Subject: Lamb Suggestions
From: "G. FRIED" <[email-masked]>
Date: 4 Dec 1996 05:03:22 -0700
Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes

Lamb Suggestions 

I grew up on a sheep farm where we ate lamb several times a week.  
How you season and cook it depends a lot on what cut of meat you use and 
what seasons you like.  Here are some of our favorite means of cooking lamb:

Grilling:
We used to put a leg on the rotisserie and season with lots of 
black pepper, some thyme, minced garlic, and juice of one lemon in   one cup of 
water and we would baste the leg frequently 
with the mixture.  This is my personal favorite.

Roasting:
You can use the same mixture as for grilling.

You can also pierce the leg in several spots and poke cloves of garlic 
into the leg.  I usually sprinkle with black pepper and either thyme or 
basil or oregano.  (Thyme is really my favorite seasoning for lamb 
because it doesn't overpower the lamb).

Broiling:
This is really only for chops and steaks.  I usually put a small amount 
of margarine or olive oil on the top and sprinkle with black pepper and 
thyme.

Some other ideas:
Lamb makes good stir fry with lots of green onions and veggies (Mongolian 
style)

Cut off most of the fat because that is where you will find the strongest 
flavors coming from and depending on the age of the sheep and how it was 
raised and fed the fat can be disgusting.

Leftover lamb is really good in Shepherd's Pie:  Cut up lamb and saute 
with onion, garlic, mixed veggies, celery, carrots, etc.  Aussies and 
NZed folk tend to add parsnips and other things also.  The veggies don't 
need to get cooked, just mixed in with the lamb and onion.  Season to 
your liking with pepper, thyme, etc.  Make a fairly thick gravy to go on 
top.  Transfer to a casserole dish.  Top with mashed potatoes (dumplings or 
biscuits will also do).  Bake until done.  Sometimes the fat had such a 
strong flavor from my lamb that I didn't want to use its juice for gravy 
so I've used canned beef broth also. 

Ground lamb is great for making gyros.  I season with crushed cumin, 
oregano, black pepper, onion, minced garlic.  When the meat is nearly 
browned, squeeze lemon juice over it.  Serve on a warm pita with cheese, 
tomato, lettuce, olives, cucumber-mint-yogurt dressing (or I usually add 
chopped cucumber and my own yogurt ranch dressing).

Ground lamb is also good for making burgers (we would also season to make 
sausage patties and have it for breakfast with eggs, etc.).

I hope this helps.  

Melody :) 
[email-masked]

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