Celebrity Roast.

Lamb traditionally appears on both Easter and Passover tables, though the latter most often in the form of a single symbolic shank bone. (In some Passover traditions, roast lamb itself cannot be eaten.) In my extensive experience, that shank is roasted to death and inedible; it's symbolic, I know, but imagine how much Jews of my generation might have learned about cooking had it been properly braised! In my fewer but occasional Easter dinners, those with lamb -- usually leg -- were somewhat better, but as we all know religious or even quasi-religious meals are rarely occasions of culinary wizardry. On the other hand, it doesn't exactly require genius to roast a leg of lamb well, nor does it require a break from tradition. There are classics with flavors that smack of the Middle East, North Africa and southern Europe, all of which make sensational eating at a holiday table. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]