Perfect Leg of Lamb

Food has an uncanny way of crossing cultural lines and literally brings people to the table in sharing something that is essential to the survival of all humans. When care is taken to respect certain cultural or religious restrictions on diet, food allows us to interact as citizens of planet Earth, and celebrate the myriad flavors this world has to offer. Case in point: About three weeks ago, my wife, Ericka, and I hosted a dinner party that featured guests from three different countries with three different native languages being spoken at the table. After my cousin, Britt, attended our New Year’s Luau Party and introduced her boyfriend, Hassan, to us, we had such a good time that we exchanged contact information and promised to make time to get together and enjoy a meal together soon.
We made good on our promise, and shared several meals with them over the next few months. Hassan is from Iran, and is in Seattle finishing his Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington. After getting to know Hassan better, we have learned a great deal about Persian culture and its fascinating history. He is a brilliant young man, and his control of the English language puts us native speakers to shame! With a cultural restriction on eating pork, Hassan had mentioned that lamb was a large part of the Persian diet, and that he was still looking for a decent lamb dish since he arrived in America. Lamb is a meat that is not overly popular in this country, so not a lot of restaurants (outside of ethnic restaurants, of course) serve lamb dishes. I just happened to have a superb lamb recipe, and I was anxious to share it with my new friend. We set the date, and I crossed my fingers, hoping that Hassan would finally have a lamb dish that would rival what he could find back in Iran.
As we set-about prepping for our dinner party, Britt called and asked if an exchange student from France that was staying with her could tag along for dinner. Ericka and I always say, “the more the merrier!”, so we set an extra set of dishes on the table. I made a grilled leg of lamb and a Caesar salad with homemade dressing, and Ericka made blanched asparagus with cheese sauce and saffron rice pilaf. As we sat down to our meal (following an hour of hand-constructed cocktails, cheese, crackers, and fruit), Hassan was raving about how amazing the lamb smelled and looked, and our new friend from France, Marie, was very excited to enjoy a home-cooked meal. We were a little apprehensive to serve our food to a French person, assuming that every citizen of France was a food expert. Fortunately, we knocked this meal out of the park. Hassan told us that this was, by far, the best lamb that he has had since arriving in America. Britt wanted to know our secret for making the BEST asparagus (perfectly tender, but not crunchy or mushy), and Hassan loved the addition of saffron to the rice pilaf. Marie was a bit shy because she felt she couldn’t communicate in English very well, but her incredibly clean plate showed us that she really appreciated the home-cooked meal.
It was so amazing to have three languages (English, French, and Farsi) being spoken at the dinner table, and we traded slang and local colloquialisms in our native languages amidst our hearty laughter and full belly’s. All in all, this was a fantastic evening. As Britt spoke French, she translated for Marie, and she said that this was, hands down, the best meal that she has had since arriving in America in January. Needless to say, we were so honored! We had hosted a truly international meal, and gained knowledge and respect for other cultures while satiating our hunger and having a fantastically fun evening. As the heart of the meal, the lamb brought us all together to enjoy each other’s company. Here is the recipe for making super tender and tasty leg of lamb:

Grilled Leg of Lamb
As adapted and enhanced from Alton Brown’s Silence of the Leg of Lamb”recipe

1 four to five pound boneless leg of lamb
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
6 cloves garlic
5 Tbs Dijon mustard
10 mint leaves
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup olive oil
12 grinds of quality pepper
Kosher salt

Combine garlic, mustard, mint, brown sugar, olive oil, pepper, and salt in a food processor and blend to make a thick paste. Flay the leg open and brush the paste onto the meat. Truss with butcher’s twine, and cover outside of roast with Kosher salt. Fire-up two chimneys worth of hardwood lump charcoal, and prepare some chunks of apple wood wrapped inside of aluminum foil. Once coals are completely covered with ash, pour one chimney on one side of the grill, and one on the other. Lay the foil wrapped apple wood onto the coals, and place the rosemary next to the coals. Allow the grill grate to heat-up, and lay the lamb on the center grate. Grill (lid closed) for 15 minutes, then flip the leg over. Grill another 15 minutes, then move the coals as far to the sides as possible, and roast for another 45 minutes (for medium rare), allowing the apple wood smoke to swirl around the lamb. Remove from the grill, wrap in foil, and allow to rest for 15 minutes before carving into slices. Enjoy!

Puerco Pibil

"This dish is, in fact, so good that I will have to go back into the kitchen and kill the chef. It's my little way of keeping balance in the world." --Johnny Depp playing Agent Sheldon Sands from Robert Rodriguez's film "Once Upon a Time in Mexico"

After watching Rodriguez's film on DVD (and seeing what an important role this particular meal had in it) I was curious as to what this food item was all about. Fortunately, as a bonus feature on the DVD, Rodriguez offered his "10 Minute Cooking School" where he takes you step-by-step how to make this delicious meal. Puerco Pibil is actually a derivative of a Mayan recipe that has survived into Mexican cuisine today. Literally meaning "pit or buried pork", the name harkens back to barbecuing an animal in a pit until its meat is falling off of the bone. Intrigued by Rodriguez's recipe, I set about looking for ingredients and begged my wife to let me make it for her.
As I searched the local grocery stores looking for anatto seed and banana leaves, I received many an awkward look from store employees and management alike. Thinking that my pursuit of culinary bliss was vanquished without access to these ingredients, I summarily gave-up and shelved the recipe for another day. Sooner rather than later, however, I was taking a long weekend with my family over at Lake Chelan for the annual Winemakers' Dinner. This was a feast that I will recall in another posting, though! While shopping for some groceries at a local supermarket, I stumbled upon my four-leaf clover of spices: anatto! The essential ingredient in Achiote Paste, this Caribbean seed is tough to find outside of Latino neighborhoods; fortunately, Chelan has a large population of Mexican people, and therefore the stores cater to their tastes. Now if they only carried banana leaves, I'd be in business... Eureka! Frozen banana leaves! Needless to say, the store needed to order more of both after we cleaned them out.
Now, back on the west side of the mountains, I gathered the remaining ingredients and faced the daunting challenge of turning this mess of seemingly disparate food items into culinary gold. Note to self, don't touch eye after slicing habeneros for at least two days...trust me on this one! So, here's how we dance:

Puerco Pibil, as adapted from Robert Rodriguez's "10 Minute Film School"

4-5 pounds boneless pork shoulder (pork butt), trimmed and cut into 2 inch cubes
7 cloves of fresh garlic, smashed
2 habanero peppers, seeded and diced
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup white vinegar
Healthy dose of quality tequila or mezcal
2 1/2 Tbs anatto seed
2 tsp cumin seed
8 allspice berries
1/2 tsp whole cloves
1 Tbs black peppercorns
2 Tbs Kosher salt
Banana leaves

Preheat oven to 325 F. Place all whole spices into spice grinder and grind until all are moderately powdered. Place all liquid ingredients in a blender with garlic, peppers, salt, and spices. Blend until smooth. Place pork chunks in a zip-top bag and pour blender contents into the bag. Seal tightly and ensure no air is in the bag. Massage bag for a few moments to evenly distribute spices. Line a large baking dish with banana leaves, and make sure some leaves hang over the sides. Pour contents of bag into dish and fold over banana leaves. Cover with a few more leaves, and then wrap tightly with aluminum foil. Bake for 4 hours and serve with sauce over Spanish rice.

The blend of spices with the heat of the habaneros and the acidity of the liquid ingredients combine with heat to break-down the connective tissues in the pork and render one of the most flavorful meals around. Getting the freshest spices and grinding them yourself is the key to making your taste buds soar. If you can't take the heat of habaneros, serranos or even jalapenoes could be substituted without a real loss of flavor. Also, Rodriguez insists on using top shelf tequila (this is why, he surmises, that the chef is shot for making the dish with such good tequila), but I'd rather use Cuervo Gold and save the really good stuff (Cabo Wabo!) for my scratch margaritas (a topic I may have to broach on another day).
My wife loved this dish so much, she said it's now her favorite meal! She even talked our butcher into getting 25 pounds of pork butt to freeze so I can make it for her whenever she wants. If that isn't an endorsement, I don't know what is! What is strange about this dish is that it would be equally at home on a cold winter's night as well as a hot summer evening. I first made it in November, and it had a very comforting quality about it; this was hearty comfort food to help keep warm on a blustery, wet Seattle night. The earthy tone of the anatto (not to mention the cool, surface of Mars color) really grounds the dish, and the cloves and allspice give a hint of sweet contrast. Fantastic. Fork tender pork simmered and steamed inside banana leaves is an amazingly satisfying meal. I urge you to try it for yourself. Don't worry, we won't shoot the chef.