Yesterday was the season finale of Game of Thrones, and I had the night off: I knew I had to do something special to celebrate.

Since this was a special occasion, I decided on leg of lamb.  Since I was cooking for a crowd, however, we all pitched in some money.  All in all, I only spent about $30. Going over my budget was definitely worth it.

Lamb is a slightly gamey meat, and our particular piece had lots of fat, making it super juicy and rich.  The spices were an unusual yet perfect compliment to the meat. I was inspired by the recipe from Tyler Florence on the Food Network, except I cold not find juniper berries.  I think the lamb came out just fine anyways.

Ingredients:

Leg of lamb [around $30-$45]

fresh thyme [$2]

garlic [.50 cents]

1 bottle porter or stout (I used Anchor Steam porter) [$3]

honey [$2]

Directions:

Peheat oven to 375.

Rub lamb down with olive oil, salt, pepper, a generous portion of thyme leaves and a couple cloves chopped garlic. Place in a roasting pan.

Whisk 2 cups of the beer, about 3 tablespoons honey, another handful of the thyme leaves, salt and pepper together until combined.  Pour over the lamb.  Place in the oven and turn down to 325.  Baste lamb every 10 minutes until cooked to desired temperature.

On the recipe, Tyler wrote about 13 minutes for every pound for medium–rare doneness. I found the meat to be more on the rare side, so I would up that to about 15 to 16 minutes per pound.  I didn’t mind the rareness, but I like my meat still bloody.

It’s also important to let the meat rest for at least 10 minutes before serving so the meat doesn’t become dry.  Tent the lamb with foil if you can.

I served the lamb with the buttered beets recipe from my Game of Thrones companion cookbook (one of my favorite possessions).  The recipe isn’t online, so here is a similar one for a salad with beets, onions, and green beans.

We also had some of my sangria floats to wash it all down with.  It was certainly a feast, and a perfect way to bit adieu to GOT until next season.

-L

photo of Arya (cc):The New York Times