Food Flock

Send me your lamb recipe to be gathered here in the Food Flock. As well as recipes, we want your culinary anecdotes and food ruminations too. A recipe can be many things as the Larousse Gastonomique shows us. It might be an idea to cook with rather than a procedure to follow and cook from.

Agnelet à la Kurde

"This recipe for milk-fed lamb was given to us by Roland Dorgelès, the author of Les Croix de Bois and it is rather an original one.

'On the banks of Euphrates, where I lived among camel drivers and Bedouin, I discovered a dish which I did not know…Take a small milk-fed lamb, one of those little lambs which the nomad shepherds carry about like babies. You clean it out, season the inside and stuff with a forcemeat made from its liver, heart and lungs. You mix this forcemeat generously with rice half-cooked with fat, in which you have incorporated dry, not sweet, apricots which have been cooked in the gravy. Then you serve it with the gravy from which the fat has been skimmed off.'

No doubt the addition of apricots to this dish may appear a little eccentric to certain gastronomical purists (and you may count me as one) but let us not forget that many people relish venison with red currant jelly."

Prosper Montagné, editor Larousse Gastronomique, 1938

Thanks to Tom Scheerer for this lamb shoulder recipe using garlic, rosemary and sherry.

Catalan Lamb  (serves 4-6)

6 shoulder or blade lamb chops
Coarse salt
Ground pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 bulbs garlic
3 sprigs rosemary
3/4 cup fino sherry
Small bunch washed flat leaf parsley, stemmed

• Pre heat oven to 500
• Heat oil in a dutch oven . Salt and pepper chops then  brown well, two or three at a time.
• Remove browned chops to a plate
• Cut garlic bulbs in half horizontally. Peel the clove tips, keeping bulb base intact
• Brown bulbs cut side down and clove tips in remaining oil and fat
• Remove garlic to the plate, pour off fat, deglaze pan with a few tablespoons of water or stock. Pour over chops
• Pinwheel chops in the dutch oven. Nestle garlic bulbs cut side up and distribute garlic cloves,  rosemary sprigs, and accumulated juices (Recipe can be prepared in advance to this point)

• Place dutch oven in 500 oven uncovered for 15 minutes
• Pour in sherry, then tightly seal  dutch oven with foil and a tightly fitting lid
• Reduce heat to 375 and cook  1 hour
• Remove lid ,baste with pan juices, scatter the parsley, then serve to heated dinner plates with mashed or roasted root vegetable(s).

I actually use a whole bulb of garlic per person so everyone can squeeze out the roasted garlic. The stemmed parsley is essential. I put a dish of it on the table too to pass and  munch on as a “salad”.

This recipe is a recollection and adaptation of one from a book called Catalan Cuisine  (As I remember...but  I can’t find it)

Tom Scheerer
New York, NY
tscheerer@aol.com

Braised Shoulder of Lamb 

The most misunderstood cut of lamb is the shoulder.  I've heard comments that lamb from the shoulder is tough & sinewy; these are from folk who roasted* the shoulder like a leg of lamb, rather than braising it like a lamb shank, as they could have.
 

“Braising is a moist heat cooking method where lamb cuts are browned and cooked in a small amount of liquid. The liquid produces steam which helps tenderize the meat. Thus, this method of cooking is perfect for both small and large less tender cuts of lamb such as neck slices, shoulder cuts, riblets, breasts and shanks. A wide variety of lamb dishes may be braised.
 
To braise, heat a small amount of oil, fat or butter in a heavy frying pan and brown lamb on all sides. (The lamb may be first dusted with seasoned flour.) Pour off drippings and season as desired. Add a small amount of liquid such as water, vegetable juice or soup and vegetables. Cover pan tightly and cook at low temperature until tender. A sauce or gravy can be made from the cooking liquid.”

 

Timetable for Braising Lamb

Lamb Cut	Weight or Size	Approximate Cooking Time
Neck Slices	1-3/4 pounds ¾ inch thick	1 to 1-1/2hour
Shoulder Chops, Round Bone or Blade	1-3/4 pounds 1 inch thick	1 to 1-1/4 hour
Breast, Stuffed (Bone-in)	2 to 3 pounds	1-1/2 to 2 hours
Riblets	3 pounds	1-1/2 to 2 hours
Shanks	3 pounds	1_to 1-1/2 hours
Stew Cubes	1-1/4 pounds 1 inch pieces	1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours
Breast, Rolled	1-1/2 to 2 pounds	1-1/2 to 2 hours

Courtesy of the American Lamb Board

See the Cooking Lamb timetables for broiling, grilling or roasting cuts of lamb.

*The shoulder can be roasted, but it should be marinated first and basted to help tenderize it