We had a lovely Easter dinner with our family. Mickey, the eldest son, is a pristine cook in the French fashion so I am always surprised when he serves up a rather casual meal. Now, for casual he still has his little copper pot of “sauce” (the most luscious reduced veal/lamb/beef demi-glace) on the back burner and a large potato gratin in the oven. But, the vegetables are grilled (on this day asparagus, among others) or roasted and the meat is simply done and, usually, grilled. His best pal and our artist in residence, Steve Kolyer, did his usual stint in the kitchen as well offering up a lovely assortment of hors d’ which were graciously passed by our granddaughter, Clara. Mick’s lovely wife, Laurel, made a cake to celebrate the bunny but we all kinda thought he looked like a cat with long ears.
Here are Mickey’s words for the marvelous lamb we enjoyed on a balmy spring Easter Sunday. It is something that we can all do throughout the coming summer months.
From Mickey: “I boned a whole leg of lamb which gave me three mini-roasts. I’m not sure how to describe boning the lamb as it is pretty involved and time consuming. (I say that we all know a good butcher who will do this for us.) You sort of follow the seams in the muscles and cut out all the fat and silverskin. I rubbed the inside of each piece of lamb with roasted garlic puree, thyme, rosemary and parsley and then tied them up into compact roasts. I cooked them on the hot side of the grill (a two level fire) and then moved them to the cool side and covered with an aluminum pan until they were cooked to about 130ºF.”
He served the lamb with just a drizzle of that rich sauce – I’d just serve the lamb with maybe a nice, fresh chimmichurri.
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