Leg of Lamb Garden Rotisserie

WILL THESE BATTERIES EVER DIE?

Now this isn't the first time I've used my rotisserie since I reported over 3 years ago that the original batteries had delivered 13 meals with 45 hours of motor use. The damn things are STILL going. I've lost count, all I know is that yesterday I was convinced that it was the end. Four hours of rotation with a 3 kilo pay load wasn't enough to take them out. They've been in there since May 2009 (see original post here).

The occasion was a dinner party for ten. The date was set months ago, a sign of how difficult it was to get us all together at the same time. After much deliberation over the main food event, I decided on lamb leg, lean and tender and pretty hard to get wrong. The night before I prepared a marinade of olive oil, garlic, salt and herbs and dropped it off to my local butcher together with the steel spit on Saturday morning. I collected it later in the day, the butterflied legs all nicely rubbed with the marinade and neatly rolled and tied around the spit.

The lamb was kicked off with a hot start, and then cooked away gently for about four hours with occasional sprinklings of charcoal to keep the embers going.

I served it with a warm tomato and mint salsa, roasted sweet potatoes and butternut squash, char-grilled vegetables and grilled asparagus wrapped in prosciutto.

The gas barbie all prepped up for the side dishes

A classic prawn cocktail was served with grilled ciabatta as a starter, and a home made pavlova for dessert. It was a great night with good friends and finished off around the fire pit in the garden.