February 5, 2007...8:34 pm
On the lamb
Save the mint jelly for the - oh hell, just throw it out
Every Easter, when leg of lamb drops to half price, I buy half a dozen haunches and throw them in my freezer. That way, I can indulge from time to time while saving a buck or two. Roasted whole Greek style with lemon and garlic, or butterflied, marinated overnight and grilled, or lopped into hunks and simmered in an Indian curry, lamb is a special occasion at my house.
Seasoned, skewered and grilled into souvlaki, it starts my three kids howling with delight. (They’re just so cute when they snap their sharp little incisors at me like that – I just fling it through the bars and run.)
The hardest part is trimming the leg into chunks. I have a sharp knife and I’ve done this a few times, and it takes me about 25 minutes. You need to remove nearly all the fat and sinew you can reach, and cut the meat into chunks the size of walnuts. You’ll get some odd-shaped strips and shrapnel, and that’s okay. You’ll thread the weird pieces between regular ones on the skewers, and they taste just as good.
The result was about four pounds of meat. I added three tablespoons of olive oil, just enough to make the chunks glisten. Then I added three tablespoons granulated garlic, two tablespoons dried oregano, three tablespoons salt, and a quarter cup of bottled lemon juice. (Fresh would have been better, but I was out.)
Every once in a while, it’s good to remember that meat doesn’t grow on foam trays
If you don’t have patience and a sharp knife, just have the butcher do it
After the meat sat for an hour, I threaded it onto bamboo skewers. You want the meat covering the skewer, but not bunched together. With a few moment’s squeezing, you can mold the meat into a cylinder of generally uniform thickness. That’s so it’ll cook evenly.
Fire up the grill and cook the skewers until they brown and become firm. Keep in mind the Coward’s Grilling Axiom: You can always put it back on the grill and cook it more. You can never cook it less.
Lamb souvlaki, and a slab of Native Offerings’ sirloin steak
Pull one early if you’re not sure, and check it. Remember that meat will continue to cook from residual heat after being taken off the fire. Overcook it and you’ll join the legion of lamb haters.
No problems Sunday night. I carried the steaming platter in out of the cold, and before I’d brushed the snow off my shoulders, the cry went up. Dinnertime.
Leave a Reply