Roasted Leg of Lamb with Fig-Port Wine Sauce

My family loves lamb! I won’t lie there are a lot of steps to this recipe but the end result is worth it! Have you ever had lamb that was on the “gamey” side? The trick is to remove the silvery connective tissue on a leg of lamb, trimming off some fat as well. Then brining the lamb in salt/sugar/garlic solution for a few hours. I then rub a herb paste over the roast and let marinade for a few more hours. To make sure the roast cooks evenly I wrap tightly with twine. I threw this on the traegar med- high heat for 40 min or so till medium rare.

First off:

Trim the roasts fat and silvery connective tissue off of the roast.

The Brine:

Take a large container and add 2 quarts of water, 1/4 cup salt, 8 mashed garlic cloves, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1 tsp of peppercorns.

CHECK this shot out. Doesn’t it look like some nasty weird Mad Scientists brew 😉

Igor’s Secret Kitchen Brew! lol 🙂

Put this in the fridge for at least a few hours.

The herb Paste:

Ok so basically this is similar to a pesto minus the nuts.

I had about 1 tbsp of rosemary, 2 tsp of thyme, 1/2 cup of parsley, 2 garlic cloves and EVOO

I mixed everything in the food processor and drizzled in my olive oil aprox 1/4 cup

This gets smeared all over the meat and chilled for a few more hours to marinade. I use kitchen twine to get it back into a roast form then I grilled this on my traegar for about 40 minutes till medium rare. If you are wanting to use a regular barbecue please cook this with indirect heat. A traegar grill is a wood pellet grill that works the same as a normal convection oven with the smokey benefits of a wood fire stove.

Serve with Fig-Port sauce

 

Fig-Port Wine Sauce

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 30min
• Difficulty: easy
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The Fig-Port wine Sauce:

Ingredients:

• 8 mission dried figs
• 2 cup of port
• 1  cup of chicken stock
• 1 cinnamon stick
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp of fresh thyme
• 2 tsp of fresh rosemary
• 2 tbsp of butter

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a saucepan and reduce liquids by half. Discard the cinnamon stick and place the sauce in a food processor. Puree the sauce till smooth then blend in the butter and serve with the lamb 🙂

Grilled Lamb Chops

I made a lamb dinner for our passover meal and these gorgeous chops were marinated and cooked on the grill till medium rare! Super yummy and easy peasy!

• Servings: 4-6
• Time: 4 1/2 hrs(including marinating time)
• Difficulty: medium
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Ingredients:

• 6-8 lamb chops (which mine were quite small)
• 1/2 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice and the zest from that lemon.
• 1 tsp of freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 tsp of dried oregano
• 2 tsp of  kosher salt
• 3 garlic cloves minced fine
• 2 tsp of fresh thyme
• 2 tbsp of freshly chopped rosemary

Directions:

4 hours prior to the time you would like to start to cook your lamb you need to start marinating them.  So take all the ingredients minus the lamb and place in a gallon size zip lock bag and give it a good shake to mix all the ingredients up.

Put your lamb chops in the bag and let the Marinade begin! After 2 hours flip your bag to make sure all surfaces get to hang out with the concoction.

When you are ready to cook your lamb preheat your grill to 450 degrees and place chops on hot grill. After 5 minutes flip your chops for another 5 minutes for medium rare or till the internal temp is 140 Degrees. Let rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting into the meat or you will lose all that moistness. Meat has to rest before you can dive into it. Patience and you will be rewarded with tender juicy meat, haste and you will have dry, tough meat.

 

Stay tuned for upcoming recipes this week, I served this meal with roasted mini potatoes, french green beans, matzoh crackers and red wine. Simple, rustic and delicious! Cheers!