Stuffed Heidschnucken leg

• 1 Heidschnucken leg
• 8 large mushrooms for stuffing
• 2 small mushrooms,
cut into small pieces
• 150 g pickled dried
Tomatoes, drained and coarsely
cut
• 150 g feta cheese, diced
• Olive oil
• ½ red onion,
cut into fine rings
• 1 tbsp pine nuts, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, grated
• fresh thyme, rosemary
and oregano
• dried oregano
• Parmesan, finely grated
• 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 50 g yoghurt
• 1 tsp honey
• Abrasion from an untreated
lemon
• 60 g cold butter cubes
• ½ carrot, finely grated
• 4 cocktail tomatoes,
cut into small pieces
• flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 8 heirloom carrots, cleaned
• 1 Romanesco, cleaned and
cut into small florets
• some sunflower oil
• Salt, pepper, nutmeg, chili, sugar
• Apple juice in a spray bottle
• fresh hay
• Kitchen twine

Cooking time: approx. 2 ½ hours

Preheat a grill with a lid to around 160-180 °C and prepare for indirect grilling. Clean the Heidschnucke leg and remove the long bone, if it has not already been ordered from the butcher. If the bone is still in, it must be hollowed out with a sharp knife. To do this, cut off the tendons, cartilage and fat balls at the top and bottom of the bone and carefully cut free the bone base. Now use the knife (or the back of the knife if you like) to carefully push the meat off the bone without cutting it. Always press down along the bone and pull out the bone without the meat. Help a little with your fingers now and then and turn the bone a little. Fill the resulting hollow space. To do this, mix the pickled tomatoes with the grated carrot, grated garlic cloves, onion rings, chopped mushrooms, butter flakes, pine nuts and lemon zest and season with salt, chili, pepper and sugar. Fresh thyme leaves and dried oregano round off the mixture very well. Before adding the filling, season the leg all over and also inside.
Mix the sunflower oil, honey, chopped rosemary, salt, pepper and sugar and rub the meat well with it. Now press in the filling, don't be stingy, and then shape the whole thing with kitchen string.

Lick the hay with the fresh herbs and tie two bundles of hay together with string. Put one bundle of hay on the grill, place the Heidschnucken leg on top and cover with the second bundle of hay. Close the lid. While grilling, spray the leg once or twice with the apple juice; this gives it a nice color. The target core temperature of the meat is around 72 °C.
In the meantime, mix the feta cheese with the cocktail tomatoes and the yoghurt and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. If you like, you can also add some of the remaining filling. Add a small dash of olive oil and fill the mixture into the mushrooms; it can be piled up a bit. Around 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time, place a small pan with a little olive oil on the grill and add the stuffed mushrooms, the carrots and the Romanesco. Add a little more butter and turn the vegetables now and then.
Take the leg out of the grill and let it rest on the cutting board. During this time, sprinkle the freshly grated Parmesan over the mushrooms and season the vegetables. After about 5 minutes, everything is ready to eat and the meat can be sliced.

Marc's BBQ tip: The hay develops a little more aroma if you water it slightly before grilling.

FIRE&FOOD Issue 1-2018