Country-Style Lamb Ribs

I didn't see too many recipes out there for this cut of lamb, so I figured I'd post this because it was so incredibly good. (I just wish the photo illustrated that a little more clearly, but I was hungry!) It's pretty intuitive. Lamb loves rosemary and lemon, of course. If you see these ribs for sale: buy them! I used this recipe from The Hungry Mouse as inspiration.

4 or 5 meaty country-style lamb ribs

1/2 cup of red wine

a sprig of fresh rosemary

big fat clove of garlic

lemon zest

salt

pepper

Put the ribs in a glass pan, cover them in red wine, add smashed up garlic (use a garlic press to just about liquefy them), lemon zest, salt and pepper. Pull the leaves off the sprig of rosemary and bruise or shred them a little, and sprinkle over the ribs. Turn them around a bit to get covered in all that good stuff. Let them sit for at least an hour. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees at some point. Put the ribs in a new pan, and pour the juices over them. Don't use any oil, because there will be more than enough lamb fat. After an hour, pour off the juices, reserve, and return the ribs to the oven. When they are done let the meat sit and rest.

Meanwhile, I highly recommend putting the hot baking dish on a burner (it should have a little bit of lamb fat in it, if it doesn't, scoop a spoonful off the top of the reserved juices), slicing up some mushrooms, tossing them in and sauteeing them. If it gets dry, add a little of the reserved liquid (at this point, with the fat drained off).

Lamb Meatballs with Yogurt Sauce, Roasted Roots

I've always been a fan of local foods. I was raised that way. We ate fresh eggs from Fanello's and would often pick up some other goods, a fresh killed chicken, perhaps. There was Albert's, by the train station, where we would get delicious bottles of milk with cream on the top that us kids would fight over. There were farm stands during the summer to supplement Mom's great garden on our little 1/8th of an acre plot. We had a strawberry patch and blueberry bushes, a mulberry tree that I would climb and hide in to snack for hours in the summer, a Queen Anne cherry tree, and raspberries down the road behind the post office. We also picked mussels and dug for clams at the beach. We bought grass-fed hormone-free meat. We bought freshly caught fish from the harbor (although a dubious practice in hindsight). This was the seventies and eighties in (or on, as the locals might say) Long Island. Amazing, right? I was raised with really good food.

As I got older I stayed close to local food. I worked in the early 90's at a restaurant called Home which was all about locally sourced or foraged foods and wines. I also worked at a wine store that sold only New York wines, Vintage New York. So, I've always been involved in local, as many people have. It's not a really new concept. But it's a concept that has been getting a lot of interest lately, and I think that's amazing. In the past few months of immersing myself in the food blog world, which is dizzying to say the least, one of the things I've most been interested in is the diligence of some locavores. It's been invigorating for me, because it's pushed me to get more involved and be more diligent myself. I work a bit harder to check labels and make sure where my food is coming from. I'm less complacent. One of the things that's hard to swallow for me about sourcing more food locally is the cost. But there are ways. And then there are concessions to be made. They are usually worthwhile. And that feels good.

After I cooked this meal last night, I realized it was mostly local. I didn't even plan on it. But the lamb is from Pine Plains, as are the Pine Island onions and the Veritas Farms celery root and the Four Winds Farm parsnips. The yogurt wasn't, but it very easily could have been (I have a weakness for greek yogurt on sale!). I realized that with just a little more thought and attention to detail, maybe a little more legwork, you can eat a little more local. Which is better than not eating local at all.

*****

In the name of local foods, would you like to take this short survey that my friend is working on? Here's some information about it:

A small team of people dedicated to the promotion and expansion of local sustainable agriculture and food are looking to better understand food purchasing habits and desires. The team has been assigned a year-long business development project as part of their studies at Antioch New England’s “Green MBA” program. The information you provide will help the team develop their business idea which seeks to connect local sustainable and organic farmers to consumers. At this point the effort is a school project only, but the team believes that it may develop into an actual local/regional business that could be replicated across the country. A summary of their final business plan will be made available later in 2010.

Lamburgers with Green Tomato Chutney and Steamed Mussels and Leeks

Lunch

There's nothing like a local lamb burger, unless it's a lamburger with New York feta and some green tomato chutney from your own unfortunate blight ridden garden. When life gives you green tomatoes, make green tomato chutney!

Dinner

How good are mussels? When you get 2 lbs. of sustainably farmed mussels from RI for $3 you really cannot go wrong. Steamed in a bath of white wine and shrimp stock, butter, olive oil, leeks, red onion, a little hot red pepper and parsley, served with local bread slathered with VT butter. (Gives you a good excuse to eat practically a stick of butter.)

Greek Roasted Lamb and Potatoes

A couple of years ago (okay, more than a couple, but hey, who's counting?) I had the extreme good luck to get a New Year's visit from my friends Eve and Adam. Eve is an incredibly talented and intuitive cook who I've learned tons from. I often wish she'd start a blog cataloguing what she eats, because it's always the best stuff. She has turned me on to so many great things, from Hog Island oysters to Seattle's finest Dan Dan Noodles. When I lived with her in Oakland, Ca., she would take me everywhere. This was her home turf. I was a New Yorker, new to the Bay Area. Her curiosity and unrelenting spirit for all things good is unparalleled. Wine and cheese, falafels stuffed with french fries, Walnut Grove's best burger joint, the Cheese Board, Berkeley Bowl and Berkeley farmer's markets are just some things that come to mind from the distant past. A few years after the Greek New Year's we had, they visited again. This time Eve packed her suitcase to fly across the country with the most incredible oysters I've ever had, Totten Virginicas. I mean, need I say more?

Back then on that New Year's Day, Eve showed me how to make a Greek New Year's Day meal. I wish I had documentation from that day so long ago, but all I have are some scattered doodles on notecards. I'm sure I've lost some nuances but I'm never disappointed, so I'm doing something right. Right now I'm nursing the first of the year's colds, so I won't go into detail, but we had a lovely local lamb roast, with lemon potatoes, creamy tzatziki, and feta. This is somewhat truncated (what? no olives??) but we relished it nonetheless.

Thanks, Eve! And, Chronia Polla!