In another life, I worked in Adult Education. I worked with a fine group of women with whom I have occasional contact. I was able to see a friend this past weekend. Her name is Cheryl, and her expertise was early literacy for children and their, mostly, under-educated parents. Working in adult education afforded my colleagues and me a chance to interact and work with people from around the world who came to our part of the state as political and economic refugees. They came to our part of the state, because there are plentiful job opportunities in the agricultural sector.
Well Cheryl came for a town visit, and I was to be out of town when the old group planned a gathering – a homecoming, of sorts. That meant I would invite Cheryl to dine with us Sunday evening. “I will come if you don’t go through any trouble.” Okay. Keep in mind what is “trouble” to some is therapy for me – cooking. So, here was my menu:
- Grilled leg of lamb – slathered in a fresh pesto sauce before grilling
- Caprese Salad – you may remember that I have a basil “tree” that won’t stop producing!
- Freshly baked bread with OGB as a dip (olive oil, garlic, and basil) – featured photo!
- Baked and whipped sweet potatoes
- Crème de banane for dessert (an original recipe!)
- Wine
How do you grill a leg of lamb? We have a large kettle-style Weber barbecue. Dale uses an “indirect” method of grilling large items such as turkey and leg of lamb. Our friends, Bob and Adrian have a sheep farm about 13 miles away, so we always have lamb and venison, from the same county as the lamb, when I’m a fortunate hunter. We’ll talk about venison another time.
Back to grilling the lamb. I prepare the lamb by rubbing it with the pesto (which is well-seasoned) and black pepper. The charcoals are prepared in a charcoal starter, which is a cylinder, which is about 2 feet tall (0.6096 meters), that has a wooden handle. A small basket inside the cylinder holds the charcoal briquettes, which are ignited on an open fire. Once the briquettes are glowing, they are ready to be place in the grill. I neglected to take a picture of indirect grilling, so I borrowed an illustration from the Weber website. Keep in mind that we roasted leg of lamb, NOT ribs. The meat is never directly over the hot charcoals, but rather sits above a drip pan.
So, you put about 25 coals on each side of the meat. You must add newly heated coals about every 30 minutes. Once the meat reaches 130° F (54.44 C), take if off the grill and let it sit until it reaches 140° F (60 C).
Of course, I’ve written about my caprese salad, so that recipe can be found on one of my past blog posts, but here’s a picture of it.
Also, since I’m still working on using up basil, I decided to blend three large hands full of basil with 8 cloves of garlic and enough olive oil to make a nice liquid concentrate of OGB for later use. I put the plenty in the freezer for later use. Since it’s so very concentrated, I put a large spoon full on a bread plate to which I added a little more olive oil and a spoonful of balsamic vinegar for a nice bread dip.
The sweet potatoes were baked, mashed with butter, salt, and a spoonful of pure maple syrup. You may notice the color of the sweet potatoes are more like Yukon Golds. Their dullness of yellow instead of orange is off-putting, but they are delicious!
I prepare banana cream for dessert. To make it sound fancy, I used the French, crème de banane. I found some very nice ripe bananas at the market, so I put three in a glass bowl to which I added 8 ounces (226.80 grams) of mascarpone cheese and four ounces (113.40 grams) cream cheese, one half cup of pure maple syrup, one spoonful of dehydrated orange rind (something I produce to flavor biscotti). I whipped it all with a hand mixer until all was creamy. I chilled the banana cream in individual “berry bowls”. I was an interesting texture, which surprised the guests! “Interesting!” “Thank you!” I think.
Perhaps not as pleasing to the eye, I found it tasty and not too filling as a dessert. We drank a rosé and a zinfindel with the meal.
Mostly, it was about reminiscing with Cheryl and getting to know her friends, Darryl and Ann. At the end of the day, the food becomes a companion for conversation, which contributes to those convivial moments.
Thank you for reading.
Human Ecology: People, Foods, Travel, Culture, and Social Justice 