Lamb is magical and restorative

I can't prove any of this, but I think a dinner of lamb and red wine has magical restorative powers. Just as many miss the wonders of curry from Asia, we also fail to discover everything that is great about lamb dishes from the Middle East. So a dinner of marinated and charcoal grilled Alberta rack of lamb on a bed of roasted winter vegetables is a staple around here. The hearty lamb, the woodfire in the 'Man Cave'.... Very restorative.

The lamb comes from Big Sky Lamb which is about 3 miles from my house. Craig comes by and delivers me a custom cut lamb. That's my version of eating local! Maybe this summer I'll ask for one whole!

After a little adventure and appetizer of Chao Tom (thanks Alan!), I made good use of the charcoal that was still burning and put on the lamb racks for dinner. Any kind of lamb is fantastic with this marinade, but the addition of some mint sauce, and the combination on flavors and roasted caramelized goodness with the vegetables is simply stellar.

MARINADE:
a cup of red wine (just use the box stuff eh?)
a good whack of of oregano
juice and pulp of half a lemon
just a dash of salt (don't overdue this)
pepper
1/4 to 1/3 cup of olive oil
4 or 5 cloves of garlic, smashed
Any kind of lamb can work here. whole leg, cubes, chops, whatever.

ROAST WINTER VEGGIES
1 lb of little nugget potatoes, cleaned
some carrots (I like the little ready to eat ones you buy for your kids)
1 rutabaga peeled and cut into cubes
1 fennel (anise) bulb trimmed and cut into chunks
1 large sweet onion cut into larger chunks
3 parsnips peeled and cut into bite size chunks
salt
pepper
1/2 cup of melted butter

I par boil the potatoes and rutabaga, then tossed it all together drizzle with the melted butter and salt and pepper. I like to line a baking sheet with parchment paper (easy clean up) and pour out the veggies into the sheet in as thin a layer as possible. Load them into a very hot oven (do you ever use 500?), and mix them a few times over the next 45 mins to get them all browning. By about the end of 45 mins you should go right to plates.