April showers have arrived in the Douro and not a bit too soon! The young vines in our new vineyard at Quinta da Gricha were beginning to suffer from the unseasonably dry and warm spell of weather in March.
The sun shone for us on Easter Sunday. As usual we had a few friends round for an Easter lunch of barbecued butterflied leg of lamb. After many years of barbecuing lamb, I have come to the conclusion that the best method is to lay the butterflied leg almost on top of the white-hot coals and zap it for about 15 minutes on either side. It cooks to perfection! marvellously charred on the outside but deliciously juicy and pink on the inside!
To accompany the lamb I served a Churchill Estates Douro 2006, one of the Wine Spectator's Top 100 wines of last year. This elegant, full bodied Douro red has plenty of vinosity and combines beautifully with the barbecued flavour of the lamb.
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We also zapped our lamb for 15 minutes (possibly a little longer). We then took it off and let it rest for 15 minutes before carving. We served ours with a 2005 Chryseia. Glad to hear Easter is being celebrated appropriately in northern Portugal!
ReplyDeleteStill too cold in UK to barbecue butterflied lamb, so in the oven stuffed with rosemary springs and garlic on a shelf above the potatoes!
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