Smoke + Salt with Blaine

Harissa Crusted Lamb with Rhubarb Gastrique

Photography by Melanie Limpus

Well everyone, we have officially reached the season of backyard barbecues, good company, cold beer, and sweltering heat. So, naturally, this issue felt like it needed a classic, backyard shindig of grilling massive hunks of meat. However, as some of you may have caught on by now, I’m not going to sit here and tell a bunch of folks from Wyoming how to grill beef. That’s like telling Josh Allen how to throw a football – just plain silly. So there will be no hamburger recipes, no ribeye recipes, none of that. We are going to discuss one of the Rocky Mountain region’s true gems: lamb. 

The second weekend of June, we had the pleasure of cooking a couple of lamb legs with some great Lander folks. When we first began brainstorming this lamb cookout, our friends Ben and Jesse not only offered to host, but also to provide the lamb for us. Since they had two legs, we opted to prepare one the traditional Australian way and one with a fun twist for the magazine. As it usually happens in Lander, when you invite friends over for dinner, triple the amount of people will likely turn up. The sense of community in this town is one of our favorite things about Lander. People show up. People provide for each other. It’s a special part of summer for us and we wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I felt fortunate to have a few Australians embark on this culinary journey with me since lamb is such a common dish over there. Their friends, Troy and Sherry, were visiting from Norfolk (a small island off the coast of Australia) and one happened to be a chef for 30+ years. Needless to say, I was a little terrified to cook for someone that is established in the food world. That’s the fun part though, dream an idea and send it!

I wanted to make a recipe that felt appropriate for our region during this time of year. How many times do you harvest all that rhubarb sitting in your backyard and get tired of making the same strawberry rhubarb pie? Don’t get me wrong, strawberry rhubarb is fierce! But, sometimes, just sometimes, it feels good to mix it up. I’m sure all of you have had apple butter, yeah? Well, I wanted to put a twist on that and make a rhubarb butter. However, the beauty of cooking is when the rhubarb butter comes out looser than intended, which is what happened to me, you shift gears and label it as a gastrique! To put simply, a gastrique is a sweet-and-sour sauce, made with sugar and vinegar or another sour agent. For this I used lemon juice to keep it light so the rhubarb could really shine. I promise it’ll be wonderful on that lamb.

For one of the lamb legs, the Australians said the common way to serve it over in their neck of the woods is to poke it full of garlic, rosemary, and salt, and it was absolutely incredible. They served it with a “Norfolk” sauce which consisted of coconut cream and bananas to celebrate Bounty Day (the day their ancestors arrived on the Island). It was beyond words. 

However, for the other leg of lamb, I wanted to create a flavor profile that was a little spicy and sweet; something a little weird and untraditional. So tie on those punny aprons and light up that charcoal because we are going to make some food that will make your friends think you’re a fierce chef without having to try too hard!

ingredients:

----------------------------

Protein:

• Leg of lamb (bone in)

Dry Rub:

• 1 to 2 tbsp Harissa seasoning (depending on your heat tolerance)
• 1 lemon (zest)
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme
• Salt to taste (lamb can handle salt, but not to the extent of beef)
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• Pepper to taste

Rhubarb Gastrique:

• 2 lbs diced rhubarb
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 lemon (zest and juice)

Directions:

Rhubarb Gastrique:

1.

In a large saucepan, toss in all of the diced rhubarb and water. Let that simmer over medium low heat, covered, until the rhubarb is very tender. Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn’t stick to the pan.

2.

Once the rhubarb is soft, add in the cinnamon, sugar, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape the bottom of the pan as the acid hits to pull the glorious goodies off the bottom. Keep the same medium low heat and stir a little more frequently. You want that sauce to thicken up to your liking. Ideally, this will simmer for about two hours.

3.

Once the thickness of the sauce is to your preference, pull it off the heat and let that beauty cool. Next, transfer your rhubarb sauce to the blender and puree into a velvet-y, decadent treat.

4.

Transfer the sauce to sterile mason jars, and you will be able to store this for a couple months!

Directions:

Lamb

1.

The first thing to do is to trim off any excess fat from the lamb leg. (It won’t render down like beef fat and may cause your grill to be a fiery mess.) Take the trimmed lamb and make three slices across the leg about an inch or so deep. This is going to allow all of those delicious spices to seep down into the meat.

2.

Mix all of your dry rub ingredients in a bowl and start massaging that lamb with the spices like the deep tissue most of us need. I recommend doing this about an hour prior to slapping that baby on the grill. Allow the meat time to absorb all that goodness.

3.

Next, fire up that chimney full of charcoal and get those coals roaring.

4.

When you are ready to go, there isn’t too much to it; let the meat cook until the internal temperature reaches 140 degrees. Our grill was set at about 350 to 375 degrees. (Take the external temperature into account – specifically, the sun. It’s hot these days and let's face it, most of us have black grills).

5.

Once you reach 140 degrees, pull that glorious, intoxicating lamb off the grill and let ‘er rest. It’s important to get all of those juices flowing back into the leg so the meat stays tender instead of becoming a big hockey puck! I know you want to dive in, but please, that little lamb just worked hard on the grill and deserves some rest time.

6.

Once you have let the lamb rest, slice that baby up, drizzle some rhubarb sauce all over it and serve with your favorite sides. Crack open an ice cold beverage (you deserve it!!), and when asked, tell everyone you just whipped up this recipe on a whim!