Easter is an awesome time to eat meat. Whether you do a big Easter dinner after looking for eggs and eating too much candy or you do a Seder meal it is always a great holiday to spend with friends and family. And that usually means large pieces of meat. I love how most of our holidays revolve around food.
Anyway, I wanted to share my favorite Easter recipe: Grilled Leg of Lamb with Pomegranate Molasses. I first made this about 6 years ago for a group of friends and I remember the meal well. I actually texted my future wife for the first time to brag about what I made and I guess it impressed her enough to eventually marry me. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the finished product since I haven’t made one in the last couple years but you can imagine…
I first saw the recipe on an episode of Good Eats. Alton Brown has always been one of the TV chefs I have enjoyed watching since he usually makes recipes pretty much any semi-competent home cook can make and this recipe is no exception.
Basically you turn pomegranate juice, sugar, and lemon juice to a syrup, cover a boneless leg of lamb with it, and cook it. You can grill it on a charcoal or gas grill or you can do it in the oven. I have done both and it turns out great either way.
Here is a link to the recipe if you want to take a look: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/grilled-leg-of-lamb-with-pomegranate-molasses-recipe.html. Costco usually sells boneless legs of lamb and you can also find them at some grocery stores, especially around Easter. If all you can find is a bone in leg of lamb that will work too but you will need to work on your butchering skills to de-bone the leg.
Lamb is meant to be fairly rare so be sure you don’t cook it beyond 130 or 135 at the most. It should be fairly dark pink inside and if you have done everything correctly you will have a nice, sweet, caramelized pomegranate glaze on the outside of the meat as well as some great flavor inside the leg.
If you want a quick primer on leg of lamb here is a great summary I found: http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/12/food-lab-definite-guide-to-leg-of-lamb.html
As far as buying a leg of lamb, Costco is probably your best bet but also check your grocery store. You will probably be looking at $5-7 per pound for some Australian leg of lamb. US and grass fed legs will cost a bit more. If you are looking to buy one online here are a few sources. I can’t really vouch for any of them but they could be worth checking out:
http://www.dartagnan.com/Boneless-Leg-of-Lamb
http://www.lobels.com/store/item/leg-of-lamb.htm
https://www.daylightfamilyfarms.com/product/lamb-boneless-leg-roast/
