Spring Lamb

A familiar expression to all of us! It appears on menus, we read about it, we hear it and yet we do not quiet understand. Yes, lambs are born in the springs for the most part and some are born in the fall. Spring lamb is an animal that is not older than 8 months and no younger than 6 months.

So lambs that we are eating, at this time of the year, were born either in the spring, butcher at 6 or 8 months, then the meat kept frozen like we do, as we buy 1 or 2 lambs a year direct from the farm, or fresh meat is from lambs born in the fall and butcher in the spring for various holidays coming up.

The meat is one of easiest red meat to digest, very nutritional, lean, despite what we hear about it. It is a young animal, so it is tender, the fat is mostly around the outside, easy to cook with a very sweet flavors.

Now, we have to get over the fact that lamb had, still does for some people, a reputation of being very strong. That came from the time when our older generation(s) who spent time in Europe experienced eating older animal, called . Because of the war(s) they were kept around until adult, for their wool was used to make blankets and uniforms for the war, consequently the mouton, is what they were served. But today it is very rare to find it on the market.

Today I still enjoy a very good mutton stew and if you were to go to Scotland, Ireland, MiddleEast, they still enjoy mutton best! Definitely Lamb is very much part of different cuisines around the world. But here we enjoy spring lamb. We are very fortunate to have many producers, that not only raise lamb for meat but, for the most part, cheese making!

Grilled Lamb Chops: Serves 4

Ingredients

8 Lamb chops *

4 Tb Olive oil

1 T Fresh ground black pepper

Procedure

Oil and Preheat the grill very hot

Brush each lamb chops with olive il on both side

Coat each lamb chops generously wit fresh ground pepper (6 turn of the grinder on each sides for each chop)

* If using frozen meat, just partially defrost t cook.

Place the lamb chops on the grill and DO NOT MOVE them until you see pearls of juice appears on the surface, about 3 minutes. Turn over and do the same.

Just before serving turn once more in the different direction to give some marking and serve immediately. Now, that is for rare to medium rare doneness. If you prefer more done, (which I do not suggest) like medium well, just keep it on the grill after the second turn for another 3 minutes. Off course this also will depend a lot on the thickness of the chops. Here I am talking about 1 inch thick chops. Also the chops you see on the picture are loin chops on the top and sirloin at the bottom!

It is also very traditional, with some, to serve lamb with mint jelly

We really enjoy lamb the next day cold and serve it with chutney, so I always cook extra.

When cooking lamb some of the best flavors to use:

Olive oil or butter

Fresh or dried thyme

Garlic

Rosemary

Basil

Pesto

Spicier rubs like:

Garam Masala

Harissa

Combination of Asian spices or create some of your own