Curried Lamb with Eggplant

In Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, lambs have been sacrificed in connection with Christian, Jewish and Muslim customs as long as those customs have existed (which suggests that people were offering up lambs in the cradle of civilization long before). I remember driving in Morocco—where lamb is the most commonly consumed red meat—during the feast commemorating the sacrifice of Isaac (known in Morocco as Eid el-Kebir) and seeing in village after village lambs hung by their feet with their necks sliced and blood dripping, in the ritually prescribed manner. In France, as elsewhere in Europe, spring lamb is associated with Easter, where it is a traditional dish, but it is now available year-round, not only because of demand-driven breeding but because of the contrariwise seasons of New Zealand and Australia, the world’s largest exporters. Since spring lambs are slaughtered at three to five months, they don’t have the strong muttony flavor that sometimes puts off those unused to lamb. But the flavor, as well as the texture, can vary enormously. America produces lamb as good as can be found anywhere, though small local producers are the ones most likely to have taken the care to optimize the feed and hence the taste. Occasionally a fancy New York butcher has disappointed me, but the lamb man at the farmers’ market can’t afford to make mistakes.