I don’t know how things are in your family, but in mine, the holidays are about two things: 1) Lots of GOOD food, and 2) Not killing each other; literally. My family has more food allergies than I can keep track of, so the likelihood of someone getting sick or breaking out in hives at a family dinner is shockingly high! Though the list is constantly expanding, we currently have allergies to strawberries, nuts, peanuts, coconut, dairy, shellfish, sesame and chickpeas. Top it all off with my being a Celiac and cooking for this crew has basically become a real life version of Mine-Sweeper… you never know when someone will blow up.
Each year before a holiday approaches, we begin the menu planning process, normally with a group text to confirm all existing allergies and check to see if there are any new ones, and then put on our thinking caps. Just because we are limited with our ingredients, doesn’t mean the food can’t be delicious. Luckily, none of us have given up meat (yet) – so it was easy to decide to make protein the star of the dinner.
Seeking inspiration, we started watching the Food Network, and happened upon an episode of Giada making a spring leg of lamb. I have never tried doing a stuffed leg of lamb, but it looked so delicious we had to give it a try. We made several changes to this dish, both for our allergies, and to make this more paleo friendly. First, we did away with the nuts (obviously). We loved the idea of a crunch, so we opted to add a crisp apple into the mix. Second, we don’t like raisins, and they could be a bit sweet for our taste, so we substituted some dried cranberries. This was a great balance to the dish, adding a nice tartness.
The original recipe had a panko Gremolata. Now, I have to be honest. I had NO idea what a Gremolata was until i Googled it. Basically, it is a fancy term for chopped herbs with lemon zest and parsley. This actually sounded amazing, but sadly would not work for our diets. Instead of panko I used one of my FAVORITE paleo substitutes – pork dust. Pork dust is basically chopped up organic pork rinds, and it is delicious. Whenever you substitute pork dust for panko, you have to remember that the pork dust has more fat and sodium in it, so I typically will remove or reduce whatever oil and salt is called for in the original recipe.
As is typical for any dinner my husband and I prepare together, we ended up pulling an audible during preparations. My husband had grabbed some thick slab bacon from the butcher earlier that day, and was looking for an excuse to use it. This translated to him chopping some of it up and throwing it in the pan while I was preparing the stuffing. I was worried it would be a bit “too much,” but it ended up adding some really good flavor. Also, when we were cooking we were worried the lamb would dry out, so we added some balsamic, wine and lemon juice to the pan before throwing it in the oven. When we took the lamb out, there was so much goodness in the pan, we had to make a gravy. Though this wasn’t in the original plan, it was delicious!
For a first attempt at a stuffed leg of lamb, we were VERY pleased. I’m glad we ended up buying a big ball of the kitchen twine, because we used way more than Giada did on her show. Our lamb ended up tearing during the rolling, so we tried to keep the stuffing in place with more twine. We seared the torn side first, and it helped to keep the whole lamb from coming undone. We also tied the lamb both lengthwise and width-wise, so it was very secure. Note, this recipe did use wine, so it isn’t 100% paleo. If you are being very good, you can always substitute the wine with either more balsamic, or some broth and that should work.
All in all, this turned out to be a very successful family dinner.The lamb was cooked perfectly, and was absolutely delicious. Everyone appeared to enjoy the dinner, and almost everyone went for seconds. The only downside? Not enough leftovers!
Shopping notes:
Interested in Pork Dust? You can find it at Amazon here: Pork Dust – Pork Rind Breadcrumbs (Pack of 3)
For Arrowroot flour, I like to use Bob’s Red Mill: Bob’s Red Mill Arrowroot Starch Flour, 16 oz
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