Lamb Two Ways
Last week my Mom came to visit for a whole 9 hours in between two flights. She’s been so impressed by my food adventures recently (especially the potato pizza) that I felt I had to attempt something spectacular. Her flight was scheduled to arrive at 8:30 pm but was likely to encounter bad weather, so it needed to be something that could be easily reheated the minute she walked through the door. Braised lamb shank seemed to be the perfect solution!
The lamb shank was well executed and Mom was appreciative, but I learned something important that night: I can not eat braised red meats more than once a week. After Sunday’s beef short ribs, Wednesday’s lamb shank seemed unbearably rich and completely unappetizing. There were TONS of leftovers.
I was feeling restless on Thursday and got the urge to play with my beloved Cuisinart food processor. Thus, my braised lamb shank got a bit of a make-over:
I ground the cooked lamb up and formed it into croquettes with some onion, garlic, herbs, breadcrumbs and an egg, dredged the croquettes in seasoned flour and pan-fried them until they had a nice crust. I made a tzatziki sauce to accompany the lamb croquettes and a simple red cabbage coleslaw on the side.
The lamb croquettes and slaw turned out to be a far more appetizing and memorable meal and bumped me off my braising kick for at least the next couple of weeks. So what will be my new kick?