lamb

The birthday boy had originally requested brisket, but it was 85 degrees yesterday, so I figured I’d do something a little more appropriate to the weather. He always appreciates a nice rack, so lamb it was.

This was pretty straightforward - I rubbed a paste of garlic, kosher salt, fresh thyme and rosemary, lemon zest and olive oil into the meat and fat side of the lamb, seared it on the fat side in the cast iron skillet about 8 minutes, flipped it and seared it for another three, then chucked it into a 500 degree oven for about 10 minutes. I let it rest for about 5 minutes while I deglazed the pan with some cognac, veal demiglace and balsamic, then sliced it and served the chops with whipped potatoes with feta.

Last night’s lamb was a breeze to prepare, but I’m home from work today and already at work on tonight’s meal - suffice it to say it’s a bit more labor intensive. Stay tuned… and Happy Thanksgiving to our friends to the North!

I love cooking this time of year, and the weather was so perfect for it this weekend that I went a little crazy in the kitchen. A Saturday morning visit to the Greenmarket yielded a bounty of vegetables, and I didn’t wait long before putting them to use.

When Mike and I cook almost anything with bones or shells, we reserve them in resealable bags in the freezer to make stocks. Mike spatchcocked and roasted a chicken on Friday, and I planned to use the backbone and leftover bits from that bird to make a batch of chicken stock, but first, I pulled out all of the bags of beef bones and scraps in our freezer and cooked them down into a rich beef broth. I portioned out about half of the stock and set it aside to cool (and later freeze), and reserved a couple of quarts of it to go into a beef, mushroom and barley soup for Saturday night’s dinner (utilizing chunks of the super-tender meat that had been slowly simmering all day in the broth).

On Sunday, we took a quick trip down to Fort Greene for brunch and a visit to Thirst for wine, and when we returned I got back to work, chopping enough red onion, carrot and celery to fill a large bowl, tossing the trimmings into a pot with all of our chicken bones and scraps (plus the remains of one guinea hen). While my chicken stock perked away, I blanched and peeled some fresh San Marzanos and put together a big batch of vegetable soup for lunches this week. Figuring it would save some time and effort later, I set aside some of the mirepoix and tomatoes I had already prepped to use in dinner later on.

That dinner was lamb shanks, browned in a bit of olive oil and braised in tomato broth seasoned with cumin, coriander and cinnamon and served over couscous. I usually make this dish with fresh Meyer lemons when they’re in season, but I had an open jar of preserved lemons in the fridge which worked just fine. Though some of the ingredients might seem exotic, this dish really couldn’t be simpler, and your kitchen will smell amazing.

Hearty Vegetable Soup

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped red onion
1 1/2 cups each chopped celery and carrot
1 large clove garlic, smashed and roughly chopped
2 cups chopped zucchini
1 tablespoon tomato paste
6 whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes, lightly crushed, with juice
2 quarts water
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 bay leaf
6 sprigs fresh thyme
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 bunch Tuscan kale, sliced into thin ribbons
Kosher salt
(optional) 1 cup cooked small pasta (bows, ditalini, orzo)
Grated cheese for serving

Heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Add onion, celery and carrot, season with salt, and cook over medium heat until onion is translucent. Add garlic and cook just a few minutes, until fragrant. Add zucchini, a pinch more salt, and stir. Push the vegetables aside to make a hot spot in the bottom of the pan and add tomato paste, allowing it to caramelize for a few moments before stirring it through the vegetables. Add the tomatoes and their liquid, the water and the herbs, cover the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer 20 minutes, until the carrots are tender when pierced with a fork. Add the beans and kale and stir through. Adjust salt if necessary. Cook until the beans are warmed through and kale is tender. Add a spoonful of cooked pasta to serving bowls if desired, and ladle soup in. Top with grated cheese.

Braised Lamb Shanks with Preserved Lemon

2 lamb shanks
Kosher salt
Flour for dusting
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups mirepoix (chopped onion, carrot and celery)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup white vermouth
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup chopped preserved lemon
6 whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes, lightly crushed, with juice
Water to cover

Couscous for serving
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley for garnish

Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat. Season lamb with kosher salt, dust lightly with flour on all sides, and add to pan. Brown the meat well on all sides, then remove to a platter and set aside.

Add mirepoix to the pan, season with salt and cook until onions are translucent. Make a hot spot and add the tomato paste, allowing it to caramelize briefly. Sprinkle the ground spices over the vegetables, and stir everything through. Add vermouth and let it bubble up, scraping the bottom of the pan. Return the shanks to the pan and add the bay leaf, cinnamon, lemon and tomatoes. Add enough water to the pan so that the shanks are covered about 3/4 of the way. Reduce heat to low, cover the pan, and allow to cook one hour until the lamb is very tender and the sauce is thickened. Serve over couscous, and garnish with chopped parsley.

Pappardelle with Lamb Ragu

Here’s to pink wine season!

As you can see, Friday night was all about decadence - champagne and oysters, followed by fantastic steaks (dry-aged at home by my husband) and a gorgeous bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape. Hope your weekend was filled with delicious treats!

Obviously, this is not a Meatless Monday meal. My original plan had been to make a fresh pea soup, similar to this one, but Mike picked up a couple of lamb loin chops from Dines Farms, and rather than freezing them or putting them off until later in the week, we decided to cook them last night.

I combined the juice of a lemon, salt, pepper, a couple of chopped garlic cloves and some chopped fresh rosemary with a copious amount of olive oil in a zip-top bag, and then added the chops. While they marinated, I halved a pint of grape tomatoes, tossed them with salt and olive oil, and placed them on a baking sheet with a few whole peeled garlic cloves. Those went into a 325 degree oven to roast for about 20 minutes, and when they were finished I pulled them out and set them aside to cool for a bit. Once the tomatoes had cooled slightly, I added a couple of tablespoons of crumbled French goat feta and a bit of fresh mint sliced into chiffonade. I planned to finish the lamb chops in the oven, so I turned the oven temperature up to 500 degrees and then turned my attention to the peas.

Rather than simply boiling the peas, I decided to cook them in a bit of chicken stock until they were tender. I drained them, added a couple of tablespoons of creme fraiche and a bit of chopped fresh mint, then pureed the mixture in a mini-chopper. I finished the puree with a little salt and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. They were sweet and creamy, with a little bit of tartness from the creme fraiche and lemon.

Back to the lamb. I placed the chops into a hot cast iron skillet and seared them for about 3-4 minutes on one side, then flipped them, turned off the burner and placed the skillet into the oven for another 6 minutes or so. I (carefully!) removed the skillet from the oven, placed the chops onto a warm platter, and finished them with a little lemon juice.

While at the Greenmarket, Mike had also picked up some gorgeous spring mix from Yuno, which I tossed with a bit of my standard lemon vinaigrette and mounded onto our plates. I spooned a bit of the pea puree onto our plates next, placed the chops on top of the puree, and spooned a bit of the roasted tomato and feta mixture over the chops. This was another meal that was like springtime on a plate, bright and delicious.

We have picked up so much beautiful lamb from 3-Corner Field over the last couple of weeks that I’ve been cooking with it often. Though we don’t really celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, I had toyed with the idea of doing a lamb and Guinness stew, but after trudging through the snow to run our morning errands, the thought of schlepping back out to the bodega to get beer was really not sending me.

What I ended up doing was simple and super tasty. I dredged about a pound of cubed lamb in a bit of seasoned flour and shook off the excess, then added it to some hot olive oil in the Le Creuset. I browned the lamb on all sides, then added a cup of chopped shallot and a pinch of salt. When the shallot softened, I stirred in a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste and a couple of tablespoons each of ground cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon and paprika. I added a pint of chicken stock and a cup of chopped tomatoes with their juice and stirred it all through. I noticed we had one Meyer lemon left, so I diced that up and added it as well, added a bay leaf, then covered the pot and allowed it to simmer for an hour or so.

I cooked some basmati rice and ladled the stew over it - I didn’t garnish it as I usually do, because we were tired and hungry and just anxious to dig in. It was lovely.

Wine Pairing: We drank the 2005 La Granacha Signargues Cotes du Rhone Villages. I always love Cotes du Rhone with lamb, and this one was a particularly nice bottle, with good fruit and spice.

The lovely folks from 3-Corner Field Farm will be away from the Greenmarket until June after this Saturday, so we made sure to stock up on lamb when we were there last weekend. We got a big package of ground lamb, part of which we’ve frozen, and the rest of which I made into a super tasty lamb ragu last night.

As much as I love a classic Ragu Bolognese, I think this sauce might be my new favorite meat sauce for pastas. The lamb had a hint of sweetness, and was rich without being too heavy. Mike gobbled down two helpings of this and has more for lunch today; I polished off my portion quickly, and couldn’t help but sneak spoonfuls of the remaining sauce while I washed the dishes. This stuff might be addictive.

Lamb Ragu

3-4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 red onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 lb. ground lamb
1 cup white wine
1 28 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes with their juice (I used San Marzanos)
1 teaspoon red chile flakes
1 cup chopped fresh herbs (I used a mixture of flat-leaf parsley, thyme and rosemary)
Kosher salt to taste

Add olive oil to a large heavy-bottomed pot and warm over medium heat. Add onion, celery and carrots and a good pinch of salt, and allow them to cook until softened. Add tomato paste and allow to cook for a minute, and then stir it through the vegetables. Add the lamb and cook, breaking up with a spoon, until it has lost its red color. Add the wine, tomatoes, chile flakes and half of the herbs. Stir well, breaking up the tomatoes, and then allow to simmer uncovered for an hour or so, stirring occasionally. Once the sauce has cooked down to a thick ragu, and much of the liquid evaporated, turn off the heat, taste for salt and adjust if necessary, and stir in the remaining chopped herbs.

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I had my pasta water boiling away for most of the time the sauce was cooking so it was ready to go when the sauce was nearly finished. I removed all but about 2-3 cups of sauce from the pot once it was finished and added a ladleful of pasta water to the remaining sauce in the pot. I cooked a 500g bag of imported penne rigate until it was just short of al dente, and I added about half of the cooked pasta to the sauce to allow it to finish cooking.* When the pasta was al dente and coated with the ragu, I spooned it into shallow bowls and finished each with a dollop of ricotta and a little more of the herb mixture I had used in the sauce. The ricotta imparts a nice creaminess to the sauce as it melts into it, but I think grated Pecorino Romano would be great with this as well.

*I often make more pasta than we will need for a dish and freeze what is left over. Since the pasta isn’t quite cooked through, it reheats pretty well, and is a nice thing to have on hand on those days when I’m feeling crummy enough that I can’t make it in to work and want to put together a quick lunch. I generally run the bag of pasta under some water to thaw it a bit then toss it in a sauté pan with some butter or olive oil, halved grape tomatoes, garlic and herbs, and a bit of grated cheese at the end.

It’s still frigid outside, and we had nowhere to be yesterday, so after brunch, Mike read comics and cocktail books, and I thawed some lamb neck slices and curled up with the cats to watch Tony Bourdain eat warthog anus in Namibia. Much to my surprise, this did not kill my appetite permanently.

My plan for dinner was to make a lamb stew, but my usual preparation (red wine, root vegetables, herbes de provence) wasn’t really sending me. We still had Meyer lemons on hand, so I decided to use those, along with some olives, tomato, and warm spices like coriander, cumin and cinnamon.

I seasoned the lamb slices with salt and pepper, then dredged them in a bit of flour before adding them two at a time to the Le Creuset to brown in olive oil. I set the lamb slices aside, and added half a red onion, chopped, to the pan, sprinkled on a pinch of kosher salt, and allowed it to soften. I added three smashed peeled garlic cloves next, along with a tablespoon or so of tomato paste. I let the tomato paste begin to caramelize before mixing it into the onion and garlic. Next came the spices - a tablespoon of coriander seeds, half a tablespoon of ground cinnamon, and two tablespoons of ground cumin, which were stirred into the onion mixture.

I poured in a cup of red wine and a cup of crushed tomatoes, then added two Meyer lemons, seeded and chopped, plus one bay leaf. The lamb went back into the pot, and I added about 1/4 cup of water - just enough to bring the level of the liquid up to the tops of the lamb pieces. I placed the lid on the pan and let it come to a boil, then reduced the heat and let it simmer away for two hours, stirring it from time to time.

I added half a cup of pitted mixed olives about half an hour before the stew was done so they would add their flavor but not break down. I figured the olives would add some saltiness to the stew, so I waited to adjust the seasoning until the olives had cooked for a bit (and as it turned out, it didn’t need to be re-salted at all). I served the stew over couscous, and finished it with a bit of chopped flat-leaf parsley and a grating of lemon zest.

I was really pleased with the combination of flavors here - the sweet-tart taste of the lemon and the tang of the tomatoes and olives were a nice bright counterpoint to the rich lamb, and the spices were warm and heady. I’m definitely going to make this again soon.

Wine Note: We drank 2004 Ey Vigne Las Collas Grenache, an old vines Grenache with delicious smoke, pepper, and spice notes.