Meal No. 645: Grilled Leg of Lamb with Ancho Chile Marinade

Last night, after the big pork tenderloin dinner and getting myself worn out from a pretty busy day, I just sort of crashed from 10 pm until 2 am. Then I got up, cleaned up the evening's dishes, and by 3 am I started trimming a leg of New Zealand lamb and whipping up an ancho chile marinade for it. That gave the lamb the necessary measure of marinating time to be ready for tonight's meal.

I was pretty excited about this dinner, because on the few occasions when I've cooked leg of lamb, I've never gotten started on it the night before, so this is one of my untested and untried recipes. It was worth it, too: absolutely delicious.

Now, I did have a couple of hitches: I wasn't expecting to still have rain coming down, so I grilled in intermittent misting and sprinkling. I also wasn't expecting my LP gas tank to run out part-way through, so I was not certain about the proper cooking time and just had to make my best guess. Turns out I overcooked it: it would have been better if it had been medium-rare.

But that didn't keep it from being pretty darned amazing.

I returned to the summer discovery of macaroni and cheese casserole and added some rushed baby lima beans to the side. The crew on hand last night seemed to appreciate the good food and all that was left (after packing a doggy bag for a departing teacher to take to school tomorrow) was a single serving of the mac-n-cheese.

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"Grilled Leg of Lamb with Ancho Chile Marinade," by Jeanne Kelley. In Bon Appétit, June 2010 (personal recipe clipping).

"Macaroni and Cheese Casserole," by Sarah Gabriel. In Cook's Country, June/July 2012, p. 17.