Cooking Lamb, Easier and More Delicious Than Expected

As I had posted not long ago, I finally gave in to my husband's nudgings requests and bought some lamb to cook for Rosh Hashanah.

Considering the size of my oven and the size of the smallest piece of lamb I could pull out of the freezer in Rami Levy, you can see that I had a major logistics problem to solve if I was going to get some lamb on our Rosh Hashanah table.

Obviously, I had to find a way to carve it up before cooking it, and I don't have an electric saw!

I attacked cut/carved it with the limited tools in my kitchen and came up with a few pieces that  could somehow suit my very limited needs. I did try rinsing off the pieces, but I didn't do the usual soaking as my custom with poultry and beef. I presume that's why, even though I hadn't added any salt, the cooked lamb was salty.

I managed to cut it into two basic types of pieces, one type for baking, and the other for a stew*. I then wrapped up those to be baked in foil adding just the dry rosemary my husband had picked up (since all the recipes I found included it) and pieces of fresh garlic.

I then baked them on a high heat until the house smelled of lamb, rather delicious, and I could see the baking tray filling with fat that had dripped out of the lamb. I trusted that to be the sign that it had fully and safely baked. Remember that I don't use timers, and my oven doesn't have numbers.

The pieces looked like they'd feed a mob. The aroma of the baked lamb made us very hungry, but I put one large piece in the freezer and prepared the others so they could be heated up on the electric "platta" hotplate on Rosh Hashanah.

OK, now, you're waiting for a report no doubt. Of course, we have no photos of the cooked lamb. Most important was that it was finger-licking delicious. I ate from the boniest pieces making a point of saying that my father and brother, who both died just a few months ago, would have claimed those bone for themselves and enjoyed them. And something I must take into account next time I make lamb, and yes, I do plan a next time, is that there was much less lamb than expected from the weight and expense. I don't know how much was due to the freezing, which adds water, or was it the fat that had dripped out. Of course, it could also be the weight of the bones. So, next time, we'll try to buy from a different source and not frozen, even though it will cost more. Recommendations in Jerusalem are welcome, thanks.

So, if you, too, haven't cooked lamb, do not fear, it's not hard.

PS the mint sauce was fine, too.

*lamb stew to be blogged about at a later date Gd willing