamb on the spit using the infrared burner on the grill's back wall and here's a shot of it resting after being removed. This is my second attempt and I'm 0 for 2 on getting a nice crust, but I think I may know why. I've been cooking with the the lid closed and I think the baking effect this creates is getting the inside done before the crust has a chance to form. So next time I'll allow twice the time and cook with the lid open the entire time - this took 1 1/4 hours.


Here's my plate. The kids like theirs pretty rare so I pulled it at 125* internal and it turned out perfect for them (and me). I found some cooked pink for Bev. It's hard to carve pretty with the bone in and I'll debone next time or only buy boneless. We served it with some tzatiki sauce, which Rhett decided he had to have with lamb from now on.


Rhett and Beth are big fans of Hummus and eat it frequently, but they had never had the Baba Ganoush - we pretty well cleaned both bowls. They loved the lamb (as did I) and wanted the recipe - I was happy since I'd cooked it mainly for them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

7 comments:

  1. Hi Larry, You cooked so much GREAT food (as usual) when your kids were there. I"m sure they enjoyed it. I have not have lamb very often --but do like it. I'm not sure I'd want mine quite that rare though --although I do like medium rare steaks.

    Have a great Monday--and I hope we get some more rain today and this week. We got a little bit during the night---but need MUCH more.
    Betsy

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  2. Wow - the lamb looks perfect! My husband would be thrilled if I made this for him.

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  3. That lamb is cooked to perfection!

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  4. Your lamb looks lovely. Lamb is a favorite of mine and yours sounds delicious. Thank you so much for your very kind words. I hope you are having a great day. Blessings...Mary

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  5. I LOVE rare lamb - this looks amazing. And I'm with Rhett - love tzatiki and lamb. I imagine you'll be making some gyros with the leftovers.

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  6. Wow Larry, that looks fantastic! You two sure know how to put on a feast! :)

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  7. I'm 0.5 for 2 on the spit. My beef ribs were overdone and my whole chickens were just okay. I'm glad I'm not the only one getting used to that learning curve ;)

    Alexis wants me to do a leg of lamb too, but until I get a few successes under my belt, I'll wait!

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