Herb Crusted Boneless Leg of Lamb

Life has been a bit hectic on my end lately. My two kids are back home from college and also my son’s best friend is here with us for the summer (also back from college) – so with three young people at home and a lot of others constantly coming in and out of the house every day, life is a lot busier for my husband and I than what we had gotten used to (during our past year of an empty nest). Over the past few weeks, we have had a few work related deadlines and lots of guests from out of town and of course the three kids back at home. All this recent activity has kept me so busy that I have been forced to slow down my blog. It’s not that I have not been cooking (quite to the contrary I have been cooking a lot to feed the army at home), it’s just that I have not had the time to take pictures or write down the recipes. Also I didn’t couldn’t try any new recipes because as soon as the kids got back home, they wanted to make up for the food that they had missed during the year and so for a couple of weeks I have been making the dishes that they had only seen the photographs of (on the blog) but had not yet tasted. The two weeks of catch-up meant that all experimentation had to be put on hold. Fortunately, this weekend (which happens to be a 3-day Memorial Day weekend) was little more relaxed and I decided to grill a whole leg of lamb. I served it with a homemade Mint Jelly and some of my Apricot Habanero Chutney. A couple of close friends of ours came over for lunch and the grilled lamb was real success with them and the kids!

Ingredients:

1. Boneless Leg of lamb (about 5 lbs) – I bought Australian Lamb from Costco and it came already butterflied and ready to be cooked.
2. 5-6 sprigs of fresh mint
3. 4-5 sprigs of fresh oregano
4. 4-5 sprigs of fresh rosemary
5. 6-8 cloves of fresh garlic
6. 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
7. 3 tablespoons of balsamic Vinegar
8. One whole fresh lemon
9. 2 teaspoons of salt (adjust the quantity according to your taste)
10. 2 teaspoons of freshly grated pepper
11. 2 tablespoons of granulated onion

Directions:

1. Open the flaps of the leg of lamb and spread it on a large cutting board. Using a sharp fork pierce the entire piece of meat (this helps to create some holes in the meat and for all the flavors and herbs to penetrate into the meat). Or you could also beat the piece of meat down with a meat mallet. Try to get the thickness of the whole piece of meat to be even so that it cooks evenly when it is being grilled. You can use a knife or the mallet to try to get the piece of meat to an even thickness. After this step, place the meat into a Pyrex dish.

2. Peel the cloves of garlic.

3. Remove the stems from the sprigs of mint, rosemary and oregano.

4. Place all the herbs and the garlic cloves in a small food processor and coarsely grind them in the processor. Place the chopped herbs in a small bowl.

5. Add the Balsamic Vinegar to the chopped herbs.

6. Add the Extra Virgin Olive Oil to the chopped herbs to make a wet rub.

7. Add the juice of one lemon to the wet rub.

8. Sprinkle the salt and pepper evenly over both the sides of the meat.

9. Also pour the wet rub over the piece of meat and rub it down into the meat (both the sides of the meat.

10. Sprinkle the granulated onion powder over both the sides of the meat and evenly spread it out.

11. Cover the Pyrex dish containing the marinated meat with a sheet of cling wrap and place in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours.
12. The following day take the meat out of the refrigerator about an hour before you are ready to grill it (to bring the meat to room temperature before grilling it).
13. Light up your grill (preferably charcoal grill but gas grill is okay as well).

14. When the grill is ready, place the meat directly over the grate. I cut my whole leg of lamb into two pieces to fit the pieces directly over the flame and to get an even thickness of the meat.

15. Grill the meat on both sides for about 10-15 minutes on each side.
16. Check to see if the meat is done. I like my lamb to be medium rare but if you like it well done you can keep it over the fire for a bit longer.
17. Take the meat off the grill and let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting it.
18. Using a serrated knife, thinly slice the meat (against the grain of the meat) and serve it with some Mint Jelly or any kind of fruity chutney.

19. I served my lamb with a green salad, crispy rosemary potatoes and some green beans.

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