There's a sweet and sour story behind this Sweet and Sour Lamb Stew.
Every year just before Easter I begin to think about lamb dishes. Maybe you do to. Most of my lamb fantasies involve big, whole legs of lamb. The kind with a frenched bone sticking out one end, looking like something Fred Flintstone would pack in his lunch pail over at Slate Rock and Gravel Company.
Like Fred, I idealize a good piece of meat and generally believe that bone-in cuts are superior. Give me a bone-in rib-eye over its boneless brethren any day. I wouldn't think about braising a pork butt without the shoulder bone.
Unfortunately when it comes to bone-in leg of lamb, my Yabba Dabba Doo fantasies are just that – fantasies. Because a bone-in leg of lamb seems to resist my attempts at the rosy pink consistent results I dream about, and I don't know why.
I've tried high heat and low heat. I've seared, I've barbecued and I've roasted. But mostly – I've failed. Yes, I've read all about internal cooking temperatures, and I can work an instant-read thermometer. Still, I've never been able to achieve a consistently cooked, tender and juicy, bone-in leg of lamb. It's that inconsistency that scares me off the cut. The bone-in varieties can run $60 or more for a 5 to 6 pound leg. Which is a lot of money to risk for inconsistent results.
The good news is I've learned from my mistakes, or maybe I should say I've succumbed to them. These days I don't even try to cook bone-in leg of lamb anymore, but I refuse to give up on roasted leg of lamb entirely. Especially since a boneless leg of lamb is so easy to roast.
Which means I have a choice. I can pay even bigger bucks to a butcher to de-bone or butterfly the meat for me, or I can learn to do it myself.
Naturally I chose the latter. Which isn't to say that I have learned to do it quite yet. However I'm on the road, and it's a bumpy road. That's the sour part of my story today.
[post id="20454" name="2012 Frank Family Napa Valley Zinfandel" ]
Sweet and Sour Lamb Stew
This delicious Sweet and Sour Lamb Stew came to my table last week after I destroyed a perfectly good leg of lamb while practicing my de-boning skills. You see I'm determined to bring a stuffed and roasted boneless leg of lamb to our Easter celebration in Palm Springs this weekend. So several weeks ago I bought the smallest leg of lamb I could find. I sharpened my knife, I located the loin, the shank, and the joint that marries the two. I plunged in my knife and I got to work. I was feeling confident at the start, but somehow without noticing I disconnected the loin completely while the bone was still buried deep inside the shank. In other words, I failed.
I'm sure you can guess what I did next. I chopped that leg into bite-sized chunks and got to work on this Sweet and Sour Lamb Stew. I pretended to myself that Sweet and Sour Lamb Stew had been my intention all along.
I realize it sounds like I'm making excuses, but that's not my intention. This is a leg-to-stew, lemons-to-lemonade story of perseverance, and it has a sweet ending. The Sweet and Sour Lamb Stew is really, really good. The tomato broth is refreshing, and appropriate to the season, with a gentle acidity balanced by the sweetness of the raisins. The lamb is succulent and rich and suffused with flavor. It's a perfect partner to the Frank Family Napa Valley Zinfandel we paired it with, and I have no regrets regarding this stew.
Though I do want you to know there's another leg of lamb chilling in my refrigerator right now and I intend to try again. Easter is just three days away. I'll let you know if we have stew again or not. GREG
Sweet and Sour Lamb Stew
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