Grilled Leg of Lamb with Tzatziki and Homemade Pitas

If you knew me for any amount of time when I lived in Portland or Santa Barbara, there's a good chance I've invited you over at some point to eat Grilled Leg of Lamb with Pitas (or some variation thereof). This happens for three reasons. First, I seriously love lamb. Second, I can't really grill a whole leg of lamb for myself because it's enough food for at least 8 people... thus I must take advantage of having friends around and use them as my excuse for grilling legs of lamb. Finally, this meal is extremely easy to throw together so it's ideal for entertaining if you want to still be able to relax and enjoy time with your guests...

A couple notes on the recipes below:

• In theory you could roast the lamb in a 350° F oven until the desired internal temperature is reached if you don't have a grill, but then it wouldn't get all pretty and charred like the picture below, which would be a shame.
• I like to use a digital meat thermometer (the remote kind are particularly handy, allowing you to know the exact temperature of your meat even while sipping a cocktail in the living room) for big hunks of meat like this. You just can't tell degree of doneness by the ol' poking test (like you can with steaks or chicken breasts), and it makes no sense to follow a recipe's timing recommendations on a grill given how variable temperatures can be. Knowing your exact internal temperature is the only way to make sure you end up with a perfectly cooked giant hunk of meat.
• Yes, I know that you can buy a 6-pack of perfectly good pitas at Trader Joe's for one dollar, so the fact that homemade pitas are practically free isn't a selling point... But homemade pitas are approximately one million times tastier than store-bought pitas, so it's worth the time (~15 minutes hands-on, one hour for the dough to rise, a bit of time rolling out and baking the dough while the lamb cooks) that it takes to make them yourself. Plus, watching pitas puff in the oven with one of life's great simple pleasures...

I think the lamb and tzatziki recipes began from recipes I read in an Ina Garten cookbook years ago. The pitas are from the totally awesome Flatbreads and Flavors cookbook by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.

Grilled Leg of Lamb with Tzatziki and Homemade Pitas
For Lamb:
   1 kg low-fat plain yogurt
   2 - 4 tablespoons olive oil
   Zest and juice of 3 lemons (should be ~1/2C juice)
   3/4 cup fresh whole rosemary leaves or 1/4 C dried rosemary*
   4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
   1 tablespoon kosher salt
   1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
   1 (5-pound) butterflied leg of lamb (9 pounds bone-in)

To Serve:
   4 - 6 tomatoes, diced
   1 English cucumber, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced
   2 small red onions, very thinly sliced and tossed with lemon juice at least 1 hour prior to serving
   Feta cheese
   Kalamata Olives
   One batch Tzatziki (see recipe below)
   One batch Pita Bread (see recipe below)

Combine the first 7 ingredients (yogurt through pepper) in a large non-reactive bowl. Add the lamb and coat thoroughly in the yogurt mixture. Cover and move to the refrigerator to marinate overnight or up to 3 days. Remove the lamb from the refrigerator an hour before grilling and remove as much marinade as you can from the meat. Preheat a gas grill. When grill is ready, add lamb and cook, turning once, until an internal temperature of 115-120° F (for rare to medium-rare) is reached in the thickest part of the meat. (I usually turn the lamb when the internal temperature gets to around 85° F.) Remove the lamb to a cutting board and cover with foil for 15-20 minutes while the meat rests (the temperature will continue to rise to 135-140° F during this time). You can roll out and cook the pitas while the lamb cooks and rests.

Slice the lamb and serve with tomatoes, cucumber, onion, feta, olives (not pictured below), tzatziki, and freshly made pitas to assemble into delicious wraps.
Serves 8.

*Fresh rosemary doesn't seem to exist in Dubai, but the dry actually works great in a marinade and is definitely cheaper...


Tzatziki
   1 pound plain, low-fat yogurt
   1 English cucumber, grated
   1 tablespoon sea salt
   1/2 cup sour cream
   1 tablespoon rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
   2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
   1 tablespoon olive oil
   1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
   1-2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
      salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place the yogurt in a colander lined with cheesecloth (or paper towels). Place over a bowl and allow to drain, refrigerated for 3-4 hours. Toss the grated cucumber with one tablespoon of sea salt and place in a sieve over another bowl. Allow to drain for 3-4 hours then squeeze out as much liquid as possible before proceeding.

In a large bowl, combine the thickened yogurt and drained cucumber with remaining ingredients. Season to taste with salt and pepper. The tzatziki can be served right away but tastes even better after allowing the flavors to marry in the fridge for a few hours.


Pita Bread
   2 teaspoons dry yeast
   2 1/2 cups warm water
   5 - 6 cups all-purpose flour
   1 tablespoon sea salt
   1 tablespoon olive oil

Sprinkle the yeast over the water and stir to dissolve. Stir in 3 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time, then stir ~100 times in the same direction. Leave for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle salt over the dough and add oil. Stir in more flour, 1 cup at a time, until too stiff to stir. Turn out onto a floured work surface and, adding additional flour as needed, knead for 8 – 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic.

Allow dough to rise for at least 1 and a half hours. The dough can be made ahead to this point and then refrigerated for up to 10 days. The flavor becomes more yeasty over time (which I like) and the resulting pitas seem to puff easier after the dough has rested for at least one night in the refrigerator. Just remove the dough from the fridge the morning you plan to make the pitas so that it can come to room temperature.

Preheat a pizza stone or cast-iron pan in a 450° F oven. Separate the dough into 16 equal size sections (or just pull of approximately pita-sized hunks to work with if you're not that compulsive). Working with one at a time, roll out dough into flat circles, then allow each round to rest for at least 60 seconds before moving to the oven.

Gently place rolled-out dough on the pizza stone or pan and cook until (if all goes well) the pita puffs up like a balloon or (if things don't go quite as well) the dough is cooked, about 2 minutes.
Makes about 16 pitas.