Great ingredient: Grass-fed Lamb
Before cooking, season leg of lamb by making slits and inserting sliced garlic cloves. If you’re tired of turkey and bored by ham, now is the time to try a new centerpiece for your holiday table: grass-fed Australian lamb. Available in specialty markets and natural foods stores under a variety of labels (look for the sunrise logo), fresh, free-range Australian lamb is sweet, mild, and melt-in-your-mouth tender, the result of a natural clover and rye-grass diet. Its nutritional profile may surprise you, too: A 3-ounce cooked serving of lamb loin provides twice the iron of chicken or fish; less cholesterol than roast turkey; fewer calories than chicken breast or beef top loin; and abundant minerals and vitamins, especially zinc and niacin. All meat is USDA-approved, and no additives, hormones, or antibiotics are used in production.
“They’re lamb fanatics in Australia, and it shows,” says executive chef Shane Cash, who regularly features Australian lamb on his menu at the Redeye Grill in New York City. “I’ve found that the environment the lamb is raised in makes a very clean, lean, quality product.” For more information and recipes, visit www.australian-lamb.com.
—Elisa Bosley
