Tradition!

I like lamb. Lot's of Americans have never tried lamb. This has to change! The rest of the world is far more inclined to eat lamb (or goat for that matter) more often than beef. Beef production is far from green in it's use of resources, especially water, and cattle farming leads to high levels of degradation of range land. In my time in New Zealand, I discovered how low impact sheep farming is in comparison. In addition to the final end of harvesting the animal, there is the fact that wool is produced, and reproduced as the animal ages. The only thing worse that beef production is cotton production (you know where I am going with this, right?)

In addition to the ecological advantage sheep production has over beef, there is a large difference in the healthfulness of lamb over beef. Interested yet? The best way to prepare lamb in my opinion is very simply. Lamb doesn't require much fuss. The Mediterranean food traditions are great with lamb, as are the North African, Persian, and Arabic traditions. If you cook the crap out of a lamb roast like your grandmother might have done in 1950, and then slather the burnt offering in mint jelly.........You have missed the point, and have now hurt my feelings! Sorry, mint jelly is nasty! A riff on that is a mint, and cucumber chutney that I have made that is fantastic. Any-rant, here is a Grecian style preparation that is one of the best. Measures on this are up to personal taste, but I will list out the ingredients. Try some lamb will yah?

Greek Style Leg of lamb

1 leg of lamb (boneless, or bone-in)

1 head (approx. 12 teeth garlic. The garlic pictured here was grown on our farm)

1 large bunch of fresh rosemary (do NOT use dried rosemary)

1 Tbs. or more kosher salt

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Generous amounts of fresh ground pepper.

technique: Coat the lamb in olive oil. Put all remaining ingredients in a mortar and beat the crap out of it. Slather away, and cover in fresh ground pepper. Let stand at room temperature for up to an hour. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake until internal temperature (with a quick read thermometer) reads 130 degrees. let stand on the counter for 30 minutes. Crave and serve. There that was easy eh?