Let’s face it, that classic lamb rack on your menu is great, and really catches the eye when it moves through the dining room. But as today’s younger consumers hunger for something new and different keeps expanding, savvy chefs across the country are finding lamb a protein ripe for innovation.
Gourmet food trucks have helped pave the way, with interesting and ethnically inspired burgers, sliders, and sandwiches featuring lamb – like @chefaaronbrooks Lamb Cubano, recently served on the Four Seasons food truck in Miami with Australian Lamb Ham in place of the traditional pork.
But the appetizer or small plate section of the menu is where lamb is really blowing up, in meatballs, skewers, flatbreads, and even nachos! These applications use cuts of lamb like shoulder, ground or leg, and make for approachable, must-order dishes that can be profitably served at a lower price point. It’s a big reason why lamb appetizers have grown 175% in the last ten years, according to menu research firm Datassential.
Take Kwame Onwuachi’s Lamb Bastilla at The Shaw Bijou in DC for example; he takes a classic ethnic dish, the Moroccan classic pigeon pie Bisteeya, and remakes it as a rich and modern small plate with braised Aussie lamb shoulder and plenty of Ras el Hanout, the king of Moroccan spices. French feuilles de brick is his chosen pastry, rolled around a cylinder and fried, then filled with braised lamb. The jus from the braise is then sweetened with coconut sugar and reduced to a syrupy sauce. To take it over the top, powdered sugar and mushroom powder are the final garnish, for a sweet-savory masterpiece.
Here are some of our favorite posts we’ve seen of Aussie Lamb small plates:
