Pan Roasted Lamb with Juniper Berries
I haven’t had lamb in years, so I was excited to try this recipe. This uses a 2 ½ pound lamb shoulder cut into 3-4 inch pieces. The only smaller pieces that I could find were more steak-like than I would have liked, but they seemed to work fine. All of the ingredients are put into a pot, onions, celery, carrots, garlic, rosemary, white wine, and juniper berries. This is then cooked for a very long time over low heat.
We really enjoyed this dish. I was a little worried about the juniper berries, because I had never cooked with them before. I thought that if the flavor was as strong as the smell, then it would overpower the other ingredients. I shouldn’t have worried. The house smelled great as it cooked and the flavors melded together to make a really enjoyable entrée. The meat was so tender that I had trouble getting it out of the pan without it falling apart. My son, Zachary, who never likes new things, loved this. That makes it a keeper for our house!
Beth, these look great. This is the recipe I’ll use with the four beautiful lamb shoulder pieces I got at Global Foods yesterday as my backup plan just in case I couldn’t find decent lamb chops.
I’ve never cooked with juniper berries, either – but I have some left from a liqueur recipe, so I’m set.
I’ll bet it smelled wonderful! So many new ideas for lamb shoulder. I’ll have to try this one next. I have juniper berries I never use!
I am in New Zealand at the moment, and so there is lamb everywhere. Literally. By the road. In the shops. I had lamb sausages for dinner, and have a rack of lamb, lamb shoulder and some other cut of lamb I have forgotten in the fridge. The only problem is that they don’t seem to have any beans for me to make my favourite lamb dish, lamb shoulder with beans and vinegar (Essentials). Or rosemary for that matter, so I can make my rosemary, parmesan and bread crumb lamb rack (Every Night Italian).
It looks wonderful and what can be better than family appreciation?
When I lived in New York, I got a call from a man who was cooking this lamb from my book. He said the meat looked terrible, but before throwing it out he wanted to hear whether there was a chance it could improve by the time it was done. Have faith, I said. That’s the thing about the recipe, it is most unusual because everything goes into the pot without any preliminary browning and sauteing, and at first it looks terrible, it is so grey. But it all comes together in the end.
Beth, I love you for sticking with it and I can see from the photo that you did it perfectly.
David, you have had previous experiences of traveling in primitive tribal lands. You must always pack your own beans and rosemary.