Fall Festival Lamb Cook-Off

My neighbor is a smart man.  He had the choice of getting a bunch of his cigar-smoking, beer-drinking friends to help him with the  Charcoal Companion® Grill Off  at San Francisco’s Magazine Fall Festival or put together his “A” team.  He made the wise decision, called my husband and asked him if we were available on October 9th.  Mike’s “A” team won the contest.

Well, it wasn’t really that easy.  Mike had to first enter his Marinated Grilled Greek Lamb recipe AND get chosen.  He then had to pick up six boneless legs of lamb for us to prep and marinate.  We felt it was important to create a little something extra to make our lamb pop and decided on a mint vinaigrette for the meat and a chopped Greek salad and grilled Greek bread as a side along with a sip of Ouzo.   The day of our event we had to set up our stations at the Fall Festival, light our mesquite charcoal, grill our lamb, slice the meat and present it for all of the guests, who paid up to $110 for the right to try our dish.  Actually the people were there to eat the food from over forty top San Francisco restaurants, drink the wines from all over California, sample drinks from a tequilla cocktail bar ( potential for afternoon fun!), listen to three bands and taste meals prepared by numerous foodie vendors, all donating their time and efforts to Meals on Wheels.

Mike suggested we prep the lamb together on Friday and I agreed reluncantly,  knowing the busy cooking schedule I had that week.  I had offered to help my cooking partner and good friend Beth with an event she was doing for her husband’s company open house for 250 guests.  I manned the Smoked Salmon Risotto with Whiskey and Dill station for four hours on Thursday along with helping her prep on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Friday was my book club dinner and we just finished reading Alice Waters and Chez Panisse so I wanted to create a scrumptious menu for my dear friends.  I just figured I could prep for both events at the same time.  It worked.  Mike came over to my house with the six legs of lamb and we began prepping.

Breaking down a leg of lamb is not easy business. You need to take off the sinew and connective tissue that can tighten during a short cook so it doesn’t produce a tough piece of lamb.  Since we would be cooking and serving for a four-hour period of time we thought breaking the meat down into its natural nuggets would also allow us more timing control by always having warm, rested lamb ready to cut.  While I supervised the boys cutting and trimming the meat, I poached salmon and made croutons for my salmon rillette that night.  I quickly put together our marinade, whipping it in the blender to produce a good emulsification for even marinating.  After four hours we were done.

On the day of the event I made the mint vinaigrette, the special ingredient that let our lamb shine over others.  It is an unusual recipe adapted from Wolfgang Puck’s Adventures in the Kitchen. Chef Puck  recommends the sauce to be served on Chicken Sates but to me mint and lamb go hand in hand.  The Asian components of seasoned rice wine vinegar and soy sauce accents the mint.  The egg yolks in the dressing create an emulsification that melts under the heat of the lamb, coating the lamb in a sweet, salty, minty sauce.  I have people who do not eat lamb eat
my lamb with mint vinaigrette and smile.  Friends ask for a spoon when they see a bowl of it.  Yes it is that good.

We packed up our car with our essentials: cutting boards, knives, serving spoons, rags, Ouzo and red wine for the chefs or as a bribe for a vote or two.  I had all of my farmer’s market vegetables for the Greek salad washed and ready to prep once we arrived.  I also brought my counter height table to protect our backs as we prepped.  Mike came over to pick us up and we were ready to go!

Once set up at our station we prepped the vegetables, feta and olive for the salads.  Since we were serving potentially hundreds of people, I made more of a chopped salad, cutting the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and onions along with the feta and olives into 1/2 inch pieces.   To tame down the red onions, I marinated them in red wine vinegar and a bit of sugar and salt.  I also added capers as my acid to the dish along with some dried oregano since I did not have time to mince fresh.  Mike’s sister-in-law Heidi was a trooper, dicing my olives and feta while standing next to the mesquite fire that was not only adding more heat to an already hot day but also bombarding her with fire balls from the mesquite.  It was just like we were camp cooking, doing everything you do for a normal dinner but under adverse circumstances.  It was now 11:15 am and the doors opened at 12 pm, almost show time.

Team Family, our competitors who were making a Mint Julep lamb, were still not there.  Becky, our coordinator, along with my husband started their fire for them.  Turns out the team leader was in the hospital with some sort of eye infection.  These guys were a group of bartenders who are not only great mixologists but can cook under extreme pressure.  They arrived around 11:30 am with their lamb still in the plastic bags they came in, wondering why they took that final shot of whiskey way too late last evening.  I felt for them remembering the four-hour prep we did on our lamb.  They must have bribed their bartender friend and accomplished cook visiting from New York to help them and he took charge, ripping open the bags of lamb, drying them as best as he could, removing the fat and a bit of the sinew while he opened up the larger hunks of meat for even cooking.  I watched them out of the corner of my eye and was impressed.  They seasoned their lamb with salt and brown sugar (good call), stuffed fresh mint leaves where they could and grilled that leg to perfection.  Of course the organized ones, team On the Lamb, got their samples on the table before the other contestants but here was Team Family right behind us, with their medium-rare lamb ready to go and waiting to be misted with Four Roses Whiskey.  Remember, these guys are professionals; Jack Daniels would not do.  They even made Mint Juleps for the judges–very clever–and won the people’s choice award.

After beer, some great red wine, tequila cocktails from the cocktail contest, ouzo and the contest results, we settled back into our station for shots of tequila and more good red wine with our bartender buddies.  The bottle of tequila came from one of the members of Team Family who won the Mixology Contest.  Yes, he was in two contests and he pulled off a win in both.  To celebrate we threw on another piece of lamb for all of us to enjoy.  We also all fell in love with the bartender’s daughter, Lucia.  Heidi called her husband and informed him they were going to have another baby.

As we were wildly cutting lamb and the grilled Greek bread into little cubes to create our mini lamb sandwiches with dollops of mint vinaigrette on top, we solicited votes as best as we could, encouraging people to vote for us.  Our guests would ask, “What do you win?”  Bragging rights, we will win the bragging rights to say we won San Francisco Magazine’s lamb grilling competition along with a featured picture of us in the magazine.  We went to sleep that night with those bragging rights  and the memories of good people, good music, good food and new friends.  Thanks for including us Mike!