The other day I purchased leg of lamb at a great price. Quite often a week or two after Easter many stores may have a few legs of lamb left over that they need to move in a hurry. So they price them up nice and cheap. This year was one of those years at my store and I bought about five really nice big legs and stuffed them into my freezer. Except for this one nice big fat one that I boned out and butterflied. To butterfly a piece of meat means to open it up by cutting it so it will lay flat in one large piece. It’s a great way to prepare a piece a meat for the grill which is what I had planned for my leg of lamb.
After I butterflied and trimmed most all the fat off my lamb leg I placed it into a large pot with a bunch of my special lamb marinade. I’ll tell you what I keep impressing myself how good my marinades and sauces are. It’s a good thing I believe in being humble or I might have to let you all know haw darn good I am, again. Anyhow, like I said, I placed this great big slab of meat into my wife’s best pot with a bunch of marinade. One note of warning for the guys out there. If you are going to marinade something for several days check with the wife before you tie up one of her favorite pots. You’ll be glad you did. So anyhow I got my lamb and my marinade inside this big pot and I placed it in the fridge for about four days.
I was going to marinate it a couple days more but I came home from work early last Friday so I cooked it up for dinner. Talking about good chow, man o’man.
I took the butterflied lamb and laid it out flat in my large roasting pan and then poured the rest of the marinade over it. I then placed it covered in the oven at 300F for about an hour and a half until the internal temperature reached about 150 degrees. Then I pulled it out and slapped it onto my hot grill which is still almost completely buried in the snow for about five minutes on each side. I brought it back in the house and sliced it up. My wife Vickie was just pulling some of her beautiful little individual French bread loaves from the oven. We sliced them open and made little poor boy sandwiches with our favorite condiments and some nice sautéed onions. Oh boy that was good. The lamb was so tasty and tender and the rolls were soft yet a tad bit chewy like good French bread is suppose to be. And the drippings were so good that even my little kindergartener son who only eats peanut butter and cold cereal, kept asking for more juice for his meat.
After stuffing myself with some of the best French dip I had ever had I put the leftovers away and Vickie made some outstanding lamb stew with it the next day. It was black and rich and hearty and she served it wrapped in tortillas with sour cream, shredded lettuce and salsa. Hot dog! That was some good stuff.
To marinate your butterflied leg of lamb simply dump a 15 oz bottle of La Choy soy sauce into a bowl with a half cup of olive oil and a couple of teaspoons of curry or so to taste along with a generous amount of garlic and onion powder and pepper. Add a half cup of balsamic vinegar and then dump your meat into it. Make sure the lamb is completely submerged in the marinade. Just add more of the liquids if need be. This ain’t rocket fuel so don’t worry about measurements. I never do. Then place in the fridge for a few hour, up to a few days. Then cook her up.
To make the stew, just use the leftover drippings for the base. Cut up some potatoes, onions and carrots, and add to the drippings, cook until they are tender. Then add peas and the meat cut into chunks. Next add a small can of tomato sauce for some color, thicken with corn starch and season with garlic and onion powder plus salt and pepper to taste. There you have it, some very tasty lamb stew. You can serve it in tortillas like we did or over rice or just fill up an bowl. If you have leftovers, it freezes well. .Anyway you serve it it’s going to be good.