Easter Lamb

[OSOBUCO]

I dressed out and cubed a beautiful New Zealand leg of lamb for an exotic Easter Curry and I have some chops marinating in olive oil rosemary thyme garlic and lemon zest for the grill. Chops will pair with asparagus and curry over basmati. Now I need to decide the wine.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Remember the bitter herbs and multiple cups of wine.

 

[monty55]

Marvelous! It should be scrumptious! Take a pic of the final product.

I like to marinate my lamb chops in balsamic vinegar, rosemary, garlic and a lot of fresh ground black pepper. On the med-high grill for 4 minutes a side. Yummy!

 

[mso489]

Ooo-la-la. We were going to do lamb stew, but the butcher failed us, so we'll have ribeye steak, which is nothing to cry about. I think we'll chill some sparkling wine. My wife can't drink much because of meds, so I can't figure out how we finish off the bottles we open. It may occur to me.

 

[OSOBUCO]

 

[kcghost]

Man, that looks scrumptious.

 

[karam]

Not much fat or connective tissue on this lamb, hope the marinade helped keep it moist and soft.

I love a lamb curry once in a while, but as a Greek anything other than coal-roasted lamb in Easter (next week for us) is sacrilege!

 

[paulfg]

spit roast lamb you said,roll on next weekend

 

[karam]

I'm in Switzerland! Although they grill a lot over here, I imagine doing something like this would cause them to call the animal protection agency or something :P

Actually, between me and my brothers we decided a few years back that besides the folklore and our childhood experiences, our charcoal "setup" was not doing the job, and convinced our dad to allows us to install something like the below. It takes time to get going, going from twigs to progressively larger pieces of wood, but when it is ready it keeps hot forever, and delivers meltingly good meat.

 

[mikethompson]

That curry looks very good @OSOBUCO , and @karam, spit roasted lamb sounds incredible.

 

[OSOBUCO]

Not much fat or connective tissue on this lamb, hope the marinade helped keep it moist and soft.

I love a lamb curry once in a while, but as a Greek anything other than coal-roasted lamb in Easter (next week for us) is sacrilege!

I been cooking lamb for a good 25 years. I did not marinate this at all and it turned out perfectly tender. I always try to use a New Zealand leg in my curries. The key is to sear it it quickly in very hot olive oil and then cook on low heat and don't cook it too long. - oh...and I am not a Greek but I studied it - o filos estin allos autos

 

[karam]

I'm not familiar with NZ lamb, although you do find it in Greek supermarkets. For me it's ridiculous to buy lamb from basically as far as it gets on the planet when our local is incredible.

That's a thread I did last year: Prepping for Greek Easter :: Food & Drink - https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/prepping-for-greek-easter.83831/

I prefer meats from older animals, mutton and 2+ year goat can be found relatively easily in Greece (now living in Switzerland, forget it, meat is absurdly expensive). But further still, I absolutely love meat from old male animals, like billy goat and ram, however these come from studs and you need to have a well-connected butcher who will take on preparing and aging it, otherwise it's inedible (similar to wild boar).

 

[paulfg]

my goat and lamb as well as beef are raised by a family in the village and if I look out of my house window I can see the stable where they are unofficially slaughtered.
this week there will be a constant stream of people collecting their Easter meat.
Cant get much more local than that

 

[karam]

my goat and lamb as well as beef are raised by a family in the village and if I look out of my house window I can see the stable where they are unofficially slaughtered.
this week there will be a constant stream of people collecting their Easter meat.
Cant get much more local than that

Probably very good, right? But the Greek obsession with "fresh" meat sounds like it's at play there too. Meat needs a minimum of a week hanging. My butcher in Athens, whom I trusted 100%, even refused - or recommended against - me buying a piece of meat as it was "too fresh". That's 100% respecting your client, he knows I like aged meat, and a piece slaughtered 2-3 days ago would taste too green for me, so he let it go to less discerning customers

 

[paulfg]

Probably very good, right? But the Greek obsession with "fresh" meat sounds like it's at play there too. Meat needs a minimum of a week hanging. My butcher in Athens, whom I trusted 100%, even refused - or recommended against - me buying a piece of meat as it was "too fresh". That's 100% respecting your client, he knows I like aged meat, and a piece slaughtered 2-3 days ago would taste too green for me, so he let it go to less discerning customers

they do have walk in fridges and will keep meat for you,but yes a lot is sold very fresh.