The last two recipes for 2009

A little late in posting this, but we went a little outside the box for Christmas dinner this year. I wanted something different, and said no to turkey. I wanted to do a pot roast, but the husband didn't want that. Neither of us were enthused by the thought of ham. And then I got the brilliant but rather daunting idea. Leg of lamb.

I secured a 9.5# haunch. It was prepped by rubbing it all over with a lemon half, then with sprigs of rosemary. I thin sliced the other half of the lemon and half an onion and laid them across the fatty side, with a couple more sprigs of rosemary on top. Pre-heat the oven to 400, put the leg in, turn the temp down to 325, and cook it for 20 minutes per pound.

Before:



After:



Très Flintstones, oui?

It came out beautifully. Very tender, slightly rare, and quite tasty. I need more lamb carving practice, though. We've got lots of leftovers, so it's been gyro central here the past week. So, of course, the next thing to make was tsatsiki. No pictures, as there's none left, but here's the recipe - pretty simple:

8oz Greek yogurt
1 English Cucumber (they're the ones wrapped in plastic)
2-6 cloves of garlic to taste, minced or pressed
3-6 sprigs of dill, stripped
2 1/2 teaspoons of salt
fresh ground pepper to taste

Wash, peel, and either dice or grate the cucumber. Toss the cucumber with 2 teaspoons of salt and let it drain in a strainer for at least 1 hour. Mix garlic with remainder of salt. Mix all ingredients. If you can, let stand overnight. That's a hard one, though.

Happy New Year, all! 2010, here we come!