This, being the month of Christmas, a holiday celebrated among 160 of the 195 countries that make up this planet, I’ve decided to do a monthly installment of how different countries around the world celebrate this special holiday in their kitchens and feature their signature holiday meals. Some may be sides, some may be mains, maybe a dessert or two, some may be a complete dinner. Only time will tell by which country my girls have randomly pulled out of Santa’s hat.
On the twelfth day of Christmas, I nearly had a breakdown. Not sure that’s how the lyrics go, but this one put me through the ringer! A really awesome way they do roasts in the Balkans is to cook it in a dutch oven using coals from the fire on top. The smokiness imparts good flavor, you obtain radiant heat from a stone, and everything cooks in about 2 hours according to this guy. To be fair, he does say it’s risky because you only check it once. Well, here’s how my bone-in leg of lamb turned out.
It was a day of scrambling. First, I made the fire. To get it to turn to coals, that took about 3 hours. Due to a design issue on the floor of the fire pit, I couldn’t really put a stone in there. I figured, I’ll just put hot coals down and place the dutch oven on top (mistake #1: too damn hot - they place the vessel on warmed stone, not blazing hot coals). I then put some red hot coals on top of the dutch oven cover that has a ring which is designed to hold coals (mistake #2: too damn hot - I should have put ashen coals on top, not the red hot ones). I needed to maintain a small fire so I’d have coals to last for 3 hours, so I pushed that off to the side (mistake #3 - my small fire was too big and gave off too much heart and mistake #4 - I was only supposed to cook for about 2 hours, not 3!).
I kind of knew the fire was a little too big and rotated the pot a half turn after 45 mins to ensure even heat. After a while, I noticed a lot of smoke coming from the fire pit...what was happening? Oh, it decided to unexpectedly rain and sleet! I called up to my fiancé and we hastily put up a canopy over the fire which saved the day and kept the fire going.
After 90 minutes (what I thought should have been half-way through), I went to flip the meat and add the potatoes. That’s when I saw the old black heart above. My heart felt the same. I thought I was screwed - it’s the 12th day of Christmas and I “needed” to get something up. Luckily, I'm Mangia McCann...not Mangia McCan't!
Quickly, I ran to the freezer and defrosted some shanks for a few minutes in the microwave and swapped it out with the charred Pompeii relic from the dutch oven. By this point, the side fire was minimal and perfect and I had ashen coals which were perfect. I cleared the fire pit floor and placed the dutch oven back in (not on top of hot coals this time) and set my watch for 30 minutes. I figured, at that point, the potatoes should be done and I can check and maybe even flip the meat. To my surprise, everything was done: the potatoes and roast meat both at the perfect temperature. Here, I thought this would be an old, slow-cooking method, but it turned out to be a rapid cooking technique. I was kind of blown away. So, if you want to give this a go, here’s how I suggest making your way through, error free!
Roasted Lamb Under a Bell
You’ll want to use a dutch oven that has a coal-catching lid and has legs which will lift it up off the fire/coals (mistake #5 I made, for those of you keeping count!) or you can use a small fireproof stand. The photo above is of the shanks. If you want to make shanks instead, put the shanks and potatoes and herbs in at the same time and cook for about 30 minutes total.
4 lb bone-in leg of lamb
6 butter potatoes, cleaned and sliced into quarter-lengths
Olive oil
Sprigs of fresh thyme
Build a large fire and let it go to hot coals (this takes about 3 hours). Then, move all of the hot coals off to one side of the fire pit and place a small piece of wood or two, on top of them, to maintain a low flame.
When the fire is ready, rub your roast with olive oil and season with salt and pepper and place in the cold dutch oven. Place the dutch oven into the fire pit and cover with coals.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix some more olive oil with the potatoes and season with salt and pepper.
After 30 minutes, remove the top from the dutch oven and flip the roast and place the seasoned potatoes in a ring around the roast. Throw in some fresh sprigs of thyme.
Check the temperature of the meat after 60 minutes and continue to cook until it reaches about 140 degrees for medium-rare.
_____________________________________________ Copyright 2021, Brendan McCann, All Rights Reserved.