Lamb

Summer is tomato time; be sure to try the new heirloom varieties. In winter, I usually find that Roma, or plum, tomatoes are the most flavorful. Oil-cured olives will add other notes, but use water-packed olives if you’re looking to cut back on fat. Make a quick broth with part of a bouillon cube. Purchase bouillon from health food stores for versions lower in sodium and other preservatives. An easy way to trim exactly the right amount from the bottom of an asparagus stalk is simply to grab an end in each hand and bend until it snaps. It will break at the point where the stalk becomes less woody.

Mutton is a lamb’s older brother; lambs are less than a year old and are tender, while mutton has a stronger smell and a more intense game flavor. They love mutton in western Kentucky; it’s the traditional meat that’s barbecued there, and I know this because a few years ago I won the Kentucky state mutton championship cooking that very thing. My secret is treat it like a pork butt with an attitude. Note that this ain’t lamb chops: you’ve got to inject the meat and cook it for a while to get it tender. It’s worth it. One tip: Don’t put damn mint jelly on this meat. My Tangy Sweet Sauce is the only way to go.

Something a south Georgia boy doesn’t eat much is lamb. But south Georgia boys who like to win barbecue contests have to figure out how to cook it. The first mutton contest I ever entered I won, cooking lamb chops just like this. I like to get the largest rack of chops I can find, so I can serve them at least an inch thick and give my guests something they can sink their teeth into.

It may seem crazy even to think of making a cassoulet for oneself, although this one may be large enough to share with a friend. But if you have all the different elements, it’s not much more than an assembly job. You just have to think ahead. So, when you have that Small Roast Pork Tenderloin (page 42), set aside three or four little chunks of the flavorful cooked meat (they can be frozen and labeled “for future cassoulet”). Then plan on having Braised Shoulder Lamb Chops (page 48), which is always more than I can eat in one sitting, and use that extra braised chop (it can also be frozen), along with a lot of the good juices, to be the mainstay of your cassoulet. One can usually get a good pork sausage these days; even if you have to mail-order it, it’s a staple item worth keeping in the freezer. So there you are: start your beans the night before, and put this heavenly bean dish together on a wintry day off, letting it fill your kitchen with its tantalizing aromas. You won’t regret it. When I suggested to Julia Child that she include a recipe for this great dish in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, there really weren’t any good fresh garlic sausages available to buy, so Julia agreed that she had better work out a formula for making them at home. Several days later, I went up to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the Childs lived, to work on the book with her, and I found that one wall of the kitchen was covered in notes on the work she had done to develop a formula for the authentic garlic sausage for cassoulet. Her research had taken her back to early French charcuterie books, and she’d made notes on each of her testings, ending up with her own carefully worked-out recipe. I gasped at her meticulous research, and then asked tentatively if maybe this might not be beyond the reach of the American home cook, but she reassured me. “No, not at all,” she said. “It’s really as easy as making hamburgers.”

Here’s a dish I concocted when I had some leftover rare lamb from a roast. I had stripped most of the meat from the bone, but there was enough still clinging in the crevices to make a meaty broth, so I put the meat and the bone in a pot with an onion and a carrot, poured cold water over, and let it simmer for an hour or so. It made about 5 cups of lamb broth, most of which I stored in the freezer.

Here’s another way of giving leftover lamb new life. I’d always thought that this sumptuous Middle Eastern dish that envelops lamb in eggplant was quite a production, but done this way it takes less than half an hour to put together and is worth every minute of effort.

Eggplant is a particularly good receptacle for leftovers, such as cooked rice or grains and the remains of a roast. When I’m using eggplant, I usually roast it in the morning, or the night before I’m going to stuff it. Then it takes only about 40 minutes to be ready to enjoy. This stuffed eggplant is good hot, warm, or at room temperature, so you can to take it on a picnic, or to the park for lunch.

For a dinner party, I often serve a roast leg of lamb, studded with garlic cloves and slathered in mustard French-style. I make sure the meat when cooked is always rosy—in fact, saignant at the bone—and therefore good to use in any number of dishes that ordinarily call for raw lamb. And I always find myself with plenty of leftovers—one forgets how hefty a leg of lamb is these days. I wrote about some of my experiments with leftover lamb in my book The Tenth Muse in a section called “The Nine Lives of a Leg of Lamb.” So, if you are confronted with this happy dilemma of too much lamb, you’ll find nine recipes there, which can be cut down to serve one. I don’t want to repeat them here, but I have since experimented with this lamb curry for one, which I find delicious.

Scott Peacock, the gifted young chef from Alabama who worked with and cared for the legendary Virginia cook Edna Lewis during her final years, once told me that one of the great lessons he learned from Edna was “the way she slowly coaxed the essence of flavor” from ingredients, be they meat, poultry, vegetables, or a combination. This slow braising of shoulder lamb chops is a good example of the technique that Scott worked out by observing her. Very little liquid is used, and by smothering the meat in a covering of parchment, then foil, and a tight-fitting lid, you make sure the juices that are “leached out” don’t evaporate but fall back into the pan, penetrating the meat and vegetables. As a result, you get an intensity of flavor that is breathtaking. I have adapted their recipe here to make two servings, not only because such chops are invariably vacuum-wrapped two to a package, but because the dish is so good that I always want to use it for a second round. Every time I make it, I want to give thanks to Edna and Scott, who seemed destined to cook together to bring new life to Southern cooking.

Lamb shanks lend themselves to slow cooking, so I like to make this hearty dish-in-one on a weekend and then have it later in the week in a second incarnation. Shanks are often found two to a package in the supermarket, so it’s less hassle to buy the whole package and enjoy them twice. I’ve adapted this recipe from Claudia Roden, who taught me always to have a jar of my own preserved lemons in the fridge to give that final spark to so many Middle Eastern and North African dishes, and I’ve followed her advice.

I love lamb chops, and I can’t resist when I find a pair of loin chops at least 1 inch thick sitting side by side in a shrink-wrapped package at the meat counter. Expensive? Yes, and I don’t really need two of them. But I give in and set aside the uneaten portion of the second one to tuck into a small casserole of French lentils. It makes an appealing second dinner.

You may have one whole cooked chop that you couldn’t eat, or you may have only a few bites. It doesn’t matter—the meat is really just a garnish to the lentils.

Put some lovin’ in your oven! This fabulous dish gets its rich flavor from slowly brazing the veal until the meat is so tender, it literally falls off the bone with the touch of your fork. As it cooks, the aromas of the fresh herbs, earthy vegetables, and wine fill the kitchen. In fact, you may have to keep yourself busy by reading this cookbook until the timer goes off , lest you dig in before it’s done. Seriously, if you have never tried osso bucco, this is your chance! It takes a little more time—and expense—to cook than other dishes, but it’s completely worth it. Traditionally osso bucco is served over risotto, but we like it best over a bed of mashed potatoes or cooked white rice. So go ahead and treat yourself, you deserve it. If you’re not keen on veal, you can use lamb instead.

I’m gonna jump right out there and say that lamb is my favorite meat. And this is probably my favorite dish—to both cook and eat. I love that lamb shanks look like something out of the Flintstones, even though one shank is the perfect size for one person. On a cold winter night when I’m home making dinner for my family, this is definitely my go-to recipe. Like any braise, it takes a bit of effort to get started, but once you get them going, you can just toss the shanks in the oven and let them go on their lamby way.

I’m a big fan of nice, thick lamb chops—and I’m an even bigger fan of nice, thick lamb chops deliciously browned all over! That’s exactly what you get with this recipe. Since you remove two bones from an eight-bone rack, these babies are thicker than a normal lamb chop. And, because you sear the chops on both sides—and the fat edge—before schmearing them with the lovely olive purée and finishing them in the oven, the inside stays tender and juicy, and the outside gets a beautiful, delicious, brown crust. Why is that so important? Because brown food tastes good!

This out-of-the-ordinary stew is seriously good and its enticing aroma seductive. The sauce is smooth and complex: cinnamon, mustard, cumin, fenugreek, and cardamom all add up to an intriguing flavor that really lingers. The parsley-almond garnish adds brightness to the dish. Sweet, nutty, and crunchy, with layers of Indian spices, this killer recipe is a musttry. Serve it over basmati rice.

Bone-in leg of lamb has marvelous flavor and is a traditional roast for festive family gatherings. There is a great deal of versatility in this cut, but my favorite way to prepare it is on a grill. Slow cooking on a grill keeps the lamb really tender and moist while adding an awesome smoky taste. The yogurt and lemon marinade helps carry the deep flavors of the lamb and also gives the meat a nice crust. The lamb needs to marinate for several hours, so plan accordingly. I love this with Greek Farro Salad (page 79), a bright, refreshing complement to the charred lamb.

This Moroccan-inspired recipe is one of those dishes where less is more: a big, sweet onion stuffed with cinnamon- and cumin-scented ground lamb and plump apricots. While you may be tempted to put the whole spice cabinet in the lamb filling, the simple duo of cinnamon and cumin does the trick. The fruit plays off the rich gaminess of the lamb and the spices add a subtle background flavor to tie it all together. This stuffed onion is perfect for a weeknight dinner with a green salad and steamed basmati rice, or elegant enough to make as a starter for a dinner party. The best part is that you can do this all ahead of time and just pop the stuffed onions in the oven before dinner. Sweet!

Rack of lamb is the rib section of the lamb, extending from the shoulder to the loin. The majority of lamb is graded as choice or prime, so it is not difficult to find a good-quality rack. Lamb is available at most quality butcher houses or grocery stores. When selecting a rack of lamb, make sure that the backbone, or chine, has been removed. This will make slicing each lamb chop easier, prior to serving. If you’ve shied away from serving lamb to your picky eaters, give this recipe a spin; it is one of my family’s favorites. Keep in mind that my kids are just as picky eaters as yours. Rack of lamb is the best way to introduce children to the distinct deep flavor of lamb meat, the only downside being the relatively high price per pound. There is something about “lamb on a stick” that appeals to the young ones. In the end, though, it is the flavor of this recipe that will have the kids requesting second helpings.

The essence of barbecue is taking the cheapest cuts of meat and turning them into succulent dishes by cooking them at a lower temperature. Take lamb, for example. The very desirable leg portion of lamb can be purchased in most supermarkets at a premium price. The less meaty shank portion costs much less and will still draw raves at the dinner table. Lamb shanks, cut from the lower portion of the leg, are sold bone-in, in about one-pound portions. Allow one shank per person.