You wanna see the cutest little future hunk of souvlaki in the northern hemisphere? Meet Ewegarte . Or Ewelysses. I get them all confused.
My daughter makes a lamb roast flavored with garlic and lemon. She’s moved to another state, and right now I really, really miss her. And her cooking.
Envy me, for this year I will be buying a small bebeh lamb , raising it on a friend’s land then having it murdered for my eating pleasure! I expect to get 50+ lbs or so from my investment, which when you consider the price of lamb these days it should prove pretty economical. We’re figuring 50-75 bucks for the lamb, maybe another 20-30 for supplemental feed although we expect them to be primarily grass fed so that will keep the feed bill low, then slaughtering and butchering costs. My main objective is to get some of the meat I have a hard time finding, especially a whole bunch of ground lamb which I love beyond all reason–shepherd’s pie, lentil soup, burgers, curried meatballs, the list is endless.
My really scary lamb recipe requires shanks. Melt in a dutch oven a half stick of butter, add a quarter cup of olive oil, then brown the shanks all over, remove from pot. Deglaze small amount of white wine or beer, replace the shanks in the pot, add 40-100 whole, fresh, peeled cloves of garlic and several large sprigs of fresh rosemary–use dried if you really must, couple teaspoons full. Don’t use powdered, that’s nasty. Cover the pot firmly with heavy duty foil and put the lid on–you don’t want any steam to escape at all. Bake at 350-375 degrees for a couple hours.
While the lamb is cooking, in a second deep pot melt the other half stick of butter and saute a couple of onions sliced thin until wilty but not quite caramelized. Add in a whole shitload of sliced crimini mushrooms, saute a couple minutes. Add in a cup or so of rinsed barley and saute until slightly browned. Add enough beef broth to cover plus a bit, tightly cover the pot and put in oven with the lamb. Keep track on the barley and stir it and add broth as needed to make sure it doesn’t dry out–it takes a lot of broth to cook barley, you’ll probably need a quart or so for 2 cups but if you run out use plain water. You’re looking for it to be nice and tender when done, probably going to take an hour, hour and a half in the oven.
When the lamb is done cooking, carefully remove the foil, being careful of steam burns, ouch! Remove the shanks and let them rest on a plate covered in foil. With a slotted spoon remove the garlic cloves and rosemary sprigs. Throw the rosemary away, or you can strip the leaves off and just toss the twigs, depending on how much you like rosemary–I leave mine in. Gently fold the garlic cloves into the barley, then spread it out on a big platter. Over medium high heat, reduce the liquid in the lamb pot, stirring and getting all the crusty bits off the sides and bottom. When it’s reduced by half, either melt in mint sauce, mint jelly (if you have nothing else) or my favorite, coarsely chopped fresh mint leaves and a couple tablespoons of honey or sugar. Stir until it’s alll incorporated. Arrange the shanks on the bed of barley, then pour the sauce all over the whole thing and serve. Try not to dribble it all over your front as the whole room dives into the platter face first!
I have, as I speak, a leg of lamb in the oven. Liberally garlicked and rosemaried and salted and peppered and started on pretty high heat, now reduced. I just took the apple pie out, and buns are rising.
But, could I do so, I would pop into SmartAleq’s kitchen and hover and maybe taste a bit and hang around long enough to be asked to stay for dinner. I would take a bottle of nice BC wine with me, Mission Hill or something of that nature. Heck, 3 bottles. 
Who’s counting, anyway?
To get a lamb to dress out at 50 pounds you need one of the larger breeds. My little Cheviots rarely go over 40 pounds. You are very wise not to feed your lambie pie too much beyond the grass he will graze on. You do not want your lamb to be too fat. I do not know what you might expect to pay for your lamb if you are buying him now, though I would quite happily sell you a lamb for $50!! I never make $50 profit on selling cut, wrapped, and frozen lamb, so $50 on the hoof for a little lamb sounds awfully good to me. Is your lamb, if male, going to be castrated? It makes for a meatier lamb, although when they are being slaughtered at 6 months or so it doesn’t really make much difference.
Ground lamb makes the best Greek meatballs in the known universe. Some panko, lots of minced garlic, a bit of milk, an egg, plenty of rosemary and thyme, made into balls about the size of a walnut and then cooked quickly on a sheet pan in a hot oven. Then simmered for about 20 minutes in a Souvlaki-style sauce and served over rice pilaf.
sigh
It’s teatime, I see. A cuppa and a cookie will tide me over.
Can I come up for dinner?
Wait… BC wine? Erm, ah… How far are you from Blaine, WA and can I bring meat across the border?
Not far from Blaine! Closer to Lynden or Sumas. Don’t know if you can take meat across the border, suspect NOT. Rats, eh?
I once sent a parcel of home made jam and chutney to a friend in Utah. I crossed the border at Sumas and explained to the customs officer what I had in that box in the back seat. I had to go in with the stuff and show the Agricultural Inspector that it was all sealed and labeled, etc., but I found out later they could have seized it and sent me away with a flea in my ear. They didn’t, although the young man suggested he’d be kinder if I gave him a jar.
Next time, I sent the stuff along with an American friend as a “gift” and he mailed it to other parts of the US. Seemed to be no problem.
Seriously, I don’t think you can take any kind of meat across into the US, but I think you can bring US meat to Canada. Not sure. But people from here go grocery shopping in the US all the time, so I guess it’s ok. I can bring milk, butter, cheese, ice cream, etc., from a dairy just across the border. Sometimes I do, since it’s within my “100 Mile Diet” rule. (I don’t follow it fanatically, just reasonably.)
As for coming for dinner? Who knows? If you live nearby, maybe we can m00t one day and share a glass or two.
I may have to give the Agriculture people a call. I like Trader Joe’s lamb legs (and fortunately there’s a TJ’s in Bellingham), but I’d like to try something different – and yours sounds delicious.
I know there are Dopers in Vancouver, Surrey, White Rock, and so forth. One of these days there oughtta be a DopeFest. (‘Your reason for visiting Canada?’)
LOL!
I agree there oughta be a Dope Fest. Some parts of BC have them all the time . . . 
I have met people from a Lord of the Rings website a couple of times and it’s been a blast. When I tell people I’m off to meet my “internet friends” (or as my husband says, “imaginary friends”), people wiggle their eyebrows at me and regard me with pitying stares. But they’re all poopyhead stick-in-the-muds and who cares about what they think?
Oooh, vison, I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter! Here, have a lamb shank and a bit of barley, sit down… So, I wonder what the rules are for bringing bebeh lambs across the border to be eaten by Portlanders? I have a big old van and could carry several leetle lambs if you have a few to sell–so far we’re having an oddly difficult time finding bebeh lambs to buy. My friends want a couple too, partially so they don’t have to do as much mowing, I expect!
I have no clue about the border. I suspect, however, that it would be difficult to get live lambs across. Or dead ones, for that matter. If it proves feasible, I would gladly sell you a few, but not just yet, they are still too young to leave theyz mamas.
However. I would bet that Washington State or Oregon both have sheep breeders’ associations with websites. Surely they do!
Publix is a big supermarket chain, isn’t it? I’ve never been in one but I can’t imagine a major supermarket that didn’t have every possible cut of lamb on hand every day of the year.
Here is one link: A list of breeds and breeders in the States
Oregon Purebred Sheep Breeders’ Association, Rick Klempe, President, 541-258-3562.
I daresay I am horribly prejudiced, but I have never eaten lamb as good as Cheviot lamb. I have, unfortunately, had lamb from Jacob Sheep: do not go there.
Good luck. And, if the border should prove porous to Canadian lamb, I will gladly make you happy, lambwise.
Interesting. I saw a write up on Jacob sheep in a knitting magazine a few months ago. Their wool is supposed to be nice to work with. Then again, I’ve heard that sheep bred for their wool aren’t that good for eating and sheep bred for meet aren’t that good for wool. The lamb at my local farmers market comes from Jamison Farms. I couldn’t find a breed mentioned on their website, but the lamb’s good, and they do mail order.
Down here in FL they have the little chops, whole leg, and rack of ribs. Nothing else. so it’s either really cheap cuts that are overpriced, or really expensive cuts that we can’t afford.
I think that’s probably true, about wool breeds not being as good to eat as meat breeds.
We have Cheviots because they are small and very hardy, they don’t get foot rot as often as other breeds do. They are “bare faced and bare legged”. We do shear them, but we generally burn the wool unless someone wants it. Last year the shearer took it.
We once had few Dorsets, but they did not thrive here.
I do admire those big black faced Suffolks, though. They are very handsome sheep. I have never eaten Suffolk lamb.
TJ in B’ham? Fuck, I was on vacation last week, I coulda gone seen what’s the BFD about Trader Joes? Dammit. Oh yeah, Whatcom/SurreyDope, sign me up.
One might wonder, why devilsknew, how can an entire primal like a lamb’s leg be compared to a roast beef?
Well, let me clue you in to the Steamship Round. This is the beef’s leg of lamb counterpart. Pretty much an entire dressed Cow leg weighing around 60-70 lbs. Roasted for a day or more, this IMHO makes some of the best roast beef.
A little secret, leave your meat whole and on the bone. Abuse and neglect your meat for taste and succulence–
Truly. Don’t cut holes in your bone on meat. Just work the rub in vigourously and let it go… don’t pamper your meat. I have found that the best meat is simple, whole, and slow… the juice retained.
60-70lbs is rather big, I might have overshot there…it sure does feel like 60 lbs. when you have to carry one of those suckers to the carving table. Probably more around a 50 lb. leg.
Carving a leg of lamb properly is also crucial for tenderness and correct grain.
Here is an excellent illustrated tutorial from welshfoodie.
We had an Aussie boneless leg of lamb today for Easter. We got it at Costco. About four and a half pounds.
Before basting in olive oil (with spices), I inserted about four cut up cloves of garlic all over and in the meat. I then used roasting twine to tightly wrapped the leg before putting it on the spit. I used my new George Foreman spit. About 100 minutes. The thermometer test said it was done. We had a fresh spinach salad with broccolic, califlower and baked potatoes.
Tomorrow night will be thinly sliced lamb on Kaiser rolls.