Flavorful grilled lamb tossed with tender haricot vert and drizzled with a generously spiced coconut milk broth.
lamb tagine with apricots & olives
Tagines (and I mean the cooking vessel here, not the dish made therein) are the kind of cookware you come across in the store or on a friend’s wedding registry and you picture yourself hosting a dinner party and setting a steaming stew in the tagine base in the center of your table and one of your friends asks “What’s that?”
“Oh, that?” you say, “That is my tagine. [Read more…]
roast lamb shoulder with mint
Spring lamb roasts must have really been something special in the olden days. You didn’t run out of potatoes and beets and starve during the winter. You didn’t have to kill your breeding livestock to survive. Your flock has started to lamb and for the first time in a few months you’re actually looking at the prospect of having plenty of food to eat. Putting that first lamb on the table must have felt like a combination of Thanksgiving, getting a raise at work, and when the character you hate the most gets kicked off a reality show. [Read more…]
lamb ragù over polenta
There’s something undeniably wonderful about having a fragrant, slow-simmered ragù on the stovetop for an entire Sunday. The richness permeates the air and gives the entire day a slow and luxurious feel. Languorous weekends have been in short supply for us lately, so smelling this ragù all day almost felt decadent.
Lamb is a favorite in this apartment, doubly so for stews and slow sauces. The heartiness of lamb shoulder and neck (the cuts we used here) is just unsurpassable. To keep the richness and fattiness of the lamb from being overwhelming, we use red wine and red wine vinegar to give the dish a little bracing edge, which is tempered by the sweetness of tomato paste. The trio of carrots, onion, and celery give it a classic feel, while the garlic and bay leaves keep it from being a staid dish even if it doesn’t have any unusual ingredients.