Saving A Turkey With A Sacrificial Lamb

Thanksgiving 2007, we decided to pass on the turkey and go with a leg of lamb. There's at least one happy turkey out there somewhere...

My wife's original idea was to put a twist on Qaubili Pilau, a classic Afghani dish, by burying an entire leg of lamb instead cubes of lamb in the basmati rice.

Ooooh Yeeeah, that sounds awesome!

However, I inadvertently changed our plans. My father actually did exactly what she's talking about a few years back and I couldn't avoid mentioning this to her. I even went on to tell her that she should ask my father for the recipe. Well, she didn't take my advice too well. Apparently she felt that another family member stole her thunder. It's no longer an original idea - she didn't want to be a copycat and insisted that we do something else with the leg of lamb. Of course I'm quite upset that I won't be getting homemade Qaubili Pilau, but I resisted throwing a temper tantrum like my niece would do when we don't let her watch Dora The Explorer for 8 hours straight. I'm a mature adult after all, it would be really improper to throw a temper tantrum, so I just pouted for a few hours.

Apparently, pouting didn't change her mind so we, I mean, she decided to do something else; marinate the leg of lamb and roast it in the oven. Ok, that actually sounds really good so I turned my frown upside down.

Here's the recipe:

1) Marinate the leg of lamb in the following mixture for a day:

• chopped celery
• chopped onions
• chopped green onions
• chopped tomatoes
• chopped garlic
• chopped ginger
• Sichuan pepper and salt mixture (hua jiao)
  
• star anise (ba jiao)
  
• fennel seeds
• salt
• soy sauce
• cooking wine

2) Roast the leg of lamb in the oven for about 2.5 hours

3) Make some flour tortilla. It is vital that the flour tortilla is freshly made - this makes a big difference

4) Dice up some fresh cilantro

5) Slice up some fresh green onions

Slice the leg of lamb as thick or as thin as one prefers. It is served much like a traditional taco. Plop the lamb on the flour tortilla. Garnish it with as much green onion slices and diced cilantro as you want.

Voila, a roasted leg of lamb that is a fusion of Chinese, Mexican, and Afghani cooking influences for Thanksgiving.

Writing this is making me hungry....