Lamb + Veal – Page 2 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Leg of Lamb with Sausage Crumble

Jenny and Steve from Los Angeles were flying in at midnight and I knew they were going to be hungry. I warned them to save their appetite and skip the junk food in the plane and just go straight to my apartment in Harlem for a very late dinner. I had a few hours to prepare this dish after work, so there was no mad rush to finish until I received a text message that they were on their way from the airport.

This seems like an overload of meat because the lamb could stand out on its own, but when you already have sausages in the fridge, why wouldn’t you put them together? A mixed green salad or roasted vegetables would make good matches too, but pork would probably make your guests happier. (I added roasted thyme-potatoes here.) It did mine, and they were off to a good start in their New York City vacation.

Ingredients:
1 small boneless leg of lamb, trimmed, rolled and tied
salt
pepper
oil
2 Italian pork hot sausages, casing removed, crumbled
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 tomato, diced
half a fennel bulb, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1/2 cup sherry vinegar
a handful of basil leaves, julienned
a dash of red pepper flakes

1. Preheat the oven to 375º. Season the leg of lamb liberally with salt and pepper and place on a roasting rack that fits inside a roasting pan. Transfer the lamb to the oven and cook until an instant-read thermometer registers 130º for medium rare, about 45 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, tent with foil and allow the lamb to rest while you make the sausage crumble.
2. Heat a large skillet with some oil. Add the sausage and cook over medium-high heat until cooked through and browned, about 10 to 12 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the sausage to a plate, leaving the fat in the pan. Add the shallot, tomato, fennel and carrot to the pan and sauté until tender. Add the sherry vinegar and scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the sausage back in with the basil and red pepper flakes.
3. To serve, cut the leg of lamb into 1/2-inch slices, divide among plates and top with the sausage crumble.

Lamb Loin with Couscous

My first real night of cooking in my apartment called for one of my favorite meats: lamb. “Real” as in I’m-home-alone-for-the-first-time-in-a-long-time and I-don’t-mind-any-minute-of-it kind of real. I stopped by the halal meat market in my neighborhood where I patiently waited for the lady to slice off the loin from the whole lamb into manageable chunks. I keep coming back to this store because the lamb is crazy cheap; I just have to deal with their Island Time and re-explain how I like the ribs with the long handle bones intact and accept the fact that when I ask for ground lamb, the response will always be: I don’t have time to ground meat right now, even though I’m the only one in the store. (I have since bought my own food grinder attachment for my KitchenAid mixer.)

Look at that lamb though! They would easily cost more than $25 at Whole Foods but that lot cost me $12 here in Harlem. I don’t know enough about halal meat and still don’t know why it smells differently than, say, gourmet lamb meat from New Zealand, but they make a good meal every time.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds lamb loin, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 32-ounce container low-sodium chicken broth
1 10-ounce box couscous
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
half a bag of baby carrots
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
zest of 1/2 lemon, grated
a handful of cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
a handful of parsley leaves, roughly chopped
3/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved
2 tsps paprika
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground cinnamon
salt, oil

1. In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the paprika, turmeric, cumin, cayenne, cinnamon, salt, and 2 tbsps of olive oil. Add the lamb, seal, and shake to coat. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 12 hours.
2. Heat the remaining oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and carrots and cook for 15 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
3. Add some of the lamb to the pot and brown on all sides. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining lamb. Return the lamb to the pot along with the onion and carrots. Add the garlic, ginger, and zest and stir.
4. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Stir in the couscous. Remove from heat, cover, and set aside for 10 minutes. Stir in the cilantro, parsley, and olives.

Roast Leg of Lamb

For the love of meat, Jake Dickson of Dickson Farmstand worked in several farms, a butcher shop and a slaughterhouse. All the effort paid off and he thought of a brilliant business plan: buy your upstate produce online and pick it up in the city from the back of his truck. I bought a boneless leg of lamb from Ehrhardt Farm in Jersey Hill, one of the highest elevations in Tompkins County, New York.

I also ordered a package of fatty bacon and ground pork but I’ll focus on the leg of lamb so that you can replicate it for your end-of-year dinner.

Ingredients:
1 4-pound boneless leg of lamb, tied up with butcher’s twine
salt, pepper

For marinade:
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup white wine
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 sprigs of thyme
2 sprigs of rosemary
oil, pepper

1. Marinate lamb. Pat leg of lamb dry with a paper towel. On a chopping block as a work surface, drizzle olive oil all over the lamb and rub with pepper. Stuff every nook of leg of lamb with garlic and herbs. Transfer to a large glass container that you can use to marinate. Combine orange juice and white wine in a small bowl and pour into the container to marinate the lamb. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge overnight. Make sure you turn over the lamb after several hours to soak the other side.
2. When ready to cook, remove the lamb from the fridge and let rest at room temperature. Arrange two racks in the oven: the middle rack to hold the lamb and the lower rack to hold a roasting pan to catch the drippings. (Spread chopped carrots, parsnips and onions in the pan for some roasted veggies to go with the lamb.) Preheat oven to 425º. Place the empty aluminum foil-lined roasting pan in the oven while the oven is pre-heating.
3. Cook the lamb. Remove the lamb from the container and pat dry with paper towels. Generously salt and pepper all sides of the lamb. Place directly on middle rack of the oven; the roasting pan below will catch the drippings. Roast for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 300º and roast an additional hour, or about 10 minutes per pound. Using a meat thermometer, the thickest part of the lamb must be around 135º for medium-rare. Let stand for half an hour before carving. Use just the drippingsand/or the roasted veggies to serve with the lamb.

Lamb Shank in Ras-El-Hanoot

I am so sick of turkey leftovers that I’m going to gag if I think about it one more time. After the gym tonight, I stopped by Whole Foods to pick up one lamb shank from the meat department. Surprisingly, one piece came out a little under $7.50 versus the exorbitant Whole Foods price I always tsk-tsk at.

This recipe is from Janna Gur’s beautiful cookbook, The Book of New Israeli Food. She’s well known as the editor of Israel’s leading food and wine magazine, Al Hashulchan Gastronomic Monthly, so I thought the recipes would be hard to make. I was surprised at how easy to understand they were even though I’m not familiar with Jewish customs.

Ras-El-Hanoot, or “Top of the Store”, is a Moroccan spice mixture used to season meat. Apparently, every spice vendor has his own secret formula on how to make it. In this version, I’ve eliminated 1 tbsp of aniseed because I just didn’t have any, so I doubled the fennel seed measurement instead. You can certainly substitute aniseed with one star anise plus a pinch of allspice powder.

This lamb dish is one leftover I wouldn’t mind having again and again.

Ingredients:
1 lamb shank
1 medium carrot, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
5 sprigs of parsley, chopped
1 quart chicken stock
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
2 thyme sprigs
salt, oil

For Ras-El-Hanoot mixture:
2 tbsps paprika
2 tbsps fennel seeds
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tbsp coriander seeds

1. Make Ras-El-Hanoot mixture by crushing all the ingredients together using a mortar and pestle. Set aside.
2. In a large Dutch oven, heat some oil over medium heat. Rub salt all over the lamb. Add the lamb shank and brown on all sides. Remove from pot when done.
3. In the same pot using the remaining oil, sauté garlic until brown and onions until soft. Add carrot, celery, parsley, bay leaf, thyme and the Ras-El-Hanoot mixture and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Return the lamb to the pot and bring to a boil again. Lower the heat, cover and cook for 1 hour. Turn over the lamb and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the meat is almost falling off the bone. Uncover the pot and cook for another 15 minutes to thicken the sauce.

Lamb Stew with Corn

Oh my goodness, I thought, as I caught a whiff of the lamb stew that had been simmering for almost three hours. I’ve been copying the Dr. in the kitchen lately and it was no different last night. After spending a nice weekend hiking outside and walking around the city, I was ready to sit in front of Mad Men and sulk with a warm bowl of stew on my lap. After he told me he was making lamb stew for dinner, I knew I had to do the same. It would have been better if I just watched him cook for us, but I wanted to do my own version and compete. The idea of adding corn came from a Mexican tripe stew we bought last week in east Harlem after a late night out.

I think mine had a good chance of winning.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds of lamb chuck chops
1 corn on the cob, chopped in 4 pieces
2 cups of red wine
2 cups of vegetable broth
a handful of parsley, chopped
2 sprigs of thyme
2 sprigs of mint
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red onion, chopped
2 tbsps paprika
2 bay leaves
oil, salt, pepper

1. Season lamb chuck chops with salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven, add some oil and brown all sides of the lamb. Remove from the pot and set aside.
2. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the used oil. Try to get the darkest bits out from the oil. In the remaining oil, sauté the garlic until light brown and the onions until soft. Add the paprika, thyme, parsley and bay leaves.
3. Return the browned lamb in the pot and add the red wine. Let boil and then lower the heat to simmer for 20 minutes or until the red wine has reduced. Stir in broth, cover the pot and simmer for up to 3 hours.
4. After 1 hour, add the corn. After the next hour, turn the corn just to make sure the other ends get some brown sauce in them, too. The meat should be falling off the bone by the third hour. Remove pot from heat, uncover and stir in mint leaves.