Grilled Lamb With Gray Sea Salt (c)2011 LaDomestique.com

The Food

I have something really special to share with you today! It’s a recipe, and it has changed my world a little bit. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? I sat down at my desk to brainstorm a recipe that features salt as a very important ingredient. This was tough. Writing about salt is like writing about the universe, God, mankind. . . where do you start? It’s so big. I flipped through some cookbooks and eventually came across a recipe in the book, Salted: A Manifesto on the World’s Most Essential Mineral, with Recipes. Mark Bitterman’s recipe for Buttermilk Leg of Lamb with the Meadow Sel Gris totally seduced me. He writes,

“We’ve domesticated the gaminess out of most everything we eat, but every time we toss a leg of lamb on the fire we grow bushy and wild, our countenance waxing fierce amid the ghostly tendrils of burning fat and smoky mountain herbs. And after we toil over the flaming coals, the table is laid, the tapers lit, the dark wine poured. Aromatic and crackling-golden on the outside; savagely, voluptuously rosy on the inside- a leg of lamb is a meal of the ages.

Salting a leg of lamb should be approached with anticipation and reverence, this is one of the truly sacred uses of a coarse and lusciously moist salt- in other words, sel gris- in both the cooking and the finishing of the food.”

I was not about to cook 4 pounds of meat on the grill for half an hour just to feed the husband and myself. Nope, not happening. There was butterflying and tying involved and that was just too much for me to think about. But I still wanted to go there. I wanted succulent grilled lamb and clean, delicate sel gris. So, I made my own plan. This is what intuitive cooking is all about. I picked up my River Cottage Meat Book and took a look at the different cuts of lamb, deciding what would be nice to grill and could benefit from the buttermilk marinade Mark used. Then I visited with a butcher at Whole Foods, who steered me towards the lamb steaks in his case saying, “it’s cut from the leg, just in a smaller portion-same meat.” The center cut lamb steaks were about an inch thick, weighing 3/4 pound each, with bone in ($9.99/lb). I grabbed two.

Though I took inspiration from the buttermilk marinade in Salted, I used in an entirely different flavor profile. Earlier that morning I harvested a ton of sage and lavender from my garden. I was excited to try these herbs with the mystical gray sea salt. For this recipe I used hand harvested gray sea salt from Île de Ré. This high-moisture salt is a beautiful finishing salt for grilled meats. It brings out the gamey meat flavors, while providing a delicate crunch in the mouth that melts into briny, earthy flavor. This grilled lamb recipe is all about the finishing salt and how it amplifies the rest of the flavors.

For the marinade I combined buttermilk, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, red pepper flakes and gray sea salt, with fresh lavender and sage from my garden. I’m not a big fan of lavender in food, but the idea of gamey lamb and floral lavender really appealed to me. Also, lavender and sage are quite prolific in the summer garden, and it’s hard to figure out how to use them this time of year. In the end, the herbs and lamb resulted in a beautiful pairing. Magic! It’s about being subtle, though. A hint of lavender. That’s all. The lamb steaks have fat and bone, which makes for a flavorful, juicy meat. We’ll be having this dish for supper again, and I hope you give it a try.

The Wine

Château de Vaugelas, Corbières La Prieuré 2009 (c)2011 LaDomestique.com

As I dreamed of lamb with lavender the word garrigue came to mind. I remembered a wine I tasted a long time ago from the South of France. Garrigue refers to the wild underbrush growing beneath Mediterranean vines. This includes herbs such as thyme, rosemary, and lavender. Some believe these herbs create a terroir that can be tasted in a wine, an herbal note. It’s a very romantic way of thinking, which I have no trouble subscribing to. On a whim I stopped by my local wine shop, Superior Liquor. I asked Corinne, who works there, what she thought about garrigue wines and if she could recommend one. Corinne suggested Château de Vaugelas, Corbières La Prieuré 2009 ($11). Corbières is an appellation of the Languedoc in France. The wine is 35% Syrah, 30% Grenache, 30% Carignan, and 5% Mourvèdre. It’s a deep, dark red wine with black fruit, spice, gamey- meat flavors, and well-structured tannins. The real beauty of this wine was in how it paired with the succulent grilled lamb. Drinking the wine with the meal only intensified the lamb steak’s lavender flavor in a really beautiful way. The pairing blew my mind. The husband and I sat there stunned, unable to tell where the food ended and the wine began. This is the magic of food and wine. Truly.

Below you’ll find the recipe for a quick grilled lamb steak served with potatoes and green beans from the garden. I hope you give gray sea salt a try, as it really does bring out the flavor of grilled meats in a spectacular way.

Grilled Lamb Mis en Place (c)2011 LaDomestique.com

Buttermilk Center Cut Lamb Steaks with Lavender and Sage

serves 2

Ingredients

1 cup buttermilk
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh lavender leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage leaves
ground black pepper
2 pinches gray sea salt
1 pinch red pepper flakes
2 center cut lamb steaks, about 1 inch thick, bone-in

Combine all the ingredients of the marinade in a ceramic dish or plastic zip bag. Place the lamb steaks in the marinade, turning to coat. Refrigerate for about two hours, turning steaks once. Light the grill and give it a chance to get good and hot. Remove the lamb from the marinade and pat it dry. Rub the steaks with olive oil and season with gray sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Place the steaks on the grill and turn the heat to medium, cover the grill. Cook for about 9 minutes, turning the steaks once for medium rare. When the steaks are done put them on a plate and cover with foil, allowing the meat to rest for about 10 minutes.

Serve the lamb steaks with boiled potatoes and green beans. Earlier in the day I blanch the green beans in boiling water , then submerge them in an ice bath. Drain the beans, wrap them in a towel and keep them in the fridge until the steaks are cooked and resting. While the steaks rest, heat a bit of olive oil and garlic in a pan and toss in the green beans to heat through.

Lamb In Buttermilk Herb Marinade (c)2011 LaDomestique.com