I don’t cook either meat myself. But we have local Ethiopian, North Indian, and Middle Eastern places that do a great job with it. Oh, and our local Greek Festival every Labor Day weekend serves the Best. Lamb. Ever. Bar none.
We also have some really good West Indian places that serve incredible curry goat. Oh, and the Somalians have some great goat dishes, too.
But this thread isn’t about goat. It’s about lamb. So, back to lamb.
I don’t know how often I eat lamb, really. I don’t eat a lot of it, since it’s kind of expensive. But sometimes I’ll have it to celebrate, or if I’ve had a particularly rough time and am in need of a treat.
I don’t cook either meat myself. But we have local Ethiopian, North Indian, and Middle Eastern places that do a great job with lamb. Oh, and our local Greek Festival every Labor Day weekend serves the Best. Lamb. Ever. Bar none.
We also have some really good West Indian places that serve incredible curry goat. Oh, and the Somalians have some great goat dishes, too.
But this thread isn’t about goat. It’s about lamb. So, back to lamb.
I don’t know how often I eat lamb, really. I don’t eat a lot of it, since it’s kind of expensive. But sometimes I’ll have it to celebrate, or if I’ve had a particularly rough time and am in need of a treat.
I love lamb. I think it’s fair to say that it’s my favorite meat (even more than beef–although a thick porterhouse sure is nice). When I’m cooking a lot (which I haven’t been lately), I probably make it once a week. Lamb chops, lamb stews (Indian, North African, Middle Eastern of various stripes, etc.), and, if I’m having a dinner party and want to pull out all the stops, maybe a rack of lamb or leg of lamb. Yummy.
It is kind of hard to find here, though. Montana is beef country, to the extent that a friend of mine who grew up in Colstrip (eastern part of the state) never even tasted chicken until she went to college. :eek:
You might be surprised. Although I love lamb, and it’s a childhood comfort food, it is simply too bloody expensive these days ( it’s all being exported). The price for something that used to be a workingman’s staple has shot up to the stratosphere. Conversely chicken, which I remember as being an expensive treat (and my mum remembers as a home-killed chicken for Xmas dinner only) is now dirt cheap.
The other problem is that my wife is Vietnamese, and most East Asians that I have met find lamb to be rank and have a “gamey” flavour, and they refuse to eat it. When my wife does the shopping, she’ll go to a Vietnamese butcher that does the most exquisite cuts of tender pork and beef, but he doesn’t even have lamb in the shop. The large Asian population in Sydney may have had an effect on the economics of providing lamb for this city’s consumer base, and if the Americans are willing to pay more, off it goes.
I was going to say NEVER NEVER NEVER until I realized that I do wolf down the occasional Gyro.
Lamb was the only meat I was allowed to eat as a child for a while, because I was going through an extensive food allergy diet to try to isolate what was breaking me out. Needless to say I got really sick of it.
I’ve never actually bought lamb from a store and prepared it, and I’m in my late 40’s.
It’s generally cheaper than lamb, virtually no fat on it, and takes very well to marinating.
The secret is not to overcook it, making sure it’s still a little pink on the inside.
Try chopping up 3 cloves of garlic, 1 chilli, then add to a bowl or something large enough to hold a pork fillet. In the bowl you should have the pork fillet, chilli, and garlic, to which you add approximately one cup of white wine, tablespoon of honey, and liberal amount of sea salt. Stab the pork all over to allow the marinade to penetrate the flesh.
Put it in the fridge for at least an hour, or even overnight if possible, then cook when ready on a bbq or ver hot stove-top grill.
Make sure to sit the pork for half an hour or so before slicing to serve.
Quite often when I’m visiting the parents - Sunday roast - with mint sauce. Occasionally I’ll cook a lamb curry, with no mint sauce*****.
Ah, well it’s not forgotten by the English. We eat it with mint sauce.
*****If you get sheek-kebab (lamb on a stick) at an Indian restauraunt it does come with (a different type of ) mint sauce.
One of the forgotten cuts of lamb is breast. You can either bone it out yourself or, if you buy your meat from a proper butcher , he might do it for you. You then roll it, stuff it with sage and onion, and then slowly roast it.
My favourite recipe for leg of lamb is to piece the skin and insert small pieces of garlic and rosemary before roasting. Then, about 30 before it is ready, pour over a glass of white wine. Lovely gravy, and it takes some of the fatty taste away from it.
Last night I had lamb.rosemary and chili sausages with broken vegetables and mango/chipotle sauce for dinner.
Last week when I shopped at the same place I had Frenched cutlets (they were cheap) with a honey mustard marinade. I served them with broad beans, pumpkin puree and sweet onion jam.
I am pretty sure that Americans have been tricked by marketting when it comes to lamb consumption - it is more versatile than beef, more reliable to cook (it is generally served rare even by people who don’t eat rare beef), and in Australia at least comes in a huge variety of cuts that siut lots of purposes.
My grandfather wouldn’t eat beans because it’s all he ate during the depression.
I heard a story once that “indentured servants” (slaves, kind of, but with more rights) in New England were fed so much lobster that they protested.
Chicken definitely used to be a sort of delicacy, special occasions only.
I thought the folk down under ate more of it – it’s pricey, all right, but not unreasonable. A leg is maybe $4 per pound, more than ground beef, but less than most any cut of steak. The price of lamb chops is in line with the price of pork chops.
A few good lamb recipes can be found in Stephen Raichlen’s “The Barbeque Bible” including a good one for kofta. You can get that used at Amazon for like $8. It’s totally worth that. It’s worth full price for that matter – tons of recipes and tons of great grilling tips.
For starters, a lot of people just don’t cook, and you don’t get lamb at Chili’s or McDonalds or Olive Garden.
But, I think there tends to be a mental barrier for people who do cook because none of our classic dishes (think beef stew, chicken pot pie, pork roast) are lamb.
Serve 4-6 Hot Lamb Main Course British Ireland Europe Dairy Gluten Wheat Free
Ingredients:
900g/2lb Best End Neck of Lamb you can also use mutton which is more traditional or lamb chops
2 Large Onions, sliced
2 large Carrots, thickly sliced
675g/1-1/2lb Potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced
450ml/15 fl.oz. Good Fresh Stock
Salt and Pepper
A sprig each of Parsley and Thyme (optional)
Instructions
Cut the meat into even sized pieces and put into a large saucepan with the sliced onions, carrots and half the sliced potatoes. Add the stock, herbs (is using) salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, remove any scum which surfaces, then cover and simmer for 1 hour 20 minutes. If using mutton, cook for 2 hours.
Add the remaining potatoes and continue to cook for a further 40 minutes.
To serve - taste and re-season if necessary, transfer to a hot serving dish and serve very hot.
This dish can also be cooked in the oven 150C, 300F, Gas mark 2 for 3 hours, but then it wouldn’t be a stew it would be a casserole!
Where I work the floor cleaning service employs lots of Eastern-European people on visas of various types, Bulgarians right now. Lamb seems to be the primary “holiday” meal with them, apparently. They don’t earn much money but for Christmas and New Years they said they would splurge on a home-cooked lamb meal.
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I love lamb! I don’t have it very often, though, because not only is it expensive as all get out, I’m the only one in my family that likes to eat it. Growing up, we would usually have leg of lamb at Easter (with mint jelly - and to this day, I like to have my lamb with the stuff, though it’s only good for that, imo). I also love the tiny lamb chops (OMG do I love them! I just can’t think of where they come from when I got to eat them … :D)m, which I usually 0prepare by simply browning them with a bit of garlic then serve it up with rice or couscous.
Once I was visiting my Dad - I got there late in the afternoon and he had somewhere to go that evening, so I was on my own for dinner. I rummaged around in the fridge and didn’t see anything I liked (LOL he had s lot of stuff, just nothing I wanted to eat right then), then I started looking in the freezer, and found a couple of lamb chops. Oh boy! I thawed em out in the microwave, fired up the small saute pana, and cooked them right on up. Thjey were deliciouis! I heard some months later, however, that my Dad was really -ticked- off that I had eaten his lamb chops. Cause I didn’t tell him that I’d had them for supper.
Now my mouth is watering … geesch… wonder if I can get some souvlaki or a gyro for dinner tonight?!
Mmm… roast lamb. Right about the fat content, you have to watch it, and it needs to be kept warm while you’re eating it, but it is indeed melt-in-the-mouth delicious and full-flavoured. It seems to be a little pricier than other meats though, which is probably why Mrs M and I eat more beef, chicken and pork even though we’re not what you’d call cash-strapped.
Haven’t eaten stuffed breast of lamb in years, I must look some out - I’m sure our local butcher, who’s very good, would be delighted to help.
Butterfly a nice leg of lamb…that is, slice down to the bone, then cut close to the bone all the way around so that the bone comes out, and you have a relatively flat, spread-eagled slab of meat. Chop several (6 or more) cloves of garlic, add a couple teaspoons of kosher salt, and mince/smash until it’s pasty. Add minced fresh rosemary and thyme and black pepper. Rub half of this mixture all over the inside surface of the leg. Drizzle with olive oil, and roll back up as tightly as possible. Tie with kitchen twine, then rub the rest of the paste on the outside and drizzle with more olive oil. Roast till done to your liking.
My other favorite recipe uses ground lamb: Persian Meatballs with Green Beans.
Combine 1.5 lbs. ground lamb, 1 med. onion, chopped, 1 T. lemon juice, 1 t. dried parsley, 1/2 t. oregano, 1/4 t. allspice, 1/2 t. cumin, 1 egg, 1/4 c. breadcrumbs, salt and pepper to taste. Form into meatballs and fry in a mixture of 2 T. butter + 2 T. olive oil. Remove when done. To the same skillet, add and saute 1 med. onion, sliced, and 2 cl. garlic. After a few minutes, add salt and pepper, 1/4 t. oregano, 1/4 t. allspice, 1/4 t. cumin, 1/4 t. cayenne, 1 T. lemon juice. Add 1 can diced tomatoes and 1 lb. green beans (blanch them if they’re big). Add meatballs back into the skillet, mix well, and turn into a casserole. Cover and bake at 375 for 30 - 45 minutes.
Season rack of lamb with salt and pepper. Soften 2 T butteradd 1 t brown sugar and 1 T chopped capers. Roll into a log and chill. In a sauce pan melt 2T butter, 1 T honey and 1 T white wine vinegar. Brush lamb with glaze and grill, brushing frequently with the glaze. When done to your liking transfer to plate and top with coins of chilled butter/caper mixture. Heaven.
Cause I didn’t tell him that I’d had them for supper.