Notes on spring lamb

 

When I moved to Texas a century ago, I was surprised that few people ate lamb. In our Chicago household, a good leg of lamb was a frequent entrée, and the cold lamb sandwich with mayonnaise the next day was a special treat. For those who don’t know, it’s important to distinguish between lamb and mutton. Lamb comes from an animal less than a year old; mutton is from any older than that, though some people put an intermediate year in there and say mutton comes from three-year-olds. Lamb has a distinct but pleasant taste, though I know some who can’t be in the same room with it; mutton is decidedly gamey and tough, requires long cooking.

Long ago I once bought a leg of lamb in cryovac at a local grocery store; when I opened the packaging, it smelled awful. I rushed back to the grocery, where the butcher said it was mutton, not lamb, from either Australia or New England. That’s funny, because parts of West Texas have long been known as sheep country, more than cattle. But I’ve read that lamb consumption and wool production have both declined since the post-WWII day. For me these days, lamb is a rare treat mostly because it is expensive. Also I’m not sure I could cook a leg of lamb in a toaster oven—it would have to be a small, boned roast. I do make it a point to buy fresh, never frozen lamb from Central Market. If you have a dedicated butcher’s store nearby, you can usually get it there too.

In my years in Texas, I’ve learned there’s more than a leg of lamb, though someday I will share my $8,000 leg of lamb recipe. Meantime, when I want a lamb sandwich I buy sliced Greek-seasoned lamb at Central Market. A lamb loin chop makes a nice meal for me if I’m eating alone—I sauté it in butter until it’s medium rare, remove from skillet, and make a sauce of a bit more butter and an anchovy filet. I don’t do it for the family because Jordan and Christian would need two chops each, and that gets to be an expensive meal. I do think we should try grilling them sometime. You can also buy sirloin chops, a variety of roasts beyond the leg, stew meat, and ground lamb. Rack of lamb is considered a great delicacy and is, unfortunately, priced to show that. If you buy a shoulder, have the butcher bone it—I did it myself once, and it was a lot of work plus I cut myself.

Today I want to leave you with two recipes for ground lamb. The first is a ragu that is quick and easy, and my family likes it a lot.

Lamb ragu

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 medium sweet onion, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves (I have recently discovered frozen, pureed garlic cloves at Trader Joe’s—so easy and timesaving!)

Salt and pepper to taste

2 anchovy filets or one tsp anchovy paste

2 Tbsp. tomato paste (this about uses up the small 4 oz. can but you can also buy it in a tube)

1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes.

Parmesan or Pecorino cheese for serving.

Sauté onions and garlic in oil and season with salt and pepper. When onions are soft, add anchovies and cook stirring until they melt in—it doesn’t take long. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring occasionally, for two or three minutes. Season lamb with salt and pepper and add to skillet, stirring until it releases its fat and crumbles into small bits. Add tomatoes and half a tomato can of water, being sure to get all the tomato bits left in the can. Cook on medium-low until sauce thickens, about half an hour.

Caution: although recipe calls for salt twice, do use a bit of caution, because the anchovy is salty.

Serve on pasta topped with grated cheese. I have recently learned about bronze-cut pasta, which is a rougher texture and holds a sauce better. With this ragu, I prefer a thick noodle like pappardelle.

Lamb burgers

Every time I see a new recipe for lamb burgers, I clip it. As a result, I’ve got five or six recipes we’ve tried. My big mistake is that I didn’t make notes on each as to how much we liked it. The other night we tried a new recipe that both Jordan and Christian declared the best so far.

1 lb. ground lamb

1 shallot, finely chopped

2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp. Dijon

¾ tsp, dried thyme

Salt and pepper to taste, divided use

Optional sauce:

½ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup sour cream

1 garlic clove, grated (see above recipe for frozen garlic)

Optional: 1 Tbsp. Dijon or 1 tsp. horseradish—I liked the horse radish

Mix burger ingredients together with a bit of salt and pepper and shape into four patties. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper before cooking. Christian grilled these but I imagine you could do them in a skillet. The refrigeration gave them a lighter texture than usual.

Serve on buns spread with sauce. Top with feta and red onion slices. The recipe recommended brioche buns, but we did not like them and will not do that again. They were too much bread. Next time I’ll go back to good old potato bread buns.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Lamb, fancy and everyday

 

 

Lamb ragu before cheese is sprinkled on it

Have you priced lamb at the market lately? A bone-in leg of lamb can cost anywhere from forty dollars to eighty—and eBay shows one for $140. A Frenched rack of lamb is over a hundred dollars. Lamb shoulder chops are a good buy, but I have not yet figured out how to cook them so they are not tough.

Many Texans think you raise sheep for their wool and wouldn’t think of eating lamb. Others just plain don’t like the taste, with its hint of gaminess (I have a son like that). On the other hand, I grew up with a father who was most British in his taste about many things, including food. Dad loved a good leg of lamb, and I remember how special a cold lamb sandwich with mayonnaise was the next day. I have cooked leg of lamb and enjoyed it, but the price is beyond me these days. Nonetheless I’m including my favorite leg of lamb recipe—and a much easier way to buy and cook the meat.

Once when I served a leg of lamb at a dinner party, one guest said, “I’ll give you $8,000 for the recipe.” So now I call it my $8,000 Leg of Lamb. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

About 5 white-skinned potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

3 onions, thinly sliced

3 tomatoes, thinly sliced

Salt and pepper

Dried thyme

Chopped garlic

¾ c. white wine

⅓ c. vegetable oil

6-7-lb. leg of lamb, excess fat trimmed but bone in

Directions

What makes this good is that the lamb juices drip into the vegetables, making them taste incredible. Grease a 9x13 pan and layer the bottom with sliced potatoes. Add onions and then tomatoes. Sprinkle each layer with salt, pepper, dried thyme, and a little chopped garlic. Pour white wine and vegetable oil over the vegetables. Cover pan with a cake or oven rack.

Season lamb to taste with salt and pepper and set it on the cake rack. Roast at 400° until meat thermometer registers 145° (about 75 minutes—the lamb will be medium rare; roast longer for better done, but don’t overdo it!). Turn the lamb every 20 minutes or so and baste with liquids from the vegetables. Remove from oven and let it collect itself before carving.

 

Want a cheaper, easier lamb fix. I served this lamb ragu a couple of nights ago and got family raves—Jacob even liked it, and he doesn’t like ground meat much. A ragu is simply a meat-based pasta sauce.

Lamb ragu ingredients

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, chopped fine

3 garlic cloves, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

2 anchovy filets (you can omit them, but they add a wonderful depth to the sauce, and you won’t taste fishiness)

3 Tbsp. tomato paste

1 tsp dried thyme

1 28-oz can diced tomatoes in tomato sauce (San Marzano is a good label)

12 oz. pasta, your choice from spaghetti to egg noodles; I probably would not use rigatoni or other tubular pasta (see note: you might choose polenta instead of pasta)

Grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese

Directions

Sauté onion and garlic in oil in heavy Dutch oven. Season with salt and pepper. Add anchovies and cook until the fish dissolves (1 minute). Add tomato paste and thyme and stir to blend thoroughly.

Season the lamb with salt and pepper and add to pot, breaking up chunks as much as possible. Cook until lamb is brown through, and chunks are broken up.

Finally add the diced tomatoes. Stir thoroughly to get up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan, Taste for seasoning, and bring to a simmer. Cook until sauce thickens, about half an hour. Remember that lamb is usually greasier than beef. Before serving you may want to carefully spoon off some grease.

Serve over pasta and spoon grated cheese generously over each serving. 

Note: The picture above is an old one, not taken the night we had ragu this week, and it looks to me like that may be soft polenta under the ragu instead of pasta. Not a bad idea at all.

Enjoy!

          

 

Burgers with a twist

After several days of picking my way around red and green chili in New Mexico, I was ready for some down-home Texas food. But I was also a bit unprepared for a last-minute request for dinner for four. Burgers were the answer—but with a twist. I had that pound of ground lamb in the freezer.

Lamb can be controversial—some people dislike it, their dislike verging on hate, and some love it. I fall into the latter category, grew up eating leg of lamb dinners and savoring cold lamb sandwiches the next day. Lamb burgers sounded just right to me.

I had a recipe but not all the ingredients, so I adjusted it (who, me? Tinker with a recipe? Of course I did1).

For lamb burgers:

½ c. seasoned panko (I would have preferred plain, but this used up on leftover item in the freezer

1 large shallot, finely chopped

1 large clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp. dried oregano

¾ tsp. salt

½ tsp. finely ground pepper (I do not like fresh ground, because I don’t like to bite into a large piece of pepper)

1 lb. ground lamb

Mix thoroughly by hand and shape into four patties. I pan fried these instead of grilling. Since lamb is greasy, I did not add oil to the skillet. But what was important—I got the skillet hot before I added the patties. This gave them a nice crust. On my hot plate I used the medium setting and cooked until patties were medium, neither rare nor well done.

Serve with or without buns. Offer toppings of lettuce, tomato, red onion, feta, and tzatziki sauce. My cookbook, Gourmet on a Hot Plate, has a tzatziki sauce recipe, but I even simplified that.

Easy tzatziki sauce:

1 cup plain Greek yogurt

1 large garlic clove, finely chopped

Half a cucumber, peeled, seeded, and grated

1 tsp. dried dill weed

½ tsp. lemon juice

Mix it all together.

As I suspected, grandson Jacob did not like the meat—he’s not a big meat eater. I was glad I had asked him to cut his burger in half before he ate. I had the other half for lunch the next day. These burgers got a five-star rating from the adults in the family, and I have voed to keep ground lamb in my freezer all the time.