Minnesota Cooking: Lamb Deep Fried With Egg Batter

It was delicious!

We went to Aldi's and there they were. A nice pre-seasoned lamb roast. Lamb is one of those items that is a higher priced item, but I found that the roast was fairly reasonable. It was under ten dollars for the roast.

There was this stretchy, cage-like cover on the roast. That was because they had a piece that was folded it half for packaging. It was seasoned with rosemary and sealed in plastic.

I opened the package and started at one end and sliced the roast into slices. Cross the grain. Each piece was 1/2 inch thick. There was a piece of something across the back, like some gristly fat tissue, which I removed. When I was done slicing, I had about 30 small cutlets.

I got out three bowls. One for Fry Magic, a seasoned coating mix. One for raw eggs, beaten. One for saltine crackers that I pulverized into a powder with my food processer blades.

I used my Hamilton Beach deep fryer. We decided to adjust the temperature slightly to 350 degrees.

Okay. Ready. I prepared seven pieces for the first deep frying.

Roll in Fry Magic, dip in egg then roll in cracker crumbs, set on plate. Repeat for the remaining six pieces.

Gently drop them into the oil and then set the timer for 5 minutes. No more, no less.

The recipes I saw online varied in cooking times. Some said 4 minutes on both sides, but they were cooking in a wok.

Lamb can be rare, but, five minutes was enough to cook the batter to a golden brown crunch and the lamb chop was evenly cooked.

The first bite was apprehensive and hot. Do not forget that the oil is hot and things fresh out of the fryer are quite hot also.

Funny how that happens... hot oil, hot food.

The flavor of these particular lamb pieces was amazing.

For those of you who like cold pizza will be able to relate to the flavor of cold food.

I personally like food that has cooled and congealed.

My opinion of cold lamb is good. Not too greasy. Lamb has a heavy, gamey taste to start with, and leaves a slight taste on your tongue when eaten cold. This roast was flavored with a Rosemary coating, so the flavor must be of Rosemary, which tastes like a pine needle. The coating, the combination of Fry Magic and the cracker crumbs, adds just enough salt to satisfy my salt craving. The egg wash keeps it together. Dipping it in the fry magic just before you dip in the egg, makes the egg stick to the chop easier.

My side dish wasn't complicated. I used a bag of frozen carrot slices, four pats of butter, a 1/4 cup of water and brown sugar to cover the top of the carrots. I then put in the microwave until the brown sugar and butter had melted through and the carrots were firm tender.

I think I cooked the carrot mixture for 8 minutes to start, from frozen, then warmed them up for two minutes. The carrots were a little under cooked, but the flavor was sweet. It almost could have used more brown sugar. The flavor compared to sweet potato casserole.