Ah, I love cooler weather! It makes big elaborate meals feel more appropriate, and the stores obligingly put forth rib roasts and leg of lamb and large roasts for consideration in the meat section. Tom Thumb had leg of lamb on sale for $3.99/lb., which was too good to pass up. I snatched up the last one in the bin and was out the door when I realized it was a 6-lb. leg.
Well, that's just too much for four people to eat, even if two of them are teenagers, so I called in reinforcements for dinner. By the time the roast was out, we had five friends over to help us with the lamb.
Leg of lamb: stab it a few times with a sharp knife and insert slivers of garlic in each stab wound. Pour a little beef broth and red wine over the leg, and sprinkle generously with Cavender's Greek Seasoning or salt/ pepper/ rosemary/ oregano/ basil/ whatever your favorite spices are. Sear the top with the oven on broil until it gets a bit brown and crispy, then turn the oven to 350 degrees and cook the roast for 15-30 minutes per pound.
Yorkshire pudding: 1 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2 eggs, 1 cup of milk. Whisk it all together. Pour it into a pan that has some of the hot sizzling grease from the roast in it (I use a big souffle dish) and bake it at 425 degrees for 35 minutes. It's okay to up the heat on the lamb leg and shove the pud in there with it for the last 35 minutes of cooking time, just figure less cooking time for the lamb.
As for the drunken figs, I found out this past week, to my surprise, that the last figs of the season had actually ripened. I thought the cool nights would retard their growth, as it usually does, but my son pointed out that I had very ripe figs waiting to be plucked. I hated to let them go to waste, so in between putting on the lamb and the pudding, I looked up fig preserve recipes. There weren't enough for a big batch, but I was able to get two jars of Drunken Fig Jam prepared: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Drunken-Fig-Jam-350120. I figured anything that had cognac in it couldn't be all bad, and we tasted it after dinner and pronounced it fit for the holidays. It should taste awesome with cheeses and crackers or a topping for baked brie, or over ice cream or simply on toast for breakfast.
Chris made the veggies for dinner, which included a really great roasted potato recipe that had cheese and bacon on it, which I will post when he sends me the link.
As for wine, we worked our way through a Meritage and a pinot noir, which both complemented the lamb and the wonderful company.
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