Recipe: Greek Feast

So, two-ish weeks ago, my first time at Dancin on the Avenue was a success! Hurray!

Let’s just say I starved myself that day (well, starved is a relative term since I have been known to eat more than most guys) and made room for the food on the Ave.

I started with a Gyro from Opa! Absolutely amazing! The fresh pita was topped with juicy lamb, cucumbers, tomatoes and a wonderful tzatziki sauce. Then, a few booths down I got hungry again so downed a slice of cheese pizza from Pizza My Heart.

The next day, I woke up hungry. No surprise. Decided that a Greek Feast was in order.

I went over to Whole Paycheck Foods bought a little leg of lamb, fresh cucumbers, onions, tomato, yogurt, garlic, fresh naan, etc.

I trusted the Barefoot Contessa since I’ve actually made this recipe before.

All I have to say is this recipe is super easy and makes you look like a wiz in the kitchen. I’ve included the full text below, with my recommendations in purple.




Grilled Leg of Lamb
Note: This recipe serves 8-12; I cut it in half and had enough for four people. The recipe below is for 8-12 peeps.

2 pounds plain yogurt
½ cup fresh lemon juice
¾ cup of fresh rosemary
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1 5-pound butterflied leg of lamb (Important, don’t skimp on good meat. I would recommend going to either Whole Foods, PW or Cosentino’s).

Combine all ingredients, except the lamb, into a large nonreactive bowl. Then, add the lamb to the yogurt mixture and cover it in the yogurt marinade for at least 2 hours.

Once you are ready, get your grill ready and take the lamb out of the fridge (bring it to room temperature). Scrape the marinade off the lamb and place onto the hot grill. Make sure you are grilling with indirect heat. Grill both sides for about 20 minutes per side (your meat thermometer should say 120-125 degrees for rare). For bigger pieces of lamb, you may need to add an extra 5-10 minutes per side.

Either way, you should be able to feast on this little lamb in about an hour.

Tzatziki
Note: Again, this recipe makes five cups; I cut it in half and had plenty for four people plus some for apps. The recipe below if for five cups.

4 cups plain yogurt
2 hothouse cucumbers, unpeeled and seeded (I don’t even know what hothouse cucumbers are, so I used normal ones. I also was lazy and didn’t unpeel or seed them).
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 cup sour cream
2 tbs. champagne or white wine vinegar
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
2 tbs. good olive oil
1 tbs. minced garlic
1 tbs. minced dill
¼ tsp. fresh ground pepper

Place yogurt in a cheesecloth-lined sieve and set it over a bowl (I don’t own cheeseclothes so I skipped this part, just make sure to skim the water that sits on top of the yogurt when you open up the container).

Grate the cucumber and toss with salt. Place it in a sieve over another bowl and let it sit for 3-4 hours. (This is extremely important since the cucumbers let off a lot of water, do NOT skimp on this part or you’ll be eating watery tzatziki).

After a few hours, mix all the ingredients together and let the tzatizki to sit in the fridge for a few hours to blend.






Source: Garten, Ina. Barefoot Contessa Parties! Ideas and Recipes for Easy Parties That are Really Fun. New York: Random House, Inc., 2001. Print.