Late-Winter Lamb

06Feb08

Both hubby and I were vegetarians for years, so I am a bit of a neophyte when it comes to cooking meat. I actually believe that cooking vegetarian meals for so long has given me a great set of skills that I might not have developed otherwise. It is, however, more labor intensive than throwing a steak on the grill or a piece of fish in the oven.  We still eat vegetarian the vast majority of the time at home, but my birthday meal was a happy exception.*

I went out to a small, local, family farm this week where they pasture-raise all of their animals, and brought home a lamb shoulder, which my dear husband cooked up the Roasted Lamb recipe from “The River Cottage Meat Book.” It involves cutting slits in the meat and tucking rosemary, anchovies, and garlic into each crevice. He then glazed it with some red currant jam that I had put up this summer. The lamb comes from a sheep variety called the Katahdin, which is markedly less “lamby” tasting than other lamb I have had. (I have to admit — I like my lamb to taste more like lamb. But, it was good nonetheless.) 

*I have come to believe that meat eating, if you choose to do so, should be a sometimes thing, or a celebration, rather than a daily given.  I also try to  make sure I know where it comes from, and that it was raised in happy circumstances. I don’t always meet this ideal, but it is what I aspire to.

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Tags: grass-fed, lamb, meat, pasture-raised, vegetarianism