Stuffed Lamb Shoulder for St George's Day

St George's day is celebrated widely in Bulgaria. Along with Ivan, Dimiter and Nikola, George is one of the most common names here and all the people having the name George celebrate their nameday today. That means, a lot of relatives and friends gather around the table and have a long, long lunch and the main dish is based on a lamb meat - whether a whole lamb turned on a spit (the so called 'cheverme'), lamb roasted with potatoes, or my favorite recipe - whole lamb shoulder stuffed with rice, stewed lamb offal and a bunch of herbs - 'drobsarma'.
This impressive dish is served widely for the Easter lunch and for St George's day. 
As a result of the long roasting, the meat remains tender, the skin is crispy and the stuffing is full of aroma.

There are some significant differences between the Bulgarian recipe for stuffed lamb shoulder and all the recipes popular abroad.

First - This recipe does not call for boned shoulder, to the contrary - it is based on the idea of stuffing the pocket between the outer membrane of the shoulder and the meat.

Second - Offal is important part of the recipe. Lamb liver and lung shall be boiled in advance and included into the stuffing.

Third - The typical strong taste of the lamb pairs well with the fresh and grassy flavor of mint and green onion, so the combination of tastes in this recipe includes a lot of spring onion, mint and freshly ground black pepper.

Slow cooking makes the flavors blend, so this dish requires a lot of time to be prepared properly. Women get up early on St George's day, only the roasting in the oven takes about three hours.

Lamb Soup

Offering sacrifices of animals has been provided by people all around the world since ancient times and although there are different events and local traditions in line with the different religions, lambs and birds were killed as a symbol of gratitude to God, forgiveness of sins and prayer for health. In Bulgaria if somebody's life has been in danger at any moment of his life, his relatives prepare kourban lamb soup to thank God for the successful outcome. But even if everything is OK,  lamb soup is tasty and worth it. 

Here is one recipe with lots of meat and few vegetables - delicious and easy to prepare.