What I don’t understand is how on the one hand I can’t drive five minutes from my house on any given day without passing a flock of sheep, yet the price of lamb in this country is so high. Especially when you get an entire forequarter; they don’t do anything to it except wrap it and freeze it, so why the premium price?
If you do get a lamb forequarter, this is an easy way to enjoy a little bit of the lamb. Think of it as a personal appetizer for the hours your going to be working over the main attraction. No one’s going to miss the neck, right? And just maybe if someone’s extra helpful in the kitchen, they’ll get a taste.
Then again, maybe not.
Thankfully, this is not a terribly involved or complicated recipe. The tricky parts are all about the butchering. And since it’s a stew anyway, you don’t need much finesse. Be careful when separating the bones that your knife doesn’t slip, and use a heavy enough knife that you’re not going to snap the blade. You simply need to work the knife into the space between the bones and twist the knife so the bones separate. Then cut around to release them from the ligaments.
Lamb Neck
Starting with the neck of a lamb (which I cut from a whole lamb forequarter), trim away the fat covering.
Separating the Meat from the Bones
Using a paring knife, slice away the meat covering the neck bones.
Separating the Neck Bones
Separate the neck bones at the joints
Separate the Components
Reserve the fat for rendering. Cut the meat up into small cubes.
Brown the Meat
Heat a deep pot with a little drizzle of oil. When the oil begins to shimmer, put the bones into the pot Brown for five minutes. Add the meat. Brown for another five minutes
Add the Aromatics
Add carrots, potatoes, onions, fennel, salt, pepper, and a bay leaf. Cover the meat and vegetables with red wine.
Slow Simmer
Cook the stew over a medium low heat for 90 minutes, stirring occasionally.
What do you consider expensive? I buy my full 1/4 lamb, including approx 9-10 kilos of neck, shoulder, ribs and chops for 60 ILS/kg at Yeynot Bitan. I think that's a pretty good deal.
60 is cheaper… my buthcher charges somewhere around 80 to 90 per kilo….of course I dont buy the whole lamb just parts
Meat!!!!!
Yeynot Bitan has a 1/4 lamb right now for 70 ILS/kg. But my Meat Tracker spreadsheet tells me that 3 out of the last five sales have been for 60 ILS/kg. Waiting for the next sale could save you up to 100 shekels on the whole piece.
I usually have them remove the shoulder and I break it down the way I like from there. I remove the steaks/chops from the top of the rack. I take as little rib as possible when I separate them. I cut them into nice thick steaks for grilling. Then I remove the "brisket" and that leaves me with a nice, big thick rack of ribs.
So for about 540 shekels I get 8 steaks, a full rack of ribs, a breast/brisket, a shoulder, and a neck and shank for stew/maqlubeh.
I"ll have to check it out the next time I'm in Modiin.. I'm in the Jlem area.
60 shekels is still expensive for ten seconds on a band saw and maybe an hour of nikkur. You probably spend the better part of an hour breaking it down but you were the one doing it, not the butcher.
I'm in the middle of writing the followup posts to this one: Boning a lamb shoulder and Boneless Lamb Shoulder Roast.
That is very cheap Yoel. What hechsher is it and where does the lamb come from?
Okay, I fixed the spazzed out recipe and put a link to it. Apparently the photo album and recipe template aren't playing well together. A problem for another time.
Wm Steve Adams, I'm getting closer to your request for a duck recipe…