ROAST LAMB, A SMALL FEAST

Buying a leg of lamb, on a whim, I asked the butcher to bone it for me. He removed the long leg bone without opening out the meat, leaving a pocket for stuffing. Now, what to stuff it with?

I recalled many years ago hosting a mechoui party. Mechoui is the Moroccan roast lamb. I bought a whole lamb and my friend, Dominique, who grew up in Morocco, was in charge of roasting it.

We stuffed the lamb’s cavity with a mixture of cous cous and parsley, maybe some chopped onions. I don’t remember exactly. Once sewed up, the animal was trussed, brushed with olive oil and positioned on a stout stick over smouldering coals. This was an August afternoon. Dominique and his pinche, Mark, turned the lamb for hours, basting it occasionally with salt water to keep the skin crisp. Dripping with sweat, Dominique stripped to his skivvies and turned the garden hose on over his head.

The meat was succulent and deliciously wood-smoke flavored. I served an array of Moroccan and Middle Eastern salads and vegetable dishes to accompany the lamb. What a feast.

Dominique is French photographer Jean Dominique Dallet (http://www.jddallet.com/) He grew up in Fes (Morocco), studied and worked in France and Denmark, before setting up home base in southern Spain, where I got to know him. Dominique clocks around 100,000 miles a year, traveling in search of new images, on assignment for magazines and books worldwide. I rode shotgun on several of Dominique’s forays through La Mancha, where we collaborated on magazine articles.

Traditional mechoui, whole lamb roasted in clay oven. (Photo by JDDallet)

Dominique tells me that traditionally mechoui was cooked (no stuffing) in a vertical clay oven, “until the meat is falling off the bones, so that you can eat it with your fingers, without a knife.” Men cook the mechoui, women serve it. Kebabs of liver wrapped in fat might precede the lamb, Salads are the only accompaniment to the roast lamb.

Today in Morocco, he says, a typical mechoui is sent to roast in the neighborhood  bread oven.

Whole roast lamb--mechoui--with accompanying salads. (Photo by JDDallet)

It was the memory of that mechoui party that inspired me to stuff the leg of lamb with cous cous. Here's my version, boned leg of lamb stuffed with cous cous, chard and pistachios.

Boned leg of lamb is stuffed with cous cous, chard and pistachios.

Roast lamb, a small feast.

Stuffing soaks up meat juices. You may need a spoon to serve it.

Roast Leg of Lamb Stuffed with Cous Cous
Cordero Asado Relleno con Couscous

My boned leg of lamb weighed about 2 ¾ pound. (In the US, lamb is marketed much larger, so a boned leg might weigh more than 4 pounds.)

The meat has a deep pocket where the bone was pulled out. Another way to bone the leg is to butterfly it, by cutting it open, removing the bones and cutting horizontally through the thick sections to create a slab of meat that is more or less of equal thickness. The stuffing is spread on the meat and rolled up. Either way, the meat must be tied to keep the stuffing in and give the roast shape.

Cous cous and chard stuffing.

For the stuffing:
½ cup cous cous
½ cup boiling water
2 teaspoons + 1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped chard or spinach (to make 1 cup cooked)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 clove chopped garlic
¼ cup seeded raisins
¼ cup shelled pistachios
¼ cup chopped parsley or fresh cilantro
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Press stuffing into pocket of lamb.

For the lamb:
2 ½ - 3 ½ pounds boned leg of lamb
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil

Place the cous cous in a heat-proof bowl. Pour over the boiling water. Add 2 teaspoons oil and salt. Cover and let steam until cous cous is tender, 10 minutes. Fluff the cous cous with a fork.

Cook the chard or spinach in a little water until it is tender. Drain, well.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a skillet. Sauté the onions and garlic until softened, 8 minutes. Add the chard and sauté until moisture evaporates. Add the raisins, pistachios, parsley or cilantro, ½ teaspoon salt, pepper and lemon zest. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of the steamed cous cous.

For the lamb:

Combine crushed garlic, salt, coriander, cumin, black pepper and 1 tablespoon oil. Rub this mixture on the lamb, inside and out. 

Stuff the lamb pocket with the prepared cous cous and chard. (Or, if using butterflied leg of lamb, spread the stuffing on the meat and roll it up.) 

Turkey skewers and twine to close the pocket.

Use skewers and kitchen twine to close the pocket’s openings. Tie the meat so that it keeps its shape.

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Place the lamb in the oven and lower temperature to 350ºF. Roast the lamb, basting occasionally. Use additional olive oil for basting if the lamb does not have much fat. The lamb is done (medium-rare) when it reaches an internal temperature of 140ºF when tested with an instant-read thermometer. (My 2 ¾-pound roast needed only 50 minutes; a larger piece of meat will take longer.)

Roast vegetables with the lamb.

Allow meat to rest before slicing.

Remove lamb to a cutting board and allow it to rest for 20 minutes before cutting in thick slices. The stuffing will be loose and may need a spoon for serving.

Thanks to my friend Dominique Dallet for his photos of traditional Moroccan mechoui. See more of his work at http://www.jddallet.com/.

More lamb recipes:

Lamb Shanks with Prunes.

Lamb Riblets with Garlic.

Lamb Stew with Red Peppers.

Lamb and Bean Stew.

Grilled Leg of Lamb with Onion Marinade.

Braised Lamb with Quinces.

Roast Lamb with Spring Herbs.

Lamb Roll Wrapped in Chard 

BARGAIN HUNTING AT THE MEAT COUNTER

Like the “white sales” of January, the grocery store ofertas offer some post-holiday bargains. Some of the best are found at the butcher’s counter, where duck liver and magret, baby kid, turkeys and partridge, pork loins are displayed at discount prices.

I take advantage to buy a whole lamb’s quarter—leg and loin—at a special price. The butcher takes the time to cut it up for me, separating the shank from the leg and boning out the loin.

The shank goes in the freezer until I’ve got enough of them to braise. The boneless loin, the most tender part, I’ll freeze as well, perhaps to use for kebabs. The leg, a Sunday roast to serve six. The heap of bones will make a rich lamb broth for cooking mushroom-barley soup.

For a frugal February--cannellini beans fill out a robust lamb stew.

I’m left with some scrappy, fatty pieces cut from the loin section. They’re not really enough meat for a whole meal, but, trimmed, cut up and cooked with beans, they make a hearty winter stew, perfect for a frugal February.

I used about 1 ½ pounds of boneless lamb. Boned-out flank or breast could be used as well. (I consider the shoulder too good for stew.) The stew can also be made with bony, bargain cuts of lamb such as shanks, necks, riblets. Allow about 3 pounds for bone-in pieces.   

Tender bites of lamb plus beans make a hearty meal.

I used a jar of cooked cannellini beans. If you’re starting with uncooked beans, put them (8 ounces or about 1 ¼ cups) to soak in water to cover overnight. Drain the beans and put them in a pot with 4 cups water. Bring to a rolling boil. Drain the beans, rinse them in cold water, and return them to the pot. Add 4 cups water, 2 bay leaves, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil and simmer until tender, about 90 minutes.

Lamb and Bean Stew
Estofado de Cordero con Alubias

The flap of meat covering the loin is layered with fat. Trim off as much as possible before cutting the meat into bite-size pieces.

Serves 4

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ pounds boneless trimmed lamb, cut in 1-inch pieces
1 ½ cups chopped onion
3 cloves chopped garlic
½ cup drained, canned diced tomatoes

Sliced carrots
1 teaspoon peppercorns, coarsely crushed
Pinch of ground cloves
½ teaspoon smoked pimentón (paprika)

1 bay leaf
Sprig of fresh dried thyme
Sprig of fresh rosemary 

2 cups water
3 cups cooked cannellini beans
Chopped fresh cilantro, parsley, or mint to serve

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet. Brown the pieces of lamb on all sides and remove them.. Add the onion and garlic to the skillet and sauté until onion begins to brown, 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and carrots and sauté 2 minutes. Add pepper, cloves, pimentón, bay leaf, thyme, rosemary, ½ teaspoon salt, and 2 cups water and stir. 

Return the lamb to the pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until lamb is tender, about 60 minutes. Add the beans to the pan and cook 15 minutes more.

Serve lamb and beans in bowls, garnished with chopped cilantro, parsley, or mint. 

Lamb bones produce a rich broth. Vegetable-barley soup coming next.

A recipe for lamb shanks.

FROZEN ASSETS

I pulled on gloves to search the depths of the freezer, hoping to find more of last summer’s garden tomatoes. In the front I discovered two big snowballs that grandson Leo brought back from the mountaintop last week.  Sure enough, way in the back was the last bag of those marvelous, sweet tomatoes. And, what’s this? A lamb shank. And another. More, six of them. Frozen assets.

For the past eight or ten months, every time I bought a leg of lamb, I had the butcher cut off the shank end at the joint. Individually wrapped and frozen, they added up to a great winter meal.

Lamb shanks are oven-braised with sweet wine and prunes.

The recipe comes from my cookbook, My Kitchen in Spain, where it appears as “Moorish Lamb Stew with Prunes,” made with cubes of lamb rather than shanks. “Moorish” for the subtle blend of spices, more characteristic of medieval cooking than traditional Spanish home cooking.

Back in the day (Oct. 16, 2002), the recipe appeared in the New York Times in an article by Amanda Hesser (founder of  Food 52 web site and food community, then a NY Times writer) about pairing Rioja wine with food. Here’s what she wrote:

“Lamb is braised with lemon zest, cloves, cinnamon and saffron. At the very end, prunes plumped in muscatel are added for yet more complexity. The Rioja will not cower.” 

So, you know what wine to choose with the shanks—a red Rioja, crianza or reserva.

Serve a Rioja red with the lamb shanks. (Wine pictured is not Rioja.)

My lamb shanks varied in shape and weight. The largest were very meaty and weighed about 13 ounces. Smaller ones, foreleg shanks, were about 7 ounces. One shank makes one serving.

I also found a packet of lamb bones in the freezer, saved from boning-out a leg of lamb. I used them to make stock. If lamb stock is not an option, use chicken stock. Taste the stock when adding to the shanks and add salt if needed.

You can serve the lamb shanks straight from the pan in which they cooked. Or, remove them to a heated serving platter and sieve or puree the cooking liquid. Serve the sauce separately. You can also braise the lamb and, once cool enough to handle, cut the meat from the bones. Reheat in the sauce.  

Lamb Shanks with Prunes
Jarrete de Cordero con Ciruelas Pasas

I served the shanks and the luscious sauce with trigo tierno, wheat berries that have been precooked so they are quick to cook, and rainbow chard from the garden.

Serves 4.

4 lamb shanks, each 12-14 ounces
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ cups finely chopped onion
½ cup finely chopped carrot
¼ teaspoon saffron threads, crushed
3 cloves garlic
3-inch strip lemon zest, minced (1 teaspoon)
3-inch cinnamon stick
Pinch of ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
¼ cup sweet wine, such as PX Sherry
2-3 cups lamb or chicken stock
1 cup pitted prunes, cut in half
Chopped fresh mint

Sprinkle the lamb shanks with salt and pepper and allow them to come to room temperature. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in an oven-safe pan. Brown the meat on medium heat, turning the shanks to brown on all sides. Remove them.

Brown the shanks before adding braising liquid.

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Add remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and the onion and carrot to the pan. Cook on medium heat, stirring frequently, until onion is quite brown, about 15 minutes. Stir in the crushed saffron and toast it 1 minute.

Lightly crush the garlic cloves with the flat side of a knife and add them, unpeeled, to the pan.
Add the lemon zest, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, lemon juice, wine and 2 cups of the stock. (Taste the stock for seasoning and add additional salt, if needed.) Place the lamb shanks in the pan in one layer. Cover with a lid or foil and carefully transfer the pan to the oven.

Bake 45 minutes. Turn the lamb shanks. Add additional stock if needed. Cover and return the pan to the oven until meat is very tender, 45 minutes longer. Add the prunes and bake 15 minutes more.

Sieve the sauce and serve it separately. Sprinkle chopped mint over the lamb shanks.

Discard the cinnamon stick and whole garlic cloves. The lamb can be served straight from the pan or, if desired, transferred to a heated serving platter and the remaining pan juices sieved. Place the prunes around the meat and spoon some of the sauce over it. Pass remaining sauce separately. Serve the lamb shanks with a sprinkling of chopped mint.

The sweet prunes complement the lamb.

More recipes with lamb:

Lamb riblets with garlic sauce.

Lamb stew with red peppers.

Grilled leg of lamb with onion marinade.

Braised lamb with quinces.

Roast lamb with spring herbs.

Lamb kidneys in Sherry sauce.

Lamb roll wrapped in chard.

A SLOW-COOKED STEW FOR DARKENING DAYS

As the days grow shorter on the countdown to the winter solstice, I want bright candles, flickering flames in the fireplace, twinkling lights on a holiday tree and a pot of stew bubbling on the stove.

Spain has lots of stews and braised dishes that will fill the bill. Many are made with economical cuts of meat that need slow cooking to render them tender. In the process, they also take on flavor, of wine, herbs, vegetables and sausages with which they cook.

Chunks of lamb, braised till tender, in a sauce with dried red peppers.

I’m making a lamb stew that’s simmered in wine with four kinds of red peppers!

This dish from La Mancha derives from the rustic shepherds’ caldereta, or iron stew pot, in which meals were cooked over embers. At its most basic, the stew was eaten straight from the pot, with bread for sopping the gravy. Other versions use either the lamb liver, grilled and mashed, or ground almonds, pine nuts, or walnuts to thicken the sauce. I’ve used almonds, ground finely in the blender with the peppers to make a smooth gravy for the lamb.

If baby lamb is used, it’s usually hacked into chunks, bones and all. For larger cuts of lamb, use boneless pieces from leg or shoulder. Goat meat can be substituted for the lamb.

Keep the meat covered with liquid as it cooks and, if preparing it in advance, keep the cooked meat completely covered with liquid so that it doesn’t darken and dry out.

Dried ñora peppers and tomatoes go into the stew.

Ñoras are plum-sized, dried bitter-sweet chiles. After cooking, the soft flesh is scraped from the insides of the peppers. Mild California chile pods are a possible substitute, though they are not quite as fleshy as the ñora. Otherwise use a spoonful of sweet pimentón. Use a little hot chile in addition to the mild. A piece of red bell pepper adds to the ruddy-red color of the gravy. I like to add some smoky Pimentón de la Vera to make up for the shepherds’ wood fire smoke. (Count ‘em—that’s four kinds of peppers.) The recipe also calls for sun-dried tomatoes, an ingredient used in La Mancha. If they are not available, use a spoonful of tomato concentrate.

Serve the lamb and red pepper gravy with Mashed Potatoes with Green Garlic (that recipe is here), rice pilaf or cous cous.

Lamb stew with red pepper gravy--nice served with rice pilaf and a glass of red wine.

Lamb Stew with Red Peppers

Caldereta de Cordero

Serves 6.


2 ½ to 3 pounds boneless lamb cut from the leg or shoulder
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, quartered and sliced
3 ñora peppers or 2 California chile pods, stems and seeds discarded
1 small hot dried chile, such as cayenne
4 sun-dried tomatoes, sliced
½ red bell pepper
¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley plus more to garnish
Sprig of thyme
2 bay leaves
2 heads garlic, char-roasted (see below for how-to), cloves peeled
1 cup dry white wine
3 cups water or lamb stock
¼ cup blanched and skinned almonds
1 teaspoon Pimentón de la Vera (sweet, bittersweet or hot)

Trim lamb of excess fat. Cut it into chunks of approximately 2 inches square. Sprinkle the pieces of lamb liberally with salt and pepper and allow to stand at room temperature for 1 hour.

Heat the oil in a large stew pot or lidded cazuela and sauté the sliced onions until lightly browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Put in the pieces of meat and turn them in the oil for a few minutes. They do not need to brown, only to lose their pink color.

Add ñoras or California chile pods with the whole dried chile, tomatoes, bell pepper, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, peeled garlic cloves and 1 teaspoon salt.

Add the wine and 3 cups of water or stock. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until meat is very tender, 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Lift the pieces of meat out of the cooking liquid with any vegetables clinging to them and set aside, covered tightly. Skim off fat from the top of liquid remaining in pot.

Place a strainer over a heatproof bowl and pour the liquid through it. Discard the cayenne chile and bay leaves. Lift out the pieces of ñora. Use a spoon to scrape the pulp from the inside of the ñoras or chile pods. Discard the skins and put the pulp in a blender or food processor. Scrape the pulp from the piece of bell pepper and discard the skin. Add the pulp to the blender with some of the onions, tomatoes and garlics remaining in the strainer.

Add the almonds to the blender with the Pimentón de la Vera and 1 cup of the strained liquid. Blend or process until the almonds are ground to a smooth paste.

Return the liquid to the stew pot and add the almond mixture. Bring to a boil, stirring. Return the lamb to the pot and cook gently 20 minutes longer.

 Allow the stew to settle 10 minutes. Serve garnished with chopped parsley. 

To Char-Roast a Head of Garlic

Spear the head of garlic on a fork or grasp it with tongs (protect hands with an oven mitt) and hold over a gas flame, or put under the broiler. Turn the garlic until it is charred on all sides. Peel the garlic cloves, rinse them in water, and add them to the stew to continue cooking.

Ground almonds thicken the stew's gravy.

Here are links to some other hearty winter stews.

Andalusian Vegetable and Sausage Stew (Berza Andaluza)

Potato and Wild Mushroom Stew (Guiso de Patatas y Níscalos)

Braised Lamb with Quinces (Guiso de Cordero con Membrillo)

"Altogether" Beef Stew  (Tojunto)

LAMB--SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR MY BIRTHDAY

My birthday is coming up next week. I’ll be dining in, me, family, a friend and a leg of lamb. I love lamb. It’s my favorite meat of all. So, that’s the most special meal I can imagine.

Spain is big sheep country. According to the Foods From Spain web site , Spain has more than 24 million sheep.

Every year a picture appears in the newspapers of flocks of sheep being driven through the Puerta del Sol in the center of Madrid. In times past, when the wool of merino sheep was a source of wealth, the Mesta, a sheep owners’ guild, controlled migratory routes. Vast herds of sheep were moved from northern Spain to southwestern Spain and back again, with the change of seasons, in the trashumancia or transhumance from summer to winter pastures.

With the decline in the wool business, since the 17th century, fewer herds cross the country and most of them are transported by truck or train. In fact, many of the routes have been closed off by fences--or paved over as national highways.

Nowadays, sheep are raised, not for their wool, but for milk (several of Spain’s best-known cheeses, such as Manchego, are made with sheep's milk) and for meat. Lamb from several regions has protected denominations. They are Cordero Manchego, Lechazo de Castilla y León, Ternasco de Aragón, Cordero de Navarra, Cordero de Extremadura and Cordero de Pais Vasco.

The meat is marketed as milk-fed baby lamb, cordero lechal, butchered before 2 months; recental or suckling lamb that has begun to graze, butchered from 2 to 4 months,  and spring lamb, cordero pascual, butchered from 4 to 12 months.

I love baby lamb, split and roasted in a wood-fired oven, in the Castillian manner. I love lamb chops on the parilla, grill, with nothing more than alioli, garlic mayonnaise, to go with them. I love the many lamb stews from every region of Spain.

Birthday present to myself, no need for ribbons. My whole leg of lamb weighs 4 pounds 14 ounces. In the US, a whole leg will be marketed considerably larger, from 6 to 7 pounds.

But, for my birthday leg of lamb, I am roasting it, French style, not Spanish. That is to say, I don’t want a slow braise, I want the meat still pink and juicy. I don’t want gravy or sauce. I want to taste the lamb, herb-inflected.

No recipe is required—just fresh thyme and rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper and, most important of all, an instant-read meat thermometer. That roast comes out of the oven when the meat reaches an internal temperature of 135ºF.

Meanwhile, I have been honing my love for lamb by trying other cuts, such as lamb ribs. Like pork ribs, lamb riblets are really fatty. But, if you love lamb as I do, this is good, as the fat conveys the lamb flavor and makes the meat especially succulent and juicy.

Lamb riblets with garlicky sauce.

Lamb Riblets with Garlic Sauce
Costillitas de Cordero al Ajillo

Spanish style, this dish is accompanied by patatas fritas, fries. However, the ribs are also good with rice or cous cous alongside for soaking up the sauce.

Serves 4.

Racks of ribs, cut into segments.

2 ½ pounds lamb riblets (2-3 racks of ribs)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 peeled cloves of garlic + 6 unpeeled cloves garlic
1 slice bread, crusts removed
1 sprig parsley + more for garnish
½ tablespoon pimentón (paprika, not smoked)
1 tomato, peeled and quartered
1 teaspoon oregano
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ cup wine vinegar
1 cup water

Cut the racks into segments of 2 or 3 ribs. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and allow to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Heat the oil in a deep skillet. Fry the 2 peeled garlic cloves, the bread and sprig of parsley. Remove when garlic and bread are golden.

In the same oil, brown the lamb riblets. With the side of a knife, crush the unpeeled garlics. Add them to the pan with the ribs.

In a blender or food processor, combine the fried garlic, fried bread, fried parsley, pimentón, tomato, oregano, cumin and vinegar. Process to make a smooth paste.

Add the paste to the ribs with the water and ½ teaspoon salt. Cover and simmer until the ribs are fork-tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Serve hot garnished with chopped parsley.

Succulent lamb ribs with garlic sauce.

MY FRIEND, MISTRESS OF THE FIRE

What in the world is the feminine for “grill meister”? Is she “maistresse of the grill”? Grill mistress? She with the art and craft, learned from a master, is my friend Donna Gelb who visited me in Spain a few weeks ago.

Donna was recipe developer for Argentine chef Francis Mallmann’s acclaimed book, SEVEN FIRES. She worked alongside the chef on location at his exquisite little hotel in Garzon, a tiny village in rural Uruguay, in order to translate his grand designs into workable recipes, then returned to her New York City apartment to tweak them. (Read a review of SEVEN FIRES here.)

Fuel for the fire. Donna Gelb uses olive wood to prepare coals for grilling lamb on my patio in Spain. She came to Spain from Languedoc (France), after teaching grilling classes there, preparing guinea hens over vieilles souches (aged vines).

Donna inspired me to get out the grill, hardly used for several years, and cook up a meal for friends. Instead of grilling over charcoal, she suggested we make a fire using small branches of olive wood that I had stacked for use as kindling in the fireplace.

I planned the menu using some of her recipes and she provided the expertise.

Salad of cucumber granita, avocado and watermelon

Boneless leg of lamb with onion marinade

Grilled tomatoes

Smashed potatoes with green olive tapenade

Grilled Leg of Lamb with Onion Marinade

In Spain, lamb is generally smaller than what is found in American meat markets. We used the thick part of the leg, without the shank end. Donna boned it, opened it flat and, skin side down, cut through the thickest muscle, then pounded it with the side of her hand so that the meat was approximately the same thickness. Boneless leg of lamb, opened up, is always a somewhat ragged, uneven piece of meat.

An Iranian cook introduced me to a marinade for lamb kebabs that I have adapted and used for grilling leg of lamb. Grated onion in the marinade both tenderizes and flavors the meat.  I use a food processor to grate the onion. 

Grate 1 large onion and combine with 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 cloves chopped garlic, 1 teaspoon fresh minced thyme, pinch of chopped rosemary, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place the lamb in a non-reactive container and spread the onion mixture on both sides. Marinate at least 2 hours and up to 12 hours. Bring the meat to room temperature before grilling.

Here are Donna’s grilling notes:

I scraped off most of the onion marinade so that the meat would crisp rather than steam.

I let the coals get very hot - hand just above the grate til about "3 mississippi" (or “3 matador” as we said in 7 Fires). The lamb was grilled directly over the coals. The grate was about 3-4 inches above coals.  I let it get a good char on the first side without moving it  (about 5 minutes)  before flipping it. You can rotate it 90 degrees to cross hatch for another 3-4 minutes before turning it.   Same on the second side until it feels almost but not quite done.  It should still yield somewhat to the pressure of your finger.  You can cut into an edge with a knife if you are really not sure, or use a instant read digital thermometer - about 120º F for rare BEFORE resting. Take it off BEFORE you think it is done - it keeps cooking while it rests, and it must rest about  5 minutes for juices to redistribute. You can always throw it back on if you need to.

   Grilled lamb, a little charred on the outside, pink and juicy on the inside, with grilled tomatoes and tapenade-crusted smashed potatoes. 

Smashed Potatoes with Tapenade Crust
Adapted from Seven Fires:  Grilling the Argentine Way by Francis Mallmann/Peter Kaminsky (Artisan 2009).

Donna used small (2 ½ - 3 oz), all-purpose white potatoes for this recipe. They can be par-boiled in advance, but are best “smashed” while still warm. For the tapenade, we used my home-cured green olives, somewhat mushy after all these months, instead of black olives. The trick, Donna said, is to use a fair amount of olive oil so the potatoes crisp really well. They are really delicious!

Serves 4

8 to 10 small potatoes, scrubbed
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon black peppercorns
Coarse salt
½ cup olive tapenade (recipe follows)

Put the potatoes in a pan and add the vinegar, 2 tablespoons of the oil, bay leaf, peppercorns and salt. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the potatoes are tender enough to be pierced with a skewer, about 12 minutes. Drain in a colander, but do not cool the potatoes.

Place a potato on a clean dishcloth on a work surface, cover with another  cloth and, using the palm of your hand, slowly and gently press the potato to flatten it. Transfer to a tray. Repeat with the remaining potatoes. Spoon the remaining 4 tablespoons oil over the potatoes.

Heat a plancha or cast-iron griddle over medium-low heat until a drop of water sizzles on the surface. Put the potatoes on the hot surface, oiled side down, and cook until they are crisp on the first side, 4 to 5 minutes. Don’t move them! Transfer to a tray, crisp side down.

Spread a heaping tablespoon of tapenade on top of the potatoes and press down lightly to compact the crust. Slide a wide spatula under a potato and, with one quick move, flip it over onto the hot plancha, tapenade side down. Lower the heat slightly. Repeat with remaining potatoes. Brown them for about 7 minutes, until the tapenade forms a crisp crust. Remove the potatoes as they are cooked and invert onto a serving platter, tapenade crust facing up. Serve immediately.

Black Olive Tapenade

This is the recipe from Seven Fires, but, as noted above, it can be freely varied. We used green Spanish olives, chopped in a food processor. Tapenade, a French condiment/sauce, also goes well with vegetables, grilled tuna, hard-boiled eggs or spread on toasts.

Makes about 1 ¾ cups.

1 cup pitted Kalamata olives, minced
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and minced
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 ½ teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

Combine the olives, capers, zest, juice and thyme in a bowl. Gradually whisk in the olive oil. Season to taste with pepper. The tapenade can be kept, refrigerated, for up to 1 week.

Cucumber Granita

I invented this this cucumber ice to serve as a garnish for tomato gazpacho. I froze part of it in ice cube trays and used it in salad combos. For this meal, I chunked up the cucumber cubes a bit and combined them with chunks of watermelon and avocado and dressed them with salt and pepper, a little lemon juice, and extra virgin olive oil. Purple basil makes a fragrant garnish.

Serves 8 to 10 as garnish for gazpacho or salad ingredient.

2 cucumbers, each about 11 ounces
2 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup chopped onion
¼ cup chopped green pepper
1 teaspoon salt
3 sprigs mint
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½ cup water

Peel the cucumbers, cut them in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Cut into chunks. Puree the cucumbers in a blender with remaining ingredients.

Pour the cucumber puree into two 9-inch metal cake pans (or ice cube trays). Freeze.

To serve, remove the granita from freezer 5 minutes before serving. Use a fork to scrape ice into mounds. Add scraped ice to gazpacho immediately before serving. Or, if using cubes, cut them into chunks and add to salad immediately before serving.