Bengal Spice Paste Rubbed Lamb
From Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen (Morrow, 2001)
Serves 12

Instead of grilling burgers, hot dogs, or ribs for the big Labor Day BBQ, delight your family and friends with a succulent spice and herb rubbed leg of lamb for a change. Your butcher will do the work of boning and butterflying, making this lamb quick and easy to grill. Though the spice paste looks complicated, it whips up fairly quickly in the food processor, and you can get it all done ahead and let the lamb marinate overnight.

Since different groups of muscles in the lamb leg vary in thickness, it's difficult to cook a whole butterflied leg of lamb to the same degree of doneness at one time. Tom likes to divide the leg into 3 pieces and remove them all from the grill when the thinnest piece is cooked to medium. That way the thicker pieces are medium-rare and rare so you have different degrees of doneness for everyone's taste.

If you're not feeding a large crowd, you can buy a half butterflied leg of lamb from your butcher instead (about 3½ pounds) and divide all the ingredients for the cilantro paste in half.

A simple yogurt raita, seasoned with lemon juice, mint leaves, and finely diced cucumber, is delicious with the lamb.

Note: Toast the spices until fragrant in a small skillet and grind in a clean electric coffee bean grinder.

8 green onions, root ends trimmed and roughly chopped
1½ bunches cilantro, leaves picked from the stems
1 jalapeño, seeded and roughly chopped
3 tablespoons peeled and grated ginger
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon cumin seed, toasted and ground
1 tablespoon coriander seed, toasted and ground
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon cayenne, or more to taste
½ cup olive oil
One 6½-pound leg of lamb, boned and butterflied, most visible fat removed, and separated into 3 slabs

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the green onions, cilantro, jalapeno, ginger, and garlic and process until finely chopped. Add all the spices and process to combine. With the motor running, add the olive oil and puree everything to a paste. Remove the paste to a small bowl.

Place the butterflied lamb in a large nonreactive pan and spread the cilantro paste over both sides with a rubber spatula. Allow to marinate, refrigerated, for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Fire up the grill. Remove the lamb from the refrigerator about half an hour before grilling to allow it to come to room temperature.

Grill the lamb over direct heat with the lid on and the vents fully open to desired doneness, about 25 to 30 minutes, moving the pieces around as necessary to cook evenly. If your grill has a thermometer, keep the temperature of the grill between 375º and 400ºF. Let the meat rest 5 minutes. Slice the lamb across the grain and serve.