You’ve Bought Some Lamb. Now What?

Hi everyone!

So you’ve ordered some lamb from Lucky Dog Farm. First off, THANK YOU!!

Maybe you’ve got ground lamb coming. Maybe you’re getting stew meat. Maybe the merguez called your name.

And in a couple of weeks, you’ll pull into the farm, pick up your package, and bring it home.

And then you may find yourself standing in your kitchen thinking:

Okay, Judith. What am I supposed to do with this?

First of all: don’t be intimidated.

I think lamb sometimes gets a reputation for being fussy or fancy. Maybe that’s because we tend to see it on restaurant menus alongside words like reduction and purée.

But that’s not how I think about lamb.

I think about sheep out on pasture. I think about feeding my family and neighbors. I think about dinner on a Tuesday night.

And I think lamb should be easy to cook.

Ground lamb: treat it like ground beef

If you know what to do with ground beef, you’ll already know most of what you need to know about ground lamb.

Make burgers.

Brown it with onions and garlic and put it over rice.

Use it for tacos.

Add it to pasta sauce.

Make shepherd’s pie.

Or do what I often do on the farm: open the refrigerator, see what needs to be used up, and figure something out.

Ground lamb has enough flavor that you won't need to do much to it. I love it with garlic, onion, rosemary, thyme, oregano—or my Lucky Dog Farm herb mix, of course.

One of my favorite easy dinners is ground lamb browned with onions and garlic, seasoned with herbs, and served over roasted potatoes or rice with whatever green vegetable happens to be hanging around.

Nothing fancy.

Just good food.

Stew meat: put it in a pot and let time do the work

Stew meat will be your friend when you want dinner to take care of itself.

Brown the lamb first if you have the time. Then add onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes, broth, and herbs and let it simmer away. Add a bottle of dark beer if you have it—Guinness is a natural here. I like one for the stew, one for the cook, but that’s just me.

Or take it in a completely different direction with tomatoes, chickpeas, cumin, coriander, and a little cinnamon. Some chopped dried apricots really give it a Middle-Eastern flair; when I made this recipe for David when we were first dating, he became an immediate lamb fan.

There isn't really a “right” lamb stew. That's one of the things I like about it.

And please don't worry if your stew looks a little different every time you make it. Mine does.

The important part is low and slow.

Give those little pieces of lamb some time, and they'll become tender and wonderfully rich.

And, as with most stews, I think it will taste even better the next day.

Merguez: when you want dinner without thinking too hard

This is where I have to admit something:

I love food that makes me look like I worked harder than I actually did.

That's one of the reasons I love my merguez.

It's already seasoned with that wonderful mix of North African-inspired spices, so you won't have to do much.

Brown it in a skillet and put it alongside eggs.

Throw it on the grill.

Slice it up with roasted vegetables.

Put it over couscous with a little yogurt.

Add it to beans.

I love it with homemade biscuits and apple chutney that I make every year and keep in my freezer. That's a perfectly respectable dinner in my book.

And once you have merguez in the freezer, you'll have an emergency dinner waiting for you—which, around here, is sometimes a very useful thing to have.

One thing I want you to know before you pick it up

You don't need a special occasion to eat lamb.

I've watched people buy local meat and then tuck it into the freezer for some future dinner when they will have more time, more energy, better ingredients, and perhaps a slightly more organized life.

I say: eat the lamb.

Tuesday night is a special occasion.

So is Wednesday.

Make the burgers. Make the stew. Fry up the merguez. Use whatever you've got.

And if you bring your lamb home from Lucky Dog Farm and find yourself wondering what on earth to do with it, ask me.

That's one of the best parts of selling food directly from the farm. You're not buying a mysterious package from a distant supply chain. You're buying from a farmer who knows the sheep, knows the meat, and probably has a few ideas about what to do with it.

Send me an email. Tell me what cut you bought and what you've got in the refrigerator.

I'll help you figure out dinner.

Because ultimately, that's what all of this is about for me.

Sheep out on pasture.

Good food raised here in South Strafford.

And something delicious on your table.

Your lamb is coming. Start thinking about dinner. And Enjoy!!

Happy cooking,

Farmer Judith