Lamb shanks are a favorite winter stew. They take 3 hours to cook properly, but it's worth all the trouble. My base recipe is onions, garlic and a few cups of durable chopped vegetables--turnips, carrots, parsnips, mushrooms, winter squash, cauliflower--plus either beer or wine as the cooking liquid, and generous amounts of whatever seasoning suits our fancy of the evening. I'm particularly fond of Herbes de Provence, Kofte Kebab spice, or sorta-kinda Italian herbs.
If you're lucky enough to find breast of lamb riblets, as I frequently am in my local supermarket, they are a bit of trouble but are absolutely delicious. They need VERY long roasting for such small amounts of meat, but it's nearly impossible to mess up. Just cut up the breast section into smaller pieces -- 3 or 4 ribs per piece -- season with salt & pepper and any spice mix you fancy with lamb, and lay them on a bed of onion, celery and carrots in a deep roasting pan. Roast at 350F for between 2 and 3 hours, which will seem ridiculous but honestly, it's necessary. The meat just won't be tender otherwise. The result is tender (but still slightly chewy) meat that falls of the tiny bones, with richly browned fat. Don't bother trimming before cooking: just be resigned to eating and ejecting some gristle. If there's enough meat to use a knife and fork, yay! Otherwise just pick up and nibble, same as any other ribs.
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| Roasted breast of lamb ribs with a lot of roasted veggies. |
If I buy a supermarket boned leg, it usually comes wrapped in a string net, and is a royal mess that needs cleanup with a good sharp boning knife. All that lamb fat needs to come off. And that thick membrane, the fell, that covers muscle groups...you can't eat that, and the seasoning won't penetrate it, so you gotta use that knife and gently peel it all off.
If roasting or stewing lamb is too much effort and the grocery budget allows, loin lamb chops are amazing. Tiny T-bone steaks! Thin ones can be pan-sauteed. Thicker ones can be pan-roasted (started on the stovetop, moved to the oven to finish).
But ground lamb is our favorite thing these days. There is so much you can do with it! I get that not everyone can easily find it, but if you have any kind of access to it, try it. It's mostly made from lamb shoulder meat. It's a bit fatty, that's unavoidable, but i
There are tons of lamb burger recipes all over the internet. ALL OF THEM ARE GOOD. You can't go wrong. I have settled on a simplified Ur-Lamb Burger -- ground lamb plus salt, pepper, seasoning of choice, 1 beaten egg per pound, 1/2 cup bread crumbs (either dry or fresh). I'm not fond of burgers stuffed with cheese bits, but YMMV. Bulgur and yogurt are nearly always good sides. Note that pan-fried burgers will end up swimming in their own grease. All you have to do is put them aside to drain them. Grilled burgers have no such problem, of course.
On days when seasoning and mixing and forming and cooking burgers is too much trouble, which is most days nowadays, I do what I've come to call a Lamb Scramble. You can call it whatever you like, and use ANY lamb stew, tagine or curry recipe as a starting point. Here's a mock-Moroccan dish I made with ground lamb, onions, garlic, butternut squash, olives and peas. (Probably a few other things I've forgotten.) Side here is mashed golden potatoes and golden cauliflower.
This lamb & butternut squash stew (from Cooking Light) is a great guide for experimentation. (Don't use beef stock! Use wine! Or beer! I don't care for so much liquid in this recipe anyway.) Use carrots instead of squash, use spinach instead of kale. When I made it, I used Kalustyan's KOFTE KEBAB seasoning in addition to the recommended spices, and the result really honestly tasted like kofte kebab, or doner kebab! (Oh, I also didn't bother to use the oven, I did it all stovetop.)
Pretty much any lamb curry recipe is faster to make using ground lamb. I tend to make what I consider Fake Curries, flinging a bunch of things in a saute pan after glancing at a recipe book. I gave up using lamb shoulder chops ages ago. The results my way are quicker and tenderer.
Tonight, I started with a pound of ground lamb and a bunch of Greenmarket veggies that needed to be cooked. Started by sauteing the lamb in olive oil, with lots of kebab seasoning. Added chopped onion and red bell pepper (a banana pepper or poblano would be awesome too), a coarsely chopped zucchini, green beans (big ones, broken in thirds), some butternut squash noodles (which dissolved and disappeared), a chopped tomato and a couple of handfuls of baby spinach. I also had some freshly cooked fresh cranberry beans on the stove, so I added a few spoonfuls. It was a glorious, delicious mess. Served it with bulgur wheat. Forgot to serve some yogurt on the side.
Try lamb scrambles with: winter root veggie medleys, a meat-and-mushroom mix, springtime greens, summer tomato and peppers, or any combo thereof. Beans are a terrific addition, especially lentils and chickpeas if you want a Middle Eastern, North African or Indian vibe.
And, of course, the same goes for ground beef, ground turkey and ground pork.. for which there are no shortage of recipes out there.
If roasting or stewing lamb is too much effort and the grocery budget allows, loin lamb chops are amazing. Tiny T-bone steaks! Thin ones can be pan-sauteed. Thicker ones can be pan-roasted (started on the stovetop, moved to the oven to finish).
But ground lamb is our favorite thing these days. There is so much you can do with it! I get that not everyone can easily find it, but if you have any kind of access to it, try it. It's mostly made from lamb shoulder meat. It's a bit fatty, that's unavoidable, but i
There are tons of lamb burger recipes all over the internet. ALL OF THEM ARE GOOD. You can't go wrong. I have settled on a simplified Ur-Lamb Burger -- ground lamb plus salt, pepper, seasoning of choice, 1 beaten egg per pound, 1/2 cup bread crumbs (either dry or fresh). I'm not fond of burgers stuffed with cheese bits, but YMMV. Bulgur and yogurt are nearly always good sides. Note that pan-fried burgers will end up swimming in their own grease. All you have to do is put them aside to drain them. Grilled burgers have no such problem, of course.
On days when seasoning and mixing and forming and cooking burgers is too much trouble, which is most days nowadays, I do what I've come to call a Lamb Scramble. You can call it whatever you like, and use ANY lamb stew, tagine or curry recipe as a starting point. Here's a mock-Moroccan dish I made with ground lamb, onions, garlic, butternut squash, olives and peas. (Probably a few other things I've forgotten.) Side here is mashed golden potatoes and golden cauliflower.
This lamb & butternut squash stew (from Cooking Light) is a great guide for experimentation. (Don't use beef stock! Use wine! Or beer! I don't care for so much liquid in this recipe anyway.) Use carrots instead of squash, use spinach instead of kale. When I made it, I used Kalustyan's KOFTE KEBAB seasoning in addition to the recommended spices, and the result really honestly tasted like kofte kebab, or doner kebab! (Oh, I also didn't bother to use the oven, I did it all stovetop.)
Pretty much any lamb curry recipe is faster to make using ground lamb. I tend to make what I consider Fake Curries, flinging a bunch of things in a saute pan after glancing at a recipe book. I gave up using lamb shoulder chops ages ago. The results my way are quicker and tenderer.
Tonight, I started with a pound of ground lamb and a bunch of Greenmarket veggies that needed to be cooked. Started by sauteing the lamb in olive oil, with lots of kebab seasoning. Added chopped onion and red bell pepper (a banana pepper or poblano would be awesome too), a coarsely chopped zucchini, green beans (big ones, broken in thirds), some butternut squash noodles (which dissolved and disappeared), a chopped tomato and a couple of handfuls of baby spinach. I also had some freshly cooked fresh cranberry beans on the stove, so I added a few spoonfuls. It was a glorious, delicious mess. Served it with bulgur wheat. Forgot to serve some yogurt on the side.
Try lamb scrambles with: winter root veggie medleys, a meat-and-mushroom mix, springtime greens, summer tomato and peppers, or any combo thereof. Beans are a terrific addition, especially lentils and chickpeas if you want a Middle Eastern, North African or Indian vibe.
And, of course, the same goes for ground beef, ground turkey and ground pork.. for which there are no shortage of recipes out there.
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