Veal/Lamb Recipes

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sassy

Assistant Cook
Joined
Feb 16, 2006
Messages
45
I've never made or even eaten veal or lamb before but would love to try. Are there any good recipes out there for a beginner?
 
Veal is a VERY mild meat--it needs the flavor of its sauces or a lot of garlic as in veal marsala, etc. It is also very expensive.
Lamb, on the other hand, expensive also, is a sort of meat that most people either love it or hate it--very little wiggle room in the middle. It does have a very distinctive flavor.
If I were you I would get a nice pair of lamb loin chops, marinate them in some olive oil, garlic and rosemary and grill them over charcoal, preferably.
Serve withsome nice roasted new potatoes, a green salad and some peas or asparagus--a restaurant meal you would pay big bucks for.
See how you like that.
For veal, veal marsala is VERY good. Veal cutlets need to be pounded for tenderness, cooked VERY quickly and not over cooked or they will be dry and tough.
 
Great Greek Meatballs!!

Ingredients:
1 lb hamburger or ground lamb
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 parsely
1 small onion, greated or chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper


Directions:
mix all ingredients together

shape in to balls

roll in flour

fry in good olive oil!!

eat

enjoy

ask for more
 
Braised Lamb Shanks with Leeks & Mushrooms

sassy said:
I've never made or even eaten veal or lamb before but would love to try. Are there any good recipes out there for a beginner?
As Gretchen mentioned, veal and lamb are usually pretty expensive. However, with regards to lamb, the fore shank is usually the least expensive and yield a lot of meat. When they are braised the meat is very, very tender. I sort of came up with this on my own. Since eating lamb shanks can be rather awkward (they're about the size of a turkey drumstick) I decided to remove most of the meat from the bone at the end of braising and serve it sort of like a stew. You don't have to do that, of course. If you thicken the sauce enough you can just serve it over the whole shanks.

Braised Lamb Shanks with Leeks & Mushrooms

2 lamb fore shanks (about 3 pounds total)
olive oil for browning the shanks
2 leeks, well washed and chopped (white part only)
1/2 lb. white mushrooms, sliced
1 sweet onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1-2 c. vegetable or chicken broth as needed
1/2 c. wine (light red or white, either one is fine)
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 - 1 tsp. dried marjoram

Brown the lamb shanks in oil until browned on all sides, with a little onion and garlic thrown in towards the end of browning. Add the wine (your choice, white or light red, nothing heavy like port) and 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth. Toss in the leeks and sliced mushrooms. Season with salt, pepper and marjoram. Cover and simmer on low heat until shanks are tender, about 1-1/2 hours, adding more broth if needed (you don't want the liquid to cook away).

Remove the shanks and veggies (slotted spoon) and thicken the sauce with a cornstarch slurry (1 Tbs. cornstarch + 2-3 Tbs. cold water). Remove meat from shanks and return to the pan along with the veggies. (Reserve the meaty bones for soup later - like Scotch Broth which is a lamb & barley soup.) Heat lamb mixture briefly in the sauce; adjust seasonings to taste.

Fraidy
 
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Gretchen said:
Veal is a VERY mild meat--it needs the flavor of its sauces or a lot of garlic as in veal marsala, etc. It is also very expensive.
Lamb, on the other hand, expensive also, is a sort of meat that most people either love it or hate it--very little wiggle room in the middle. It does have a very distinctive flavor.
If I were you I would get a nice pair of lamb loin chops, marinate them in some olive oil, garlic and rosemary and grill them over charcoal, preferably.
Serve withsome nice roasted new potatoes, a green salad and some peas or asparagus--a restaurant meal you would pay big bucks for.
See how you like that.
For veal, veal marsala is VERY good. Veal cutlets need to be pounded for tenderness, cooked VERY quickly and not over cooked or they will be dry and tough.

If you're going to do lamb chops my vote is also for the lamb loin chops. If you can't grill them you can broil them.

As for veal, Veal Picatta is excellent. Off the top of my head: After pounding the cutlets (don't beat the c*** out of them!) lightly dredge them in plain dried breadcrumbs seasoned with salt & pepper. Brown them quickly in olive oil along with a little chopped garlic. Remove cutlets and keep warm. Deglaze the pan with a little white wine and stir in the juice of one small lemon and stir to blend. Cook this mixture for a minute; thicken with a cornstarch slurry if sauce needs thickening. Spoon the sauce over the cutlets to serve.

The "picatta" method also works just fine for chicken breast halves which have been pounded flat or chicken or turkey cutlets.

Fraidy
 
While I LOVE lamb shanks, they are also expensive and time consuming to fix since it needs to be a long slow braise. But that is not the principal reason I suggested a chop. Just find out right away if the meat is to your liking. A chop will do it. Shanks can also be a bit more "tasty" (read gamey).
 
Gretchen said:
While I LOVE lamb shanks, they are also expensive and time consuming to fix since it needs to be a long slow braise. But that is not the principal reason I suggested a chop. Just find out right away if the meat is to your liking. A chop will do it. Shanks can also be a bit more "tasty" (read gamey).
Of course! I already know I love lamb :) But where I live for some reason the shanks are usually cheaper than a package of chops (they sell the chops in packs of 2 or 4). A month or so ago I did run across a lamb leg steak, which I'd never seen before. Just had one small round bone right in the middle. It was cheaper than anything else, even a pound of hamburger :huh: so I bought it. I marinated it in a little white wine, a dash of olive oil, minced garlic, dried rosemary and salt & pepper. Did it on my stovetop grill, medium-rareish. (It's important not to overcook cuts like chops.) It was tasty! It was also big enough for me to get two meals out of it.
 
FraidKnot said:
Of course! I already know I love lamb :) But where I live for some reason the shanks are usually cheaper than a package of chops (they sell the chops in packs of 2 or 4). A month or so ago I did run across a lamb leg steak, which I'd never seen before. Just had one small round bone right in the middle. It was cheaper than anything else, even a pound of hamburger :huh: so I bought it. I marinated it in a little white wine, a dash of olive oil, minced garlic, dried rosemary and salt & pepper. Did it on my stovetop grill, medium-rareish. (It's important not to overcook cuts like chops.) It was tasty! It was also big enough for me to get two meals out of it.

Lamb shanks are usually in the neighborhood of $3-5.99/lb. here so one is $6+ which makes a hearty serving.
You can ask your supermarket to sell you the number of chops you want, unless they are packaged in that factory sealed type of tray package that has taken hold in mass market stores.
That leg chop is a tasty cut also. LOVE lamb.
 
Gretchen said:
Lamb shanks are usually in the neighborhood of $3-5.99/lb. here so one is $6+ which makes a hearty serving.
You can ask your supermarket to sell you the number of chops you want, unless they are packaged in that factory sealed type of tray package that has taken hold in mass market stores.
That leg chop is a tasty cut also. LOVE lamb.

I hate those supermarket already in the tray package. They don't give you much of a choice with lamb. Yes, that leg chop was very tasty and served up two meals for me along with mashed potatoes and peas :) I love lamb but I suppose it's an aquired taste. You either love it or hate it. I adore Shepherd's Pie. Not to be confused with Cottage Pie, which can use anything from ground beef to chicken to turkey, but is the same principle :)

Fraidy <--feeling nostalgic, listening to Thomas Newman's compostion from 'Braveheart' and remembering Grandma Douglas Brown's cooking scones and meat pies
 
hate those supermarket already in the tray package. They don't give you much of a choice with lamb.

Just to be clear, I was referring to the WalMart foods style of packaging that is all pre-done. All of our regular supermarkets break down any package in their case to what you want to buy--one or two chops, etc. Yours will also, won't they?
 
All in all, I am also have the opinion that lamb chops would be the easiest lamb dish to prepare and the loin would certainly be the best cut for chops. I have read the various suggestions for marinating the chops and to this I would like to add that marination normally would be necessary only to the extent of allowing spices to penetrate the meat for an even taste. I do not think that marinating liquids/sauces are really necessary. If they are meant to alter the natural taste of lamb meat, you should probably not be cooking lamb at all.

If you have the option choose as young an animal as possible. This is so because what is marketed as lamb in the U.S. is not really lamb (milk-fed animal) but mutton (just matured animal). The latter has a very strong taste indeed. Over here, lamb chops would be seasoned with salt and pepper only, preferably the night before grilling, and a light sprinkling of lemon juice after they come off the grill. Mutton is not eaten at all and it is used exclusively for making sausage.
 
Gretchen said:
hate those supermarket already in the tray package. They don't give you much of a choice with lamb.

Just to be clear, I was referring to the WalMart foods style of packaging that is all pre-done. All of our regular supermarkets break down any package in their case to what you want to buy--one or two chops, etc. Yours will also, won't they?

I've never shopped at Super WalMart (those are the ones with the "grocery store", right?) so I wouldn't know. Where I shop (Schnuck's, which is a regional chain out of St. Louis, MO, bought out the Albertson's stores when they couldn't make a go of it in the Memphis area!) I sometimes have to ask if they have lamb shanks. And the butcher goes in the back and if they do, they do, if they don't, they don't. Lamb isn't exactly a big seller in Tennessee. But I do love lamb.

For my boyfriends' high school prom (we're talking 30 years ago!) we went to dinner with his best friend and his best friends' girlfriend at Paulette's, a Continental French Restaurant. We ordered lamb kabobs (medium rare per the server's suggestion) on a bed of rice pilaf with sauteed spring vegetables. Delicious! Unfortunately, Paulette's appears to have gone by the wayside. I just checked; the number has been disconnected and there is no new listing. What a shame. :(

Fraidy
 
Veal has a very mellow flavor. I love it with sauces that have a creamy side to them (either by flavor or texture).

Lamb definetly has a distinct flavor that you either love or hate (garlic & rosemary complement it well). Not sure if the lamb I buy is truely lamb or older mutton, but I like very specific preparations. I always introduce people to lamb with a greek pizza-house style gyro common in New England (but higher quality!). I make an herbed meatloaf (which I roast), and then slice into soft flatbread with some diced tomato, onion, and cucumber/garlic-yogurt sauce (tzatziki). Alton Brown has a decent recipe on Foodtv.com.

I also break up my lamb shanks into the braising liqiud rather than serve a big 'ole leg to someone. Whole Foods has New Zealand Lamb Shanks for $4.99/lb, with each shank being betweem 0.75 and 1.25lbs.
 
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Gretchen said:
hate those supermarket already in the tray package. They don't give you much of a choice with lamb.

Just to be clear, I was referring to the WalMart foods style of packaging that is all pre-done. All of our regular supermarkets break down any package in their case to what you want to buy--one or two chops, etc. Yours will also, won't they?
Heh. Let me tell you a little story. Back in 1999, right on the anniversary of Y2K (thank goodness the world didn't end!)... I wanted 1/4 pound of ground pork to make Thai steamed dumplings, which is one of my signature dishes. So I went to the grocery store. Hmmm, no ground pork. I asked the butcher, could you grind me some pork? He said no, don't we have any of that pre-wrapped Hormel stuff out there? Um, no.

He said sorry, since we were bought out by Albertson's we aren't allowed to grind our own meat anymore. He then went into a diatriabe about how he'd been a butcher for 20 years but they (the company) didn't seem to think he'd know how to clean the grinder between grinding different types of meat. He was so very angry about it he went in the back, ground some nice lean pork for me and slapped a label on it that just said "meat". And he said, "Have a Happy New Year!" God bless him! By the way, Albertson's pulled out of the Memphis area a year later. Couldn't make a go of it. I wonder why? :rolleyes: The customer doesn't always want cryovac'd meat, that's why!

But to answer your question, no they can't always offer a single chop. That lamb leg cut was tasty, though. And a bargain!

Fraidy
 
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Gretchen said:
hate those supermarket already in the tray package. They don't give you much of a choice with lamb.

Just to be clear, I was referring to the WalMart foods style of packaging that is all pre-done. All of our regular supermarkets break down any package in their case to what you want to buy--one or two chops, etc. Yours will also, won't they?
Only if they have it on hand. Doesn't matter anyway; I can't afford lamb right now unless I luck into a deal like that leg steak I found in October. I've been unemployed since April, 2004 :eek: not for lack of sending out resumes, posting my resume on two "career" web sites, applying for jobs for which I'm over-qualified (clerking at retail establishments). There just isn't much out there for a middle-aged woman. They don't want to hire someone who expects a living wage when they can hire someone right out of (or still in) college who (a) still lives at home or (b) has a couple of roommates and thinks $18K is a great deal of money!
 
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Instructions

  1. 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening, 2 pounds fillet of veal, 1/2 cup cream, 4 tablespoons flour, 1 large onion, 1 carrot, seasoning, 12 preserved mushrooms, and 12 whole peppers.
  2. Cut veal into square pieces, put them into stewpan with enough cold water to cover, bring it to boil, and skim well; add salt to taste, onion cut in quarters, carrot, whole peppers; cook gently 1 hour.
  3. Take up meat, strain stock, and measure off 1 pint.
  4. Melt vegetable shortening in stewpan, stir in flour, add stock; boil and skim; cook for a few minutes.
  5. Add mushrooms, cut in slices, and cream; put in pieces of veal; make hot, but do not boil again; season nicely, dish up, sprinkle little chopped parsley over, and serve.
 
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