Mechoui

Parents of a friend of mine in France had a chateau (modest) in Roussillon outside of Perpignan very near the Pyrenees and the Spanish border. Once when I visited there, the locals were having a mechoui, where they spit roast a whole lamb in the field and people bring sides and wines for a big communal meal. It was delicious and very convivial.

So I wanted to try Molly Stevens' Mechoui-style roast lamb in her All About Roasting, and in keeping with the outdoor cooking, wanted to do it in the Big Green Egg. I had a lamb shoulder roast from Blue Rooster Farm in the freezer and this is one of the options Stevens described, although her 5-6 lb. shoulder was bigger than my 3-1/2 lb one. (Her other option is a whole bone-in leg of lamb weighing 7-8 lbs., feeding 8 to 10, as opposed to her shoulder feeding 6 to 8.) We invited a couple over and I was a little worried about the amount with the smaller shoulder, but it was enough (though sadly no leftovers).

Prepare the lamb 1 or 2 days ahead of time by making a paste to rub on it. Toast 1-1/2 Tbl coriander seeds and 1 Tbl cumin seeds for 2 or 3 min., cool slightly, and grind to a coarse powder. Stir in 2 tsp sweet paprika and 1/2 tsp sugar. Make a garlic paste in a mortar with 8 peeled garlic cloves and 2 tsp salt. Add this to the spices and work in 8 Tbl softened butter with a wooden spoon. Make a dozen or more incisions in the meat and rub the paste all over, working it into the incisions. Let sit uncovered or loosely covered in the fridge for 1 to 2 days. I prepared it Thursday evening for roasting on Saturday afternoon.

Take the lamb out 1 or 2 hours before cooking. I followed Stevens' directions for roasting in the oven, only used the Egg instead. Start with a 450-degree oven to sear the meat for 25 min., and then lower to 325 degrees to roast 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 hours longer. Shoulder goes more quickly, she says, and since my shoulder was smaller than hers, I figured, correctly, it would take a maximum of 2 hrs longer. Internal temperature should be 170 to 180 degrees and meat should come easily off the bone. The butter in the rub is supposed to keep the lamb moist.

When done, let the lamb sit on a cutting board for 20 to 35 min. and then use a meat fork and tongs, pull the meat off in chunks for serving. When roasting in the oven, you can deglaze the pan with water and pour this over the lamb chunks. I thought of just heating up some broth to moisten the meat, but didn't do it, though in retrospect a little moisture wouldn't have hurt. But the lamb had a delicious, mildly exotic flavor with a little smokiness from the Egg. We served the cumin salt make of 2 Tbl cumin seeds, toasted and lightly cracked, mixed with 4 Tbl salt for dipping the lamb pieces in.

Stevens recommended sides of couscous and carrot salad, so I used Ghillie Basan's Plain, buttery couscous recipe from Tagines and Couscous (soak 2 c. of couscous in 1-2/3 c. warm water for 10 min., massage in 2 Tbl olive oil, dot with 2 Tbl butter, cover with foil and pop in 350-degree oven for 15 min.) and Sara Jenkins' carrot salad from Olives and Oranges (grate or julienne 4 large carrots, mix in 5-1/2 Tbl of lemon juice and 1-1/2 tsp of salt in bowl for 5 min., then mix with 1/4 c. olive oil and 1/4 c. chopped parsley and let sit for up to 6 hrs at room temperature). The suggestions were perfect -- simple, very flavorful, and colorful on the plate. Likewise, her recommendation for a Spanish Garnacha to accompany was just right.

As a first course, I fixed a recipe from our herb wall calendar for a Potato soup with mixed herbs. The 6 to 8 oz of peeled and diced potatoes were really just a thickener. The potato gets cooked with 1 c. of diced onion in 1/4 c. olive oil for 10 min. (covered over low heat). Then add 2 c. vegetable broth, 1-1/2 c. milk and 1/4 c. heavy cream and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add 8 oz. of chopped herbs -- marjoram, thyme, chervil, sorrel, borsage, basil, tarragon were among those listed. Now 8 oz. of herbs is a lot of herbs and unfortunately our garden is not yet planted for the summer and neither WF or the Silver Spring farmer's market had any big supplies this early in the season. So I chopped the little packages of marjoram, thyme, and tarragon, chopped up one of those big basil plants, and used a bag of sorrel from the farmer's market and still probably had only half the amount required. Cook the herbs in the broth for 2 to 3 min., then purree.
This soup had a great, fresh flavor from the herbs (heavily skewed to sorrel). I didn't strip the thyme so there were little bits of twig in there (I would just avoid thyme in the future). You could make this soup any number of times and it would always be different, depending on what herbs were available.

For hors d'oeuvres, Andrea got very creative and whipped up a wonderful tomato jam of green heirloom tomatoes from the market, garlic and honey, that she put on top of burrata for one type of crostini, and cooked up some baby yellow beets from the market with onion to put on top of ricotta for the other type of crostini. Sitting on the patio with a cremant de Bourgogne, it was the perfect start for our Mediterranean meal. For dessert, we had a very seasonal (and more American) strawberry and rhubarb bread pudding. Again the products from the farmer's market ensured this had a wonderful, fresh taste, that the sugar, bread and creme anglaise only enhanced. It was a great little menu and a very nice spring meal!