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For the love of meat, Jake Dickson of Dickson Farmstand worked in several farms, a butcher shop and a slaughterhouse. All the effort paid off and he thought of a brilliant business plan: buy your upstate produce online and pick it up in the city from the back of his truck. I bought a boneless leg of lamb from Ehrhardt Farm in Jersey Hill, one of the highest elevations in Tompkins County, New York.

I also ordered a package of fatty bacon and ground pork but I’ll focus on the leg of lamb so that you can replicate it for your end-of-year dinner.

Ingredients:
1 4-pound boneless leg of lamb, tied up with butcher’s twine
salt, pepper

For marinade:
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup white wine
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 sprigs of thyme
2 sprigs of rosemary
oil, pepper

1. Marinate lamb. Pat leg of lamb dry with a paper towel. On a chopping block as a work surface, drizzle olive oil all over the lamb and rub with pepper. Stuff every nook of leg of lamb with garlic and herbs. Transfer to a large glass container that you can use to marinate. Combine orange juice and white wine in a small bowl and pour into the container to marinate the lamb. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge overnight. Make sure you turn over the lamb after several hours to soak the other side.
2. When ready to cook, remove the lamb from the fridge and let rest at room temperature. Arrange two racks in the oven: the middle rack to hold the lamb and the lower rack to hold a roasting pan to catch the drippings. (Spread chopped carrots, parsnips and onions in the pan for some roasted veggies to go with the lamb.) Preheat oven to 425º. Place the empty aluminum foil-lined roasting pan in the oven while the oven is pre-heating.
3. Cook the lamb. Remove the lamb from the container and pat dry with paper towels. Generously salt and pepper all sides of the lamb. Place directly on middle rack of the oven; the roasting pan below will catch the drippings. Roast for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 300º and roast an additional hour, or about 10 minutes per pound. Using a meat thermometer, the thickest part of the lamb must be around 135º for medium-rare. Let stand for half an hour before carving. Use just the drippingsand/or the roasted veggies to serve with the lamb.

Related post/s:
Order your leg of lamb from Ehrhardt Farm via Dickson’s Farmstand
My growing list of lamb and veal recipes
Lefover lamb can turn into a delicious salad

I am so sick of turkey leftovers that I’m going to gag if I think about it one more time. After the gym tonight, I stopped by Whole Foods to pick up one lamb shank from the meat department. Surprisingly, one piece came out a little under $7.50 versus the exorbitant Whole Foods price I always tsk-tsk at.

This recipe is from Janna Gur’s beautiful cookbook, The Book of New Israeli Food. She’s well known as the editor of Israel’s leading food and wine magazine, Al Hashulchan Gastronomic Monthly, so I thought the recipes would be hard to make. I was surprised at how easy to understand they were even though I’m not familiar with Jewish customs.

Ras-El-Hanoot, or “Top of the Store”, is a Moroccan spice mixture used to season meat. Apparently, every spice vendor has his own secret formula on how to make it. In this version, I’ve eliminated 1 tbsp of aniseed because I just didn’t have any, so I doubled the fennel seed measurement instead. You can certainly substitute aniseed with one star anise plus a pinch of allspice powder.

This lamb dish is one leftover I wouldn’t mind having again and again.

Ingredients:
1 lamb shank
1 medium carrot, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
5 sprigs of parsley, chopped
1 quart chicken stock
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
2 thyme sprigs
salt, oil

For Ras-El-Hanoot mixture:
2 tbsps paprika
2 tbsps fennel seeds
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tbsp coriander seeds

1. Make Ras-El-Hanoot mixture by crushing all the ingredients together using a mortar and pestle. Set aside.
2. In a large Dutch oven, heat some oil over medium heat. Rub salt all over the lamb. Add the lamb shank and brown on all sides. Remove from pot when done.
3. In the same pot using the remaining oil, sauté garlic until brown and onions until soft. Add carrot, celery, parsley, bay leaf, thyme and the Ras-El-Hanoot mixture and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Return the lamb to the pot and bring to a boil again. Lower the heat, cover and cook for 1 hour. Turn over the lamb and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the meat is almost falling off the bone. Uncover the pot and cook for another 15 minutes to thicken the sauce.

Related post/s:
Buy your own copy of The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey from Amazon.com

Oh my goodness, I thought, as I caught a whiff of the lamb stew that had been simmering for almost three hours. I’ve been copying the Dr. in the kitchen lately and it was no different last night. After spending a nice weekend hiking outside and walking around the city, I was ready to sit in front of Mad Men and sulk with a warm bowl of stew on my lap. After he told me he was making lamb stew for dinner, I knew I had to do the same. It would have been better if I just watched him cook for us, but I wanted to do my own version and compete. The idea of adding corn came from a Mexican tripe stew we bought last week in east Harlem after a late night out.

I think mine had a good chance of winning.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds of lamb chuck chops
1 corn on the cob, chopped in 4 pieces
2 cups of red wine
2 cups of vegetable broth
a handful of parsley, chopped
2 sprigs of thyme
2 sprigs of mint
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red onion, chopped
2 tbsps paprika
2 bay leaves
oil, salt, pepper

1. Season lamb chuck chops with salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven, add some oil and brown all sides of the lamb. Remove from the pot and set aside.
2. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the used oil. Try to get the darkest bits out from the oil. In the remaining oil, sauté the garlic until light brown and the onions until soft. Add the paprika, thyme, parsley and bay leaves.
3. Return the browned lamb in the pot and add the red wine. Let boil and then lower the heat to simmer for 20 minutes or until the red wine has reduced. Stir in broth, cover the pot and simmer for up to 3 hours.
4. After 1 hour, add the corn. After the next hour, turn the corn just to make sure the other ends get some brown sauce in them, too. The meat should be falling off the bone by the third hour. Remove pot from heat, uncover and stir in mint leaves.

Related post/s:
Part of my Mother Hen project: omakase bento #21
My lamb ragu version came with video