Preparing Birria de Borrego can be considered a labor of love, as it takes more than three hours to prepare, and it is well worth it.
What is the difference between lamb and beef you may ask? Lamb tends to have less marbling than beef, and when you trim the fat around the edges after cooking, the meat ends up much leaner.
You ask what about the fat? Will to start, even though their are no studies that have linked saturated fat to heart disease or raising your cholesterol, you will be happy to know that how you prepare meat influences its healthiness.
For example, meat that is grilled, broiled, or roasted tends to reduce fat, were as pan-frying will increase it.
Buying Your Lamb At Market
Organic standards help lower the risk of contaminated feed and organic lamb has higher nutrient quality.
But to assure you are truly buying an organic raised animal, make sure that packaging say 100% grass-fed.
However, remember that the word “organic” by itself does not guarantee a natural lifestyle for the lambs.
As long as a lamb is fed purely grass from a pasture it can have higher amounts of omega-3 fatty acids.
In Australia, where lamb is eaten frequently by both children and adults, recent studies have shown lamb to rank among the top omega-3 foods in the daily diet.
Grass-fed lamb has shown to average around 25% more omega-3 than grain fed lamb, including as much as 49% more alpha-linolenic acid.
The World’s Healthiest Foods (WHF) website used their nutritional profile of grass-fed lamb, and found on average that 100% grass fed lamb’s meat to have 40 milligrams of omega-3 per one ounce of roasted lamb loin.
WHF says that’s 50% of omega-3 found in an ounce of baked cod or broiled tuna, and 67% of the amount found in one ounce of sesame seeds.
Our featured recipe is a locally grown 100% grass-fed Birria de Borrego or Roasted Lamb, and here is what you will need.
By the way, if the area were you live doesn’t raise lamb, check out these websites…
They can help you find small local farms in your area, and both sites are searchable by zip code.
Preparing Birria de Borrego
2 pounds lamb roast
6 ancho chilies, dried
3 chilies Negron, dried
1 ½ cups water
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon oregano
2 bay leaves
¼ teaspoon thyme
2 teaspoons wine vinegar
2 tablespoons avocado oil
8 tortillas – Link here for homemade recipe
Salsa Verde – optional
Guacamole – optional
Place lamb roast in a large pot with tight lid. Add 1 ½ cups of water, garlic, pepper, cinnamon, oregano, thyme, vinegar and bay leaves to the pot.
Bring the pot of lamb to a boil. Once the lamb is boiling, lower the heat to a simmer and place the lid over the pot. Simmer for two hours until the lamb meat comes off the bone easily with a fork. Remove pot from heat.
Allow to cool some, then remove the lamb from the pot and place on a plate or cutting board. Shred the lamb with a fork and cut with a knife if necessary. Salt to taste and place shredded meat into a large pot.
Cut the stem off the chilies and slit them lengthwise. Remove the seeds and place the chilies in a small saucepan with two cups of water. Bring the chilies to a boil and boil for two minutes or until the chilies are tender. Remove chilies from the water and chop coarsely.
Add the chopped chilies to the lamb and mix thoroughly. Reheat the lamb before serving. Serve on tortillas with salsa or guacamole topped with cilantro. A great meal for your Cino de Mayo celebration this May 5th, 2016.
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