Returning with Lamb Ribs

The last and most recent post at Unique Culinary Adventures, entitled "New Directions," happened eight months ago in November. As promised, we traveled while growing a non-food related business to critical mass. We anticipated being there in four months, it took eight, and the travel continues. Through this period we initiated and have faithfully maintained weekly posts at a new blog . Rather than being about food, it relates to that non-food business and is more about heralding the aesthetics of radioactive rocks than stalking scrumptious edible delights.

So now, Unique Culinary Adventures returns with a post and will continue posting if and when the urge strikes. It strikes full force here in mid-July, for sure the best time of year to enjoy the diversity of real food in this part of America. Notwithstanding, we resume with a post that would have been more likely to appear last winter had Unique Culinary Adventures been active. That's when I purchased lamb ribs from Virginia Lamb at the DuPont Circle Farmers Market in DC. Somehow they got lost for a few months in the back of our freezer. I suspect they're the Denver Style spare ribs featured on Virginia Lamb's web site, but our package simply read "lamb ribs.

Looking through plastic encasing them, it would appear nine or ten single ribs were inside. Enforcing this misperception were part of the instructions from a recipe on the Internet that practically made me drool. These instructions said to place the ribs on skewers if grilling them. I didn't understand. They were cross-cut so that approximately a dozen little one inch bones blocked the path of of every skewer. Forgetting the skewers, however, many ingredients and some of the techniques from this mouthwatering Cooks.com recipe contributed to one of the most killer main platters I've enjoyed all year. Here's the scoop:

Lamb Ribs

1 pound lamb ribs, cut crosswise across the bone

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon grated onions

1 clove garlic, sliced fine

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/8 teaspoon thyme, crushed

Pinch of seasoned pepper

Paprika for dusting

Chives and lemon wedges for garnish.

Mix lemon juice, grated onion, garlic, and a mixture of salt, dry mustard, chili powder, cumin, thyme, and seasoned pepper. Pour over lamb in a large shallow dish or pan. Cover and marinate in refrigerator 6 to 8 hours; turn occasionally. Remove spare ribs from marinade and place on rack in shallow roasting pan. Dust with paprika. Place in hot broiler 5 to 6 inches from the source of heat and broil for 16 minutes, turning 4 times and basting with marinade juices or until desired degree of doneness. Garnish with chives and lemon wedges to serve.

Serves 2.