Lamb of the Spring

Lamb Chops Bermuda

Season 6 thick shoulder lamb chops with salt and pepper and sauté them in good fat on both sides until goldenbrown. Drain off the fat. Add 6 onions, sliced, and 2 dtps stock or water and cook gently for 25 to 30 minutes. Add 12 Bermuda potatoes, sliced, and 2 teaspoons chopped parsley. Correct the seasoning and continue to cook for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the potatoes are done.

Lamb Chops Louise

Follow the recipe for lamb chops Bermuda and about 10 minutes before the cooking is finished, add 6 tomatoes, peeled, halved, and seeded.

Côtelettes d' Agneau Ménagère (Lamb Chops Family Style)

Season 6 thick shoulder lamb chops with salt and pepper and saute them in good fat on both sides until goldenbrown. Put them in a large saucepan with 2 leeks, chopped, 3 potatoes, sliced. 1 large onion, sliced, a clove of garlic. crushed, 1 quart white stock or water, 1 teaspoon salt, and a little pepper. Cook for 25 to 30 minutes.

Remove the chops to another pan and cover them with the following vegetables: 3 new carrots, sliced and parboiled for a few minutes, 2 onions, sliced, 1 to 2 cups green beans, cut in pieces. 3 potatoes, sliced. 3 stalks of celery, chopped, I to 2 cups fresh peas, and 2 small white turnips, sliced and parboiled for a few minutes. Rub the cooking liquid from the first pan through a fine sieve into a bowl and skim off the fat. Correct the seasoning with salt and pour the liquid over the meal and vegetables. Add 1 teaspoon chopped parsley and cook for 35 minutes longer, or until the vegetables are done.

For a stew that is a little different, I am giving you the recipe for one which has always been very popular at the Ritz Carlton, which is. in fact, a spécialité de la maison. It is very delicate because the sauce is a light one, thickened only with the starch of potatoes.

Irish Stew Ritz Carlton

Cut about 2 ½ pounds of lean lamb, preferably the lower ribs or shoulder, in fairly large pieces, which allows 2 to 3 pieces for each serving. Put the meat in a saucepan with enough water to cover and parboil for 5 minutes. Pour off the water and rinse the meat with cold water. Return it to the saucepan and add 1½ quarts hot water, 3 large onions, chopped, 3 large potatoes, chopped. 3 leeks. chopped, 1 clove of garlic, crushed, 3 stalks of celery, chopped, 2 teaspoons Salt, and a little pepper. Bring to a boil and cook for about 1 hour.

Lift our the meat and pur it in another pan, arranging on top 18 small white onions, 18 small potatoes, 12 small white turnips, and 18 tiny new carrots, all cleaned and peeled. Strain the cooking liquid, forcing through as much of the cooked vegetables as possible, correct the seasoning, and remove the fat. Pour this over the raw vegetables and cook for 45 minutes, or until the meat is done. Some green peas or green beans, cut in pieces, may also be added. Serve generously sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Two more lamb dishes that may be new to you are kebab and bpigramme, both of them crisp in character because they arc not cooked with a sauce.

Kebab of Lamb

Cut the tenderloin or any tender part of lamb into small pieces about 3/8 inch thick. Put them on a metal skewer with slices of onions and pieces of bay leaf. adding alternate square pieces of bacon and mushrooms between the pieces of lamb. Season with salt and pepper and marinate in oil for 1 to 2 hours. Broil under a hot fire until the meal is well browned all over. Serve with cooked rice or groats and tomato sauce.

Epigrammes d' Agneau (Breast of Lamb in Chops)

Boil 2 to 3 pounds of breast of lamb in seasoned water until tender. Remove all the bones and cool the meat on a platter with another platter on top, weighted down, to flatten the meat and press our the surplus fat. Cut the cold lamb in pieces about as large as chops and dip them in beaten egg and then in fine white bread crumbs. Cut an equal number of pieces of lamb cutlet to the same size and thickness and bread them in the same way. Grill the lamb under a moderate fire until the pieces are goldenbrown on both sides; or sauté them in butter. Alternate and overlap the breast and cutler pieces on a heated serving platter and garnish with any desired vegetable.

Finally, what to do with leftover lamb? It is usually the roasted leg that is left, because this is too large for many families to ear at one meal. A roast should not be recooked, or perhaps I should say it should be reheated only enough to be appetizingly hot. Long recooking of meat toughens it, and the flavor is never good. Hash is an excellent solution, and I can also recommended very highly:

Les Dessertes d' Agneau (Leftover Lamb au Gratin)

Slice the meat and overlap the pieces on a heatproof baking dish, spreading each slice with purée soubise or purée of mushrooms. Sprinkle with fine white crumbs and a little melted butter. Put in a moderately hot oven (400° F.) and bake until the crumbs have browned. The meat should be hot enough to cat but not actually cooked.