Rosemary and Garlic Marinated Grilled Lamb Sandwich
For a sunny sunday afternoon lunch we’re eating sandwiches made with rosemary and garlic marinated grilled leg of lamb, roasted red peppers, grilled onions, micro greens, and herbalicious spicy lime vinaigrette on olive oil and rosemary bread. The sandwiches were served with a side salad of sliced orange and yellow tomatoes and micro greens with a lemon vinaigrette.
T: this sandwich was extremely tasty. You make sandwiches so much better than I ever could. You put so much on them… when I make a sandwich it’s like.. bread, meat. maybe some cheese. Scarf it down. And that’s it. Terrible every time.
A: heheh 😛 that’s just because you don’t care enough to make it more. You know what tastes good on a sandwich. it just takes time to marinate and grill meat! you’re too busy doing work to break for making a killer sandwich!
T: Well, you definitely have a gift for it. Although, I will say, I don’t know if pieces of steak-like meat are my favorite for a sandwich. They don’t chew with the same ease as the rest of the sandwich, and I end up pulling out large pieces of meat with my teeth, leaving a bready sandwich behind. That said, this was still a very very tasty sandwich.
A: yeah, that problem would have been solved if i had been using a sharp knife to slice the meat. as it is, my knife is in dire need of professional sharpening. My steal just ain’t cutting it. 😉 I do think that the sandwich was yummy. I particularly enjoyed the lamb! i couldn’t help snagging pieces of it while we were photographing. I could still probably eat a couple more slices. Lamb is definitely my weakness.
T: So if you had a sharper knife you would have cut it thinner?
A: yup.
T: how thin would you have gone?
A: probably only half that thickness. i would still want there to be some heartiness to the meat, i would have made it two layers of lamb instead of one, too.
T: That probably would have gotten along much better with my chewing problem.
A: maybe you should just get new teeth. 😛 it seems like they might be wearing thin. or maybe you could have your teeth sharpened, rather than me having my knife sharpened.
T: my teeth don’t need no sharpening! They can cut a penny in half.
A: bullshit! if that’s the case, we should record it and put it on youtube for the world to see. surely you’d go viral.
T: I’m trying to stay out of the spotlight.
A: don’t be shy mister T! you don’t want the public’s affection?
T: I’ve had plenty of the public’s affection and I can say it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. So what do you rate the sandwich?
A: Hmmm, i think i’ll have to give the sandwich a 4.1/5. it was good. not the best sandwich ever, but good. But if i were to rate the lamb alone, i would give it a 4.6/5. The lamb rocked my casbah.
T: I give the sandwich a 4.2/5. I thought everything on it was very tasty, but the meat didn’t seem to belong. By itself the meat was tasty, but it wasn’t working for me in sandwich form.
A: oh well! we can’t agree on everything! i thought the meat worked great with the other ingredients in the sandwich, even if it was a touch on the chewy side.
T: I thought it worked great with the other ingredients, too. Flavorwise I can’t say enough about it. I guess I’ve always had issues chewing steak, though. This is really nothing new. Maybe I have inadequate saliva.
A: we live in the land of needless cosmetic surgery. do you think there’s a place we can go to get your salivary glands enhanced?
T: ummm no. Crackhead.
3/4 inch thick slices of a thick country loaf of bread (i used an olive oil & rosemary loaf)
roasted red peppers, julienned
grilled onions, (simply toss onion slices with salt, pepper and oil then grill until softened)
micro greens
rosemary and garlic marinated lamb, sliced against the grain as thinly as possible, (recipe follows)
herbalicious spicy lime vinaigrette
Toast or grill the bread. Brush a thin layer of the herbalicious spicy lime vinaigrette onto two slices of bread. Add a layer of lamb onto one of the vinaigrette-brushed slices of bread. Next add thin layers of roasted red peppers, grilled onions, and micro greens. Finish off the sandwich with the other slice of toast, vinaigrette side down. Slice in half with a serrated knife. Repeat all steps to make more sandwiches! 😛 Enjoy!
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 sprigs fresh rosemary, bruised to release the oils
juice and zest from one lemon
1/2 cup olive oil
1 (about 3 1/2 lbs) boneless leg of lamb, butterflied but not tied
kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper
Add the first 4 ingredients into a large ziplock bag or bowl and stir to combine. Add the lamb to the marinade and seal or cover. Allow the lamb to marinate for at least one hour and up to 24 hours. Allow the lamb to come to room temperature before grilling.
Remove the lamb from the marinade and discard all of the garlic slices and rosemary. Season both sides of the lamb very liberally with kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper.
Grill over medium-high, fat-side down first for about 15-20 minutes, then flip and grill for another 15-20 minutes for medium rare. (The cook time maybe adjusted for other degrees of doneness) Beware of seriously flare ups that may arise from the fat-side down direct flame grilling. You may need to move the meat to a portion of the grill that is not directly over the flames to prevent serious charring. Remove the meat from the grill and cover loosely with aluminum foil. Allow the lamb to rest for at least ten minutes before slicing. Enjoy!
amanda, you *definately* have a gift for great sandwiches! no doubt about it, and this one is right up there with some of you best. i would never think to make sandwiches using lamb and now i’m drooling and want a snack.
the salad with orange slices sounds wonderful too, YUM!
when are you gong to make us some more stuffed breads??? so cruel…
This one looks healthy and oh so juicy despite the fact that I am not so fond with lamb meat
Was that lamb leftover from another meal, or did you you use the whole lamb leg in sandwiches? I had roast lamb last week and I’ve been putting the left over shreds in rolls for my lunches since then.
I reckon an alternative to slicing the meat more thinly would be to use a more sturdy bread, like ciabatta. I love a good chunky steak sandwich on ciabatta!
I love his. I’m a huge fan of sandwiches. We’ve been working on a whole bunch of them of late. And this is gorgeous. I love lamb too. And the thick slice thing… its good for you. I mean you have to chew more, so you burn more calories while eating it. So really, its a diet sandwich this way.
Lamb’s a tough one for me. The sandwich looks great, but it makes me sick almost everything time I eat the stuff. Tell your photography department to get the salad in focus next time, it looks like it could have been stellar as well!
As for your knives, I’m sure you know that the steel doesn’t really sharpen the knife but hones it. While it is important, it isn’t sharpening it. You can get a wetstone at the local asian market and have a go at sharpening your own knives; it isn’t very hard at all. I do it to all my knives, there’s no reason why you couldn’t, too!
btw – where’d that bread come from? I’m a sucker for good bread.
didn’t I show you how to sharpen your knives?
I’m guessing you are still on your training knife, so a cheap stone will not be too bad to learn on. Once you’ve ruined your knife, but learned how to sharpen it, you can move on to a better knife and better stones.
I’m trying to get Lambnaeck from one of the farmers at the market, I’m drooling thinking about slow roasted lamb neck. If I can find someone with a large enough pit, I may settle for half a goat, and I’ll take any of four possible halves.
P.S.S.S. I’ll trade you farmer’s market t-shirts, and I think I am going to plan a working vacation to San Fran, for some point in the future, so in other words I’ll never make it.
Who is this crazy Bobby person?
Sandwich looks amazing! I love rare, meaty, thickly sliced sandwiches with sauteed onions and anything herbalicious! The photo makes me want to take a bite of it! Chomp! Chomp!
Yum yum yum!!! Those sandwiches look delicious…
thanks aria! i definitely have a love for sandwiches! which spawns me wanting to eat/make good ones! you know i’ve been daydreaming of stuffed bread for a while now, so perhaps it’ll appear on the horizon soon! 😛
thanks chase, you could always make it with a hanger steak or something, if lambs not your cup o’ tea!
right on ros! your rosey lamb might have even inspired me to make this sandwich.. 🙂 i just adore lamb. i actually made this leg of lamb for the sandwiches then noshed on it for several more days, while i was too busy/tired to cook dinners!
see husband! i love how you think! and I love those fish and chips you’ve got posted right now. it certainly would make it lower calorie with all the chewing necessary. too bad tyler doesn’t see eye-to-eye with us! i can’t wait to see what sandwiches you’ve been making. all your food looks awesome.
jef, i feel for you with the lamb thing. i don’t know what i’d do if lamb made me sick. i probably still eat it anyway! it is my favorite! the bread is comes from Bread and Cie, it’s their rosemary and olive oil bread… one of my favorites of theirs. the corner store by our place in O.B. get’s fresh bread from them daily so all we have to do is walk half a block. 😀 i bet you can bust out some killer bread. I do know that my steal isn’t doing any real sharpening, but i’ve never really been taught how to truly sharpen my knives. damn me never going to culinary school! and bobby for not teaching me! (just kidding bobby! i don’t damn you)
bobby, you unfortunately you didn’t teach me how to sharpen a knife properly. 🙁 i wish we had gotten to that while i was still there, because now i’m not working in restaurants anymore so i can’t get hands on training! I don’t really want to fuck up the knife you guys gave me, but adam gave me a cheaper knife years ago that’s in dire need of sharpening, so i might have to buy a stone, read up and give it a whirl. lambneck…MMMMM…LAAAAMBNEEECK my god that sounds great. seriously. if you make that, i want you to take a photo of it, and write up a little description and i will post it here. i’m totally drooling with you. i would love to get my hands on some local goat. oooo just think of all the great braised dishes that would come from that! i will totally trade you farmers market shirts. what size do you want? and i need a port allen one because i already have a breada one. san fran huh? we could meet you guys up there for a weekend if you go. let us know!
I know miss feather. who is that crazy bobby man? 😛 i would love to give you one of these sandwiches, but you’ve got a chef in the house! get him to make you one! 😀
thanks suzi!
mmm… ooh…. oooooooh…..
I think I had a foogasm looking at that sammich.
Awesome stuff great pics, love it all!