LAMB WITH ROSEMARY CRUST

THIS WAS NOT A GOOD DINNER TO MAKE WHEN ONE OF MY DAUGHTERS HAD A DATE. Their dates, they said, didn’t appreciate the garlic. That was fine with me, since I usually didn’t appreciate the dates. Having daughters who date is the reason why men grow bald, get gray and die sooner than their wives.

So if a little garlic breath was discouraging to dates, I was all for it. In fact, I encouraged date harassment, and it became a favorite pastime at our house. Kim’s dates were the first to come under fire, and her brother Brian fired the first shot. He interrupted what was supposed to be a romantic moment on the back deck by leaning out of his second floor bedroom window and asking Kim innocently, “Is that your boyfriend, Jim.” It wasn’t. Brian claimed innocence, but his laughter gave him away. Kim promised revenge.

Maureen and I set the tone by insisting that dates ring the doorbell no matter how many times they had been out with our daughter before. With luck, Kim or Carey wouldn’t be quite ready so the young man would enjoy a few minutes of my glares, my wife’s incessant grilling and my son’s seemingly innocent questions about where they were going.

Usually, by the time the girls came down the steps, the young man had stammered out every secret his family had trying to silence my wife’s inquisition.

On the second date, they would offer to wait in the car, but we would have none of it. A seat on the couch, a few glares and continued grilling was a price they had to pay. Surprisingly some came back more than once.

By the time Brian started dating, his sisters had matured into young adults ready, willing and able to pay him back for his role. And they did it with a vengeance. Woe to the young lady whom they found lacking. It got so that when they were home from college, he just stopped dating, or at least bringing his dates home to meet his family.

None of them ever brought their dates to a leg of lamb dinner.

Actually, with only two cloves of garlic, it doesn’t seem that this recipe would produce an intensive (to my daughters, offensive) garlic taste and aftertaste, but it does. So if you don’t like garlic, you might not appreciate how the garlicky flavor complements the spicy crust as much as I do.

For my money, it’s just about the best way to keep your cholesterol low and vampires away that I know of.

Although you can prepare this with a boned leg of lamb, I think a bone-in roast is more flavorful even if it is harder to slice.

Lamb with Rosemary Crust: The Recipe

Serves six

Ingredients

One 5-6 pound leg of lamb. If it’s been de-boned, just roll and tie it up.

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon ground pepper

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons fresh thyme

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

2 large garlic cloves,sliced thinly

½ cup red wine

½ cup beef broth

¼ cup water

1 tablespoon cornstarch

First: Pre-heat oven to 450°F. Trim off as much fat as you can from meat, particularly the fell, which is a white papery membrane that will prevent seasonings from penetrating the meat. Remove most of the fat from beneath the fell, leaving a few streaks for moisture.

Second: Heat two tablespoons of the olive oil in the roasting pan on the top of the stove until nearly smoking. Brown the leg of lamb all over. Remove the leg of lamb to a cutting board.

Third: Grind together all of the spices with a mortar and pestle or, better yet, a coffee grinder. Mix the ground spices with the butter and flour to form a paste. Rub liberally over the outside of the leg of lamb.

Fourth: Cut 20 or so evenly spaced slits in the meat and insert a slice of the garlic in each. Brush the roast with olive oil. Arrange on a rack in a roasting pan.

Fifth: Place in the lower third of the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 325°F. Roast until the internal temperature is about 135° to 140°F for rare (about 20 minutes per pound). Remember, the internal temperature will go up about five degrees after the meat is removed from the oven.

Sixth: Let the leg of lamb rest under a tent of aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. While it’s resting, deglaze the pan with the wine and the beef broth. Dissolve the cornstarch in the water and stir into the wine and broth mixture. Bring to a boil and continue stirring until thickened. Pour any juices from the leg of lamb into the sauce. Keep warm

Seventh: Carve the meat by tilting the leg up so that the shank (thin) end is at the top and then slice down parallel to the bone, carving off ¼ inch slices until you reach the bone. Then do the same on the other side. Put the slices on a warm platter.

And finally: Garnish with fresh rosemary and serve with the sauce on the side.