Grilled Leg of Lamb

On Sunday we tossed around what to have for dinner, as grilling was definitely on since the weekend weather was so nice.  Thankfully, a sale on New Zealand leg of lamb made the selection fairly easy.

Now I would have said English lamb, but since we had just seen this earlier in the day,

I needed to get dinner from another continent.  If Zoë had her way it would have been fruit and veg for dinner and the leg of lamb would have had a name before it ever hit the grill.  

I'm not quite sure why everyone is so ready to debone a leg of lamb.  To me, meat is always better bone-in.  Always.  For this reason, our bone-in leg was staying just that way, bone-in.

Grilled Bone-in Leg of Lamb

Somewhat adapted from Stephen Raichlen's How To Grill 

3-5 lb bone-in leg of lamb

6 cloves of garlic, sliced

6 kalamata olives, sliced & frozen

4 sprigs of fresh Rosemary

1 T kosher salt

1 T cracked black pepper

1/4 t cayenne pepper

2 T olive oil

I still count my blessings that Bob has a Weber Performer.  Although it may not seem it, BBQ (which in the UK is grilling and not BBQ in the US sense) is incredibly popular.  Since Bob's grill was ours for the evening, he took the honors of getting it lit.  Which, for this recipe, is indirect medium.

For the lamb, pierce the fatty side of the meat all over, with each hole about one inch apart and at least 3/4 inch deep.  Take one spring of rosemary and remove the leaves (or are they petals?).  Then, take one piece of rosemary, sliced garlic and sliced olive and insert into each hole.  The olives are frozen, as it is far easier inserting a frozen and stiff olive, versus one that is not.

Take another spring of rosemary, remove the leaves and mince.  Add the minced rosemary to the salt and pepper.  Massage the lamb with the olive oil and then add the rub all over.

Although the grill is the same as back home, the charcoal is not.  We used briquets and I was amazed at how well they held their heat.  I had a hard time getting the grill down to medium, 350 F, even with all of the vents closed. However, once I did, I placed the lamb on and closed the lid.  Grill time.

After 30 minutes in, use the remaining rosemary sprigs, dipped in the remaining olive oil, to baste the lamb.  Continue to do this every 30 minutes until done.  For a 5 pound leg, plan on almost 2 hours to reach medium, about 150 F.  Since I'm cooking for the English, they wanted the meat more on the medium well side.  Ideally, I would shoot for medium-medium rare, 140-ish F, about 90 minutes.

For dinner, we were excited to have a visit with Zoë's brother, wife and twin nieces.  As we hung out, I was asked two questions: Why do you take pictures of your beer? and Why do you take pictures of your food?  My behavior was obviously foreign to them.  After all, it had been two years since I'd seen them and at that young age Uncle Mike's antics are quite forgettable.

So, yes, I took pictures of beer:

Wychwood's Kinggoblin…a wonderful strong version of their Hobgoblin and Fuller's Bengal Lancer, an original IPA.

After I finished my photo "thing", I was thrilled to see it was contagious.  

Apparently taking pictures of food is not as weird after all.  The verdict on me, however, is still out.

At just under the 2 hour mark, the lamb was pulled off.

Dare I say, it was probably one of the best leg of lambs I've had in sometime.  Of course, I'm sure the presence of family made it just a tiny bit better, too.