Easter beasts

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By this point, most of the cooks are pretty well marinated too

You can have your glazed ham, your tom turkey with stuffing and gravy. Not bad Easter dinners, if they’re done right.

You want to really break out the unbelieveable taste for a special occasion, I don’t know what tops a lamb done Macedonian style. I was in Toronto visiting my brother’s family and old friends for Easter, which Orthodox Christians call Pascha.

After spending four or five hours a day in solemn, poignant church services during the week leading up to Easter (marking the betrayal, murder and then resurrection of Jesus Christ), there tends to be large family parties on Pascha. We were blessed to be invited to one, and it was mindbending. In a good way.

(Plus we got to see the Maple Leafs knocked out of the playoffs, neener neener.)

These guys had not only a lamb, but a goat. Both were bolted to frames and turned over coals for about 12 hours or so until they were pieced out and served on trays. (The head is a delicacy, but I didn’t go there.)

The beasts are basted with lemon, oregano, salt and pepper, with some olive oil and various other spices. The fat drips into the fire as the beast cooks, making the smoky whole far more than the sum of its parts. The cooks get the best parts for their patience - the bits that crisp up so well on the outside before the meat close to the bone is finished.

While the cooks work, they have a little pre-party. There are always an assortment of frosty beverages and spirits. There’s skewers of lamb organs, which didn’t thrill me, but also saganaki cooked over the coals, which did. Saganaki is a centimeter-thick slice of firm cheese, usually kefalograviera (or kasseri), floured and heated in a pan with some oil, flipped carefully, so it’s bubbly hot inside a crispy crust. Then it’s flambeed with Metaxa brandy and squeezes of lemon and shouts of “Opa!,” which Greeks and Macedonians yell the way Americans yell “Woo!” at NASCAR races.

Saganaki has earned its place among the highest pantheon of drinking snacks. But it’s a specialist’s job; fortunately, we had Chris manning the saganaki pan.

The hardest part was leaving room for the rest of the amazingness. You know what? Goat has gotten a bad rap. I liked it even better than the lamb. Of course, I might be biased, because I ate it in the best possible context: A cold beer in one hand, picking my selected shreds off the beast as it continued to slowly rotate over the coals.

Christos Anesti!

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Filed under grilling, lamb, meat, stunt-cooking