Roasted Lamb Ribs with Rosemary and Caraway
Caraway seeds give the classic combination of lamb, rosemary and garlic a pungent, anise-like kick.
Servings 3 (see Kitcheen Notes)
Ingredients
- 3 large cloves garlic
- 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and halved
- 1 carrot, peeled
- 1-1/2 to 2 pounds lamb ribs
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon salt (I used fine sea salt), plus additional
- 1 generous tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried caraway seeds
- freshly ground black pepper
- olive oil
Instructions
- Peel two of the garlic cloves and bash them lightly with the side of a knife to break them open and release their oils. Place them along with the onion, carrot and ribs in a into a lidded stock pot or pan large enough to hold them easily and add water to cover. Add bay leaf and salt and 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 simmer for about an hour. Transfer ribs to plate. Discard the remaining solids and cooking liquid. Ribs can be made ahead up to this point and refrigerated for up to 2 days before roasting.
- Roast the ribs. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Thinly slice the remaining garlic clove and drizzle with a little olive oil. Season ribs on top with some salt and a generous grinding of pepper. Sprinkle chopped rosemary and caraway seeds over ribs and arrange garlic slices on them.
- Place ribs on a rack in a lightly oiled roasting pan and place in oven. Roast ribs until nicely browned, about 1 hour. Remove from oven and let them rest for about 5 minutes. Slice into individual ribs and serve.
Kitchen Notes
How many servings did you say? Yep, 1-1/2 pounds of lamb ribs served three. As with other ribs, bones take up a lot of real estate, but lamb is so rich, big-flavored and, let's face it, fatty, that they really do satisfy pretty quickly. Also, we're trying to take a page from The Omnivore's Dilemma author Michael Pollan's notebook these days—trying to treat meat as more of a flavoring and less of a main event. We served these with a fiberiffic, flavorful side of chickpeas with kale that Marion made, and all diners were quite well fed, thank you.