It’s been unseasonably cold, rainy and grey here in Tahoe. Certainly not the weather I was hoping for in June! Since we weren’t going to be spending much time outdoors, we drove into Reno (about 15 degrees warmer) and spent the day running errands.

A trip to Whole Foods made it’s way into our day, where we ended up buying a cut of meat we haven’t tried before – Lamb Riblets. We adore lamb and ribs, so figured this would be a tasty combination of those.

Given that I’ve never cooked lamb ribs before, I Googled recipes until I landed on one that looked good – Roasted Lamb Ribs with Rosemary – on a blog I hadn’t visited before – Blue Kitchen. This is definitely one to add to your Google Reader!  Don’t you love it when food takes you to new places??

This dish was really delicious and definitely worthy of sharing with you all. The recipe involves braising and broiling, which are super easy cooking methods to follow, along with yummy spices like fresh rosemary and caraway seeds.

Ingredients:
3 large cloves garlic
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and halved
3 carrots, peeled
1-1/2 to 2 pounds lamb ribs
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt, plus additional
1 generous tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon dried caraway seeds
freshly ground black papper
olive oil

To start, cut your lamb rib rack in half so it will easily fit into a large stock pot. Place the ribs, two onion halfs, peeled carrots, two smashed garlic cloves, salt, lots of pepper and the bay leaf into a stock pot. Add just enough water to cover your ingredients.

Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a slow simmer and skim off any scum that rises to the surface during the first few minutes of cooking. Cover and cook for one hour.

Remove the ribs from the cooking liquid and put on a plate. You can discard the other solids and liquid. Preheat the oven to 350 while you prep the lamb for broiling. Season the lamb with pepper, chopped rosemary and caraway seeds. Then thinly slice a garlic clove and arrange the slices over the lamb. Drizzle with olive oil.

Broil for another hour until the garlic is browned and the meat caramelized on top.

We served our ribs with multi-colored farm carrots and asparagus cooked in butter with a few pieces of garlic thrown in.

The lamb reminded me very much of pork belly. It was super savory with a crunchy outside and a tender inside. It was a little messy to eat (we ended up just picking it up and eating it with our hands like ribs), so I wouldn’t serve this at a dinner party. It was perfect for a cozy night in though and something I’m added to my regular rotation.

Many thanks to Blue Kitchen for posting the recipe. Go check out more of Terry’s delicious recipe.