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 🙂

Oven Roasted Meatballs

Homemade meatballs are indeed time-consuming, I won’t lie ……. BUT once you have eaten homemade meatballs  you just can’t possibly go back to store-bought!  I hate the messy greasy job of  frying them in the pan, so I eliminated that step by throwing them in the oven instead.  To get the softest meatballs I have used a ratio of 3:1 (3 eggs for 1 lb of ground beef) Also this is where you want to splurge on calories and get 80/20 ground beef. Of course the addition of milk and bread crumbs also adds to the texture.

I usually buy a huge package of ground beef from Costco 7 lbs or so and I make a huge batch and take the morning to cook them up and then I have many meals of meatballs that I freeze.  I love just eating them with a bit of marinara sauce and fresh cheese, meatball subs, spaghetti and meatballs, sweet and sour meatballs etc 🙂

• Servings: 15-20
• Time: 3hrs
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• 4 lbs of ground beef 80/20
• 12 large eggs
• 2 cups of milk
• 2 cups of panko bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup of fresh garlic chopped fine
• 1 1/2 cups of finely chopped onions
• 1/3 cup of parsley finely chopped
• 1/4 cup of basil finely chopped
• 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp of freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 tbsp of kosher salt

Directions:

Turn oven on to 375 . Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.  In this instance clean hands will be your best friend to really get it mixed up well.  I use a cookie size scooper for getting the perfect amount of the mixture every time.  Roll in a ball and place on a lined half sheet pan.  Cook for 20 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and enjoy 🙂

TIPS:

• If you have a food processor use it for all the chopped ingredients, it really goes soooooo much faster.
• I take tinfoil to line my half sheet pans and use pam spray so they don’t stick!
• A small ice-cream scooper really get the perfect amount of meatball mixture every time so they cook evenly
• Don’t overcook! If you want that soft melt in your mouth texture watch the clock! I actually under cook them a bit because once you take them out of the oven to rest the heat will still be cooking them as they sit! Also if  I am going to freeze them, well-done meatballs will give you a firmer texture when you go to rewarm them.

Salmon with Lemon Caper Beurre Blanc

I made this last night and it was heavenly!!  I cooked the salmon on my wood barbecue till it was flaky on the outside and soft, slightly underdone in the middle.  It just melted in your mouth:)  Mashed potatoes was the foundation to lie this beautiful piece of fish on 🙂

I created this version of a French Beurre Blanc.  In English this means white butter. This hot butter sauce is a bit tricky to make,  you have to constantly whisk or the sauce may break…. then you will be left with a grainy unattractive mess! Some people may add a tbsp or so of heavy cream to act as a stabilizer.

LemonCaper Beurre Blanc

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 30min
• Difficulty: moderate
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Lemon Caper Beurre Blanc

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of dry white wine
• freshly squeezed lemon juice from one lemon
• 1 tsp of lemon zest
• 1 shallot chopped rough
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp of fresh chives chopped fine
• 2 tbsp of fresh parsley chopped fine
• 1 tbsp of capers
• 2 tsp of Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 sticks of butter cubed and chilled

Directions:

Place your chopped shallot in a sauce pan. Add the dry white wine and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and then reduce mixture till you have 1/4 cup of liquid. Strain mixture and discard the shallots. I press on the shallots to extract all the extra juice.

Return to the sauce pan and have your heat set at medium high. Now comes the fun part.  With whisk in hand and your cubed butter you will start to add the cubed butter few chunks at a time. Whisk on and off the heat till incorporated. The sauce will start to thicken and be silky. Keep adding the butter and whisking on the heat and off the heat. I usually do 10 seconds on and 10 seconds off. By that time the cubes are usually melted and its time to add more. Once you have used up all your butter then you will whisk in the lemon zest, Dijon mustard, parsley, chives, capers, salt and pepper.

Serve immediately with the fish. This sauce would also be lovely  drizzled over asparagus.

Bon Appetite!