Saturday, April 7, 2012

Easter 1: Ras el hanout

راس الحانوت  Cool. Fonts.

It's Easter again, or, as I mentally refer to it "Spring Thanksgiving."

Anyway, I wanted to do something different this year for the Easter lamb, so I came up with the idea of a slow roast in a ras el hanout rub, to add a Moroccan flavor. Part of the idea was to mimic a tagine, without actually having to go buy something I'd never use again.

Since Hawaii doesn't really have much of a middle eastern population, I had to make my own rub.  Here's what I used:

  • 1tsp cardamom
  • 1tsp coriander
  • 1tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp cloves
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1/2 tsp ginger
  • 3/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1tsp black pepper
  • 1tsp red pepper
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric

Once mixed and double ground, it looked like this:


Next up, the lamb.  Lamb is increasingly hard to find everywhere.  I ended up with a ~4 pound boneless leg.  It's the butt end, so it's a nice meaty looking cut.  I was hoping to find a fully leg that I could bone myself, but it doesn't seem like that's available at all here in the Islands.

Next I added a bit of garlic paste (because garlic always makes things better), and then added the rub, mushing it all over, and making sure that the bone hole was covered as well.

Finally, wrap the whole thing up in foil like I do with pulled pork.  I think this one was six layers?  It should definitely keep most of the moisture inside, and let the rub form a sauce that penetrates the meat.

It's now in the oven at a nice 200 degrees, which seems low, but since I plan on cooking this for something on the order of 13 hours, I'm reasonably sure it'll be done when I open it back up.

No comments:

Post a Comment