Lamb Pasties

January 6, 2012 - My First Blog Entry! Gracie [aka, Twinkle Toes] and I are getting off to a rough start on this food blogging project. But, this is the time for New Year's Resolutions; and I hope to post something once a week from now on.

So, today I picked up a lamb that was raised by Jesica [Stinson] Merrill at her Grandpa's farm. This is the third lamb we have gotten from Jesie. This lamb is absolutely wonderful; far better than anything I have ever bought from a store.

Lamb comprises a good share of our meat diet now but that was not always the case. When I was a kid, we occasionally ate lamb [mostly roast leg of lamb], but it was infrequent. Although I have always like the flavor of lamb quite a lot, I did not cook it often myself until both Twinkle Toes and her sister were found to be allergic to beef and pork when they were kids. Now, we eat more lamb than any other meat.

I have always believed that great food is the result of many things; not just the ingredients we use to prepare them. Family, friendships and experiences contribute a great deal to our experience of food [at least it does with our nutty family and friends]. 

 So, the story of how we came to know Jessie and her family plays a pivotal role in the lamb recipe I will blog about today.

When Twinkle Toes was in the second grade, she decided that Brownie Girl Scouts was not for her and asked to join 4 H. After some investigation, we found that The Busy Bees of Bowdoin met just five miles from our house. Jesie's mom, Ramona, was the leader of this group and her children; Danny, Amanda and Jessie, were all very active in it. Ramona's dad was a dairy farmer and made his cows available for the kids in 4 H to work with. Within a few months of joining, Twinkle Toes began her very first 4 H lease arrangement when her little Holstein calf was born. It was love at first sight.

Over the next few months [and for years afterward - she only stopped showing cows when she finished high school], she spent a lot of time at the farm. She had to train the cow to walk along with her. She had to help feed the cows and keep them clean. When it came to fair time in the summer, she had to learn how to groom her heifer so that it was ready to show. Because she spent so much time at the fairs, so did I. I was teaching math at the time and would work on lesson plans while waiting for the Gracie to have her turn in the ring.

For a city kid, I learned a great deal about the anatomy of a cow while I sat there and watched. I know the value of a good udder attachment, spring of rib and can recognize a good topline. To this day, when we go to agricultural fairs, I can still pick out the ones that will wind up with the blue ribbon. But I digress....

A big part of getting ready for the show ring was recognizing there was a lot of downtime in the barn. The kids had to be on the lookout for "tickets" [otherwise known as "cowpies"] and clean them up quickly before the cows made a mess of their shampooed and trimmed bodies. Because so many people come to agricultural fairs and enjoy seeing the animals, they also had to keep the rest of their barn tidy. Other than that, they ate a lot of fair food; they played and sometimes read... and they argued and they teased. This sometimes led to chasing each other around. Jesie, [remember Jesie] would sometimes chase her brother around with a pitchfork. He almost always deserved it. It might not sound amusing, but it was [Ramona may have had a different take on it though]. Over the years, we spent a lot of time together. I am grateful for the positive role Ramona and her Dad played in Gracie's life.

After a number of years, facebook brought us and the Stinson/Small/Merrill clans back together again and the rest is culinary history! I don't think Jessie chases Danny around with a pitchfork anymore, but even if she does, it wouldn't change the fact that that kid raises a mighty tasty lamb. The dairy farm where Gracie was a part of 4 H has been converted over to raising Boar goats and Dorset and Southdown sheep although there are still a few dairy cows, donkeys, ducks and chickens hanging around the barn. In fact, while I was there this morning, I got to see a newborn Jersey heifer - only a few hours old.

All the critters in the barn have a name; including the lamb I got today [his name was Homer - may he rest in peace]. Maybe getting a name is part of why the lamb is so good; being petted and cooed at probably helps too. Makes for stress free meat. Homer was a Southdown lamb; a breed raised primarily for meat.

Homer the lamb yielded about 57 pounds of meat. According to Ramona, that is about half of his total body weight. Tonight I will be using ground "Homer" to make Scottish Lamb Pasties. A Scottish Pasty [or Forfar Bridie] is usually made using ground beef, onions, salt, pepper and dried mustard and cooked inside of pastry dough [they look like a turnover]. Our pasties will use lamb, of course, together with some typical spices for seasoning lamb; fresh rosemary and thyme. I usually serve lamb pasties with fresh roasted brussels sprouts and carrots. Wash it down with a cold beer!

I hope you enjoy making them and eating them.


Lamb Pasties

To make this dish you will need a bowl to mix the pastry and one to mix the filling, a paring knife to chop the onions and spices, a rolling pin, a pastry brush, some wax paper and a cookie sheet or baking pan.

Pastry:
2 cups of flour
3/4 cup of shortening
1 tsp of salt
5 tbsp of water

Mix the first three ingredients with a fork until the shortening has been worked into the flour and salt. Add the water and combine. Do not overwork the pastry or it will be tough. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth while you make the filling.



 Filling:
1 pound of ground lamb
1 large onion chopped
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary
1/2 to 1 tsp of fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all filling ingredients together in a bowl.




Divide the pastry dough into six equal parts. Roll each part into a circle about 6 inches across [rolling dough is easier if you put it between two sheets of wax paper].




Place 1/6th of the filling on one half of each pastry circle.

Brush the edge of each circle of pastry to help it seal. Fold the other half of the pastry over the meat mixture and press the edges together.

Put the pasties on an ungreased cookie sheet or baking pan. Brush the tops with milk and cut a vent hold in each one. Put the bridies in an oven that has been preheated to 425 degrees and cook them for about 30 minutes.