Mary Ate a Little Lamb

A five-pound bag of frozen meat from the American Lamb Board showed up at the front desk in a cryovac bag the other day. Without opening the bag, I let it defrost in the fridge, wondering what treasures it held. Behold, it was leg of lamb, cut into 2-inch cubes for kabobs. The outdoor grill was off limits that night, so we opted for stove-top searing in a cast-iron skillet.

Seasonings? Ah, there's the rub. We tried two: a ground-coffee and garlic salt blend, and a beautifully fragrant and complex garam masala with some extra salt and garlic powder. In the end, we mixed the two; the coffee provided a rich bitterness, and the garam masala added heavenly aromas. We browned the lamb on all sides; perhaps five minutes in all, and it came out a perfectly cooked medium rare. Homemade béarnaise, too, almost too much.

Oh, we drank Bordeaux, of course. Nothing wrong with homegrown grapes, but the Bordeaux Supérieur blend from Château Moulin de Beauséjour, something like $8 from Trader Joe's, was a modest pleasure from beginning to end. Olivier Cadarbacasse sells his wines at his cellar door, to be sure, but it looks like TJ's gets most of the rest. The winery itself has no website, and has limited distribution on the internet.

Anyway, thank you, American Lamb Board! Thank you, Seattle Lamb Jam (October 23rd at Bell Harbor, tickets at fansoflambseattle.com).