I had a few complains regarding my recent post on the lamb. And yes I missed out on stating which part of the lamb is the best to cook. I must say, it actually depends on the individual. Some people prefer their meat to be a bit hard and chewy and some like them soft and tender. It also depends on how the meat is cooked. So, when cooking lamb, one must be very sure of how to cook it including the duration and the done-ness preferences you want i.e. rare (dark pink in the centre), medium-rare (light pink in the centre) or well-done (light brown colour througout).Ok, cutting the suspense. The tender parts of the lamb would definitely be the parts where the muscles of the animal are used less frequently and that would be the ribs and the loin areas! Meat from the ribs and loin are best to cook using these methods: grill, pan broil/pan fry, broil and stir fry. These areas are usually cooked without much liquid as they are quite succulent in texture.
However, the less-tender cuts of the lamb would be those areas where the muscles are used very often, which include: the shoulder/ chuck, rump, round and legs. These meat may be less tender BUT they are very flavourful! The best ways to cook the less tender meat are by: braising, stewing and roasting! Because these meat are pretty tough, they are usually cooked with liquid.
Here's a simple picture of the main parts of the lamb
BAAa-AAaa
The best ingredients to marinade lamb meat for roasting or pan-grilled would be thyme, rosemary (best if the herbs are fresh but dried ones work well too), HP sauce, Worchestershire sauce (I always have to go look at the bottle to check how it's spelled! and pepper and salt to taste. If you want a sweeter taste, put a few teaspoons of brown sugar into your marinade and this will actually caramelise the outer part of your roast or steak! For more flavour and taste, the meat should be left marinated overnight in the fridge but a few hours of marination would be fine and you can always season them again while they are cooking.
Usually a 1-inch thickness steak would require 7-9 minutes on the first side and another 7 on the other side. And the best sauce to serve a lamb steak is non other than mint sauce or a sweet and sour raspberry sauce.
Try the marinade as mentioned above and I'll post something more interesting next, so stay put!
