This lamb rub is spectacular!

Cooking for my dad is an intimidating thing. Not only is he the true gourmand of the family, but it is really difficult to find a meal to cook in which he will not poke his nose in and help with (read: take over) the cooking.

So my siblings and I took advantage of his recovery from surgery to shanghai him with a birthday dinner. Since he was relatively laid up, we thought we had him — we’d finally get to cook him a meal and really show him how much his kids were a chip off the old block.

My sister created a gorgeous vegetable tian, my brother made scalloped potatoes with bacon and cream and my other brother baked a birthday cake with buttercream frosting. I took care of the lamb rub while Keith butterflied and grilled the gorgeous leg. Talk about a collaboration….

Of course, I was unhappy with any of the lamb rub recipes I found, but this Middle Eastern lamb rub came close. The problem with it was that there weren’t enough flavors in it for me, and that it was more of a combination rub / marinade, so a little too soupy for what I wanted. A tweak here and a tweak there and my lamb rub was complete:

Spectacular Middle Eastern Lamb Rub

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, chopped
• juice of one small lemon
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon unrefined sea salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin seed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seed

Combine all ingredients in your food processor and blend until a runny paste is formed. Rub this mixture all over the surface of your meat, and let sit for several hours or overnight before grilling.

Oh, so you want to know if my dad liked his birthday dinner? He raved about the food and thanked us graciously, informing us all that “it will never happen again.” There’s something about this cook that doesn’t want to share his kitchen, even with his best students….

Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Apr 05, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT