Greek Roast Lamb with Kalamata Olives

Lamb is one of my favorite proteins.  It sucks that it's so expensive though.  I think for most people who've not eaten lamb, they find it to be an acquired taste because it can be a little strong.  I think if you marinate the meat well, it helps remove a bit of the gamey flavor.

1 leg of lamb, trimmed of excess fat

2 lemons

5 cloves garlic

1/2 of an onion

1/3 cup good olive oil

3 tbsp fresh chopped oregano

1 tsp. fresh chopped mint

2 tbsp. kosher salt.

The first thing you do is wash the meat well and pat it dry.  Begin trimming the fat.  This is an extremely important step because the fat on lamb tends to be really hard, and gross.  Once you've trimmed the meat, take some butcher's twine and begin tying up the meat so that it stays in a neat shape.  Using a mini food processor or blender, chop the garlic and onion to form a paste.  Chop the herbs by hand though.  Transfer the lamb to a large zip lock bag.  In a mixing bowl, combine all of the marinating ingredients, the onion, garlic paste, salt, herbs, juice and zest of both lemons and olive oil.  Whisk well and transfer the marinating liquid into the bag.  Close the bag and massage the meat, making sure to get into the crevasses.  Put the bag in the fridge over night or for at least 8 hours.

For the roasting:

4 tbsp. olive oil

1 onion, diced

5 garlic cloves, sliced

1 cup kalamata olives

2 tbsp. fresh oregano

1 tbsp. fresh mint

1 lemon (juice)

kosher salt

I have a rotisserie attachment on my grill and that is what I used to brown the meat.  If you don't have the attachment, just place it straight on the grill and turn as needed.  I left it on the rotisserie for about 40 minutes.   This rendered the lamb rare in the middle.   I transferred it to a roasting pan at this point.   While the lamb was cooking on the grill, I turned on the oven to 400 degrees. I added a chopped onion, few sliced garlic cloves and about a cup of kalamata olives to the roasting pan.  I also added the olive oil, lemon, herbs and kosher salt and transferred the pan to the oven.  I roasted it for about 20 minutes and then let it rest before slicing.

The sides I made were Baba Ganooj, Tabouleh, and Herbed Quinoa.