Lamb

Katniss's favorite food from the Capitol is the delicious lamb stew with dried plums. It's no coincidence that this is her favorite dish. Soups and stews are common foods in the Seam, and this healthy and filling dish likely reminded her of the home and family she desperately missed. (The Hunger Games, Chapter 9)

A close relative of Brunswick Stew, Burgoo was traditionally made with small, wild game such as squirrel or rabbit. This recipe adapted from B. Smith makes about 1 gallon, an amount that can easily be made on the stovetop in an 8-quart Dutch oven or soup pot. There are two parts to the recipe: first, making the flavorful meat broth, and then cooking the meat and vegetables together. Burgoo freezes well and tastes even better if it's refrigerated a few days before serving. Lawrenceburg is home to the Anderson County Burgoo Festival, held every September.

"If gumbo is the national stew of Cajun country, burgoo is the stew of Kentucky," Ronni Lundy asserts in her book Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes, and Honest Fried Chicken. Because the stew is made in many different ways with a variety of ingredients, the "Burgoo Song" by Robert Myles claims, "You can toss in almost anything that ever walked or flew." Many early recipes for burgoo include squirrel in addition to chicken, beef, and pork. In Kentucky, Anderson County, which hosts its Burgoo Festival every September, is known as the burgoo capital of the world. Arenzville, Illinois, makes a similar claim. But the French lay claim to the basic concept of burgoo, and it's conceivable that the word burgoo arose somehow from the French ragout (pronounced ra-goo), also a term describing a stew. Burgoo makers agree • Burgoo should be made in stages: cook the meat first, and then add the vegetables.
• No less than 4—6 hours should be devoted to making burgoo. Some recipes call for a 24-hour cooking period.
• Burgoo should contain more than one meat.
• Burgoo should be prepared outdoors over an open fire.

For many years Tandy Ellis, the Kentucky wit and raconteur, ran a daily column in the Louisville Courier-Journal. It was considered quite an honor to be invited to his sanctum (Rambeau Flats) at his home in Ghent, Kentucky. Once, when I published a recipe for burgoo which called for cabbage, he took exception and sent me his own version of this distinctive Kentucky dish. He wrote: "I have been asked many times for my recipe for burgoo, especially for home use. I learned to make burgoo from Gus Jaubert of Lexington, and from several of the other old-time makers of Kentucky burgoo. I trailed with Gus Jaubert on one occasion when he went to Ohio and served 10,000 people. He had one kettle that held 600 gallons. I have made burgoo for several meetings. My recipe to serve at the home for about 8 people* follows":

Alain Ducasse— If you have cooking juices left over in the lamb casserole dish and it seems too much, put it back on the heat and reduce.
Paule Neyrat— In pearl barley all the husks have been removed. As a result it keeps its richness in carbohydrates but loses most of its vitamins and minerals. Fortunately, the vegetables make up for this.

Jim Lahey keeps these moist by adding grated boiled potato.

I really prefer the texture of fresh pappardelle with the savory lamb stew; it just seems to absorb the flavors better. If you can’t find fresh pappardelle, though, the dried kind is perfectly acceptable, and it’s good to have on hand to toss with any leftover braised meats and their braising liquid for a quick, warming meal.

The meat from the shank is the tastiest part of the lamb. As lamb is a grazing animal and stands probably 90 percent of the time, the leg muscles get more developed and flavorful. Braised meats take a little more time to cook, but not much time to prepare. They’re really very simple and almost foolproof, and the end result is really luscious, flavorful meat. It takes a little longer, but you get the best results if you cook them at as low an oven temperature as possible—around 200°F. Serve these tacos with this richly flavored filling during the colder months, when appetites yearn for something earthy and substantial. Shredding the meat along the grain produces pieces that better retain both moisture and flavor. The meat is best eaten the day it is cooked. Place the meat back in the sauce to reheat.

I lived in Morocco for a time in the mid-1970s studying textiles as part of my anthropology training. While there, I learned to cook with the full array of the expressive, aromatic spices of the Moroccan kitchen. Cumin is one of the most important and widely used of these spices, and I find that its pungent, woodsy aroma gives most meat dishes a “meatier” or “gamier” flavor that I like. Cumin is also widely used in Tex-Mex cooking for the same effect. This brine will work for up to double the amount of meat called for here. When making a brine, use a five-to-one ratio of sugar to salt, which works well for twenty-four-hour brines such as this one. For a North African accent, garnish the tacos with grated carrots, chopped fresh mint leaves, and quartered cherry tomatoes. Look for cinnamon oil in the baking and candy-making sections of well-stocked specialty food stores or online.

Rack of lamb is a good candidate for roasting, as the bones and external layer of fat guarantee that the meat will be flavorful and incredibly juicy. That layer of fat, however, requires more than the heat of the oven to sear, so the lamb is first browned on the stove, just on the one side. Rather than the more traditional mustard and herb crust, this rack is coated with yogurt, which adds subtle flavor and tang. The coating also contains bread crumbs, parsley, mint, lemon, garlic, and olive oil, all of which lend other flavor components as well as visual and textural contrast. For a more straightforward but still delicious version, simply rub the lamb with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper before roasting.

Until fairly recently the best lamb was a luxury that could be found only in spring. Today, modern farming techniques make such lamb available year-round, although many of us still keep to tradition, preparing a roasted leg of lamb on Easter or Passover. The term “leg of lamb” generally refers to the hind leg and hip of the animal. Though the cut can be pricey, it is very straightforward to prepare, even for the novice home cook. For this recipe, the lamb is “larded” with slivers of garlic along with fresh rosemary and thyme, to infuse it with flavor. The pan sauce is flavored with Dijon mustard and red wine, then thickened with a paste of equal parts softened butter and flour. This classic thickener is called buerre manie, and is often used to thicken stews and braises, including the cider-braised pork on page 183.

This North African stew is named for the traditional dish it is cooked in. A tagine is a clay pot that consists of a shallow round base and a cone-shaped lid designed to allow all the moisture to flow back down into the base during cooking. The stews known as tagines are often thickened (and flavored) with dried fruits; the recipe here contains dried apricots, but prunes, raisins, and dates are also common. In France, tagines are often accompanied by couscous; while flatbread is more typical in Morocco. This is a nonbrowned stew, similar to the veal stew on page 205, though far simpler to prepare.

Butterflying a leg of lamb produces a more uniform thickness, furthered by pounding, so the meat cooks evenly from end to end. It also creates more surface area for grilling, so that more of the meat takes on a charred taste. In this recipe, the lamb is marinated to infuse it with herbal flavors, but you could simply season it with no more than salt and pepper before grilling.

This is an Italian interpretation of a grilled lamb entrée you might see at a Lebanese restaurant. Scottadito means “burnt fingers” in Italian, and it refers to the fact that the lamb bones are meant to be picked up with your fingers while they’re searingly hot. We serve the lamb with a tabbouleh-like salad made of fregola sarda, a bread crumb–size pasta shape from Sardinia so small it acts like a grain in the kitchen, and Greek yogurt.

Traditionally, lamb shanks such as those in this recipe would be braised and served in all their glory, and subsequently, making lamb ragù would be a way to turn a relatively small amount of leftover meat into tomorrow night’s pasta dinner. We braise the lamb just so that we can pull it apart and turn it into ragù. It’s a decadent thing to do, and results in a luxurious and delicious pasta. Enjoy.

Wild boar, called cinghiale, is hunted and sold all over Umbria, so as a born-again Umbrian I would feel as if I were betraying my experience of Italy if I didn’t include this ragù at my restaurant. Cutting the boar is the hardest part of this recipe, and it isn’t hard at all. The ideal is to buy frozen wild boar and cut it while it’s only partially defrosted, when it’s easier to cut.