Amuse Bouche

Another day in the kitchen with Ali (pork belly, homemade Nutella, Lancashire hot pot and more)

Alasdair (Ali) will be heading back to England in a week for school and won't be back until his half term break in October so I took a day off work and we made plans to have a cook-a-thon.  Ali's main intent was to play with the Thermomix(TM) and convince his parents that it is the next tool he needs in his arsenal.

With no clear plan for what we would do I picked up a mish mash of items including a whole pork belly from my pal Maggie when I placed my meat order for work that week.

I spent the morning plowing though my cookbooks to decide on a plan.  I started with Bruce Aidell, Martin Picard, Ruhlman and Keller and in the end I took the pork belly brine from Ad-Hoc and combined it with aspects of the one in Under Pressure.

We cut a nice piece off the belly and set it up in a brine of kosher salt, pink salt, sugar in the raw, bay leaves, peppercorns, thyme and rosemary.  We set that up in a cambro and it went into the fridge.  I'll follow up on how I finished those later, but right now I have half of it in rendered pork fat in a 200F oven for 6 hours for confit and the other half in 82.5C in the circulator for 12 hours.  Both will set up and chill overnight as long as Irene is nice and keeps the power on.

Then we mixed up the bacon rub from Ruhlman's Charcuterie and rubbed another nice piece.  That one is currently parked in the upstairs fridge in a cambro for the next 7 days.  Next weekend I will follow Aidell's formula for cold smoking it over hardwood sawdust in my Weber if I can get my hands on any.  Too bad the thermomix won't grind up the chunks of my cherry tree that Irene is sure to knock down today.  I could make my own dust.

I still have two other pieces tucked away in the freezer for later projects.  Once we dispensed with the porkie items we wanted to get the cheesecakes in the oven. 

These are gluten free (crust is GF flour, almond meal, melted grass fed butter and a pinch of salt) and the filling (1 lb cream cheese, 4oz sour cream abt 2 T sugar in the raw, lemon zest and juice, a tweak of vanilla and 2 eggs) we used little ramekins and cooked them in a water bath for about 30 mins. 

Since we made all this up as we went along we realised after that we probably should have shaved 5 minutes off the oven time but they were still very good.  We made a topping of Maine blueberries cooked down with a drop of water, a pinch of sugar, some stem ginger in syrup and a splash of port.

While these were baking we tackled the Thermomix projects.  First up was making a homemade version of the crack known as NUTELLA.  He toasted up some hazelnuts

and while they cooled some sugar went in the TM and was ground fine.

The nuts went in, and some dark chocolate and we milled it, wiped down the bowl and added some cocoa powder, butter and milk.  Heat it up to 50C and set it to stir and 6 minutes later...

better than Nutella.

I cleaned it out and we made a quick mayo and then Ali wanted to make a custard so he whipped one up in under 6 minutes with nary a scarmbled egg in site.  I want to apologise to Siân now, because he is going to be bugging her for the next 6 months for one of his own.

To make up for the pain of hearing about a TM and since Ali is Mr. Molecular Gatronomy these days with his textura, glycerin and maltodextrin I thought I would make him learn to cook a traditional, or as husband would say, proper, English dish to bring home for his parents.

Lancashire Hot Pot is one of husband's favorites and it is very simple to put together.

Salt and pepper and then sear off some nice lamb loin chops. 

Remove them from the pan for now and add in 1 chopped Spanish onion, 1 diced rutabega (swede), 2 or 3 diced carrots and 2 or 3 stalks of celery chopped.

Keep the dice a good size maybe an inch or so, because these veg will cook for 2 hours later.  Stir them around, season well with salt and pepper and when the onions start to soften sprinkle over 2 - 3 TBS flour.  Stir well. Add 8 ozs veal demi (I get mine from D'artagnan, but you can omit this if you can't find it and use more veal stock) and 1-1/2 cups of veal stock.  Add in 1 TBS chopped thyme leaves, 2 bay leaves and 3 TBS worcestershire sauce.  Taste for seasoning. 

It should have a kick from the worcestershire, if not add a bit more.  Nestle the lamb chops back in.  Make sure the stock comes right to the top of them, if not add a bit more. 

Take some yukon gold potatoes, I can't give you a quantity here because it depends on the size of your vessel, but we had a 14" All-clad pan and we used about 7, and slice them about the thickness of a popsicle stick with either a knife or a manodline and then shingle them in circles to cover the whole surface.  Season well again with salt and pepper.  Dot with butter. 

Put a lid on and pop this in a 325F oven for 1 hour.  After an hour remove the lid and back into the oven for another hour until the potatoes are soft, some of the liquid has reduced and the potatoes have begun to brown.  Gently stick a knife in and test on of the lamb chops.  If everything seems ready and you want the potatoes a bit browner, pop the whole lot under the broiler for a few minutes.

Around 6:30 we packed him up and shipped him home to continue cooking his hot pot.  We've already made plans for another cooking fest in October.  I need to start plotting.

 

Yogurtlu Kofte Kebabi (Lamb kebab with a spicy tomato and yogurt sauce)

This week I popped by Russo's to stock up on some supplies and into my cart fell a package of gorgeous pitas.  They were about 12" in diameter, tissue paper thin and soft enough to wrap a baby in.  I used one for lunch that day with a salad and rest of the package languished in my microwave bread box until I finally decided I was craving lamb kofte.  I first made this dish back in 2008 with my 11+ class and it was my first introduction to sumac. Sumac is a gorgeous tart, lemony ground spice that comes from grinding the drupes of the Rhus genus of plants. Just promise me you won't collect any poison sumac from the side of the road and try to make your own.  I get my sumac from the middle eastern markets in Watertown on Auburn St, but there are loads of sources online.  Husband was watching me prepare this as he popped in and out of the kitchen at various stages and he would occasionally say his usual 'i don't think i fancy that', 'what's that, will i like it?'  Once I pulled the toasted pita out of the oven and started breaking it up onto the platter his mood changed considerably. The smells won him over.  The recipe is an adaptation of the one by Claudia Roden in her gorgeous book Arabesque.

This is not a difficult dish to prepare and many steps can be done ahead like the spicy tomato sauce and the kofte mixture. Take your yogurt out of the fridge an hour or so before so it isn't freezing cold when you put it on the dish.  Don't buy those really thick pocketless pitas for this it will be too much bread.  The thinner the pita the better it softens up under everything and becomes a tasty base for it all.  Don't skip the foil on your sheet pan or you will be scrubbing a big mess for days. In the end the combo of the tart yogurt and lemony tart sumac with spicy tomato sauce seeps into the pita and it make a lovely, messy, delicious mess. Bring lots of napkins, you'll need em!

Yogurtlu Kofte Kebabi (lamb kebabs in a spicy tomato and yogurt sauce)

For the Spicy Tomato sauce:

1 can of 1 lb 16oz Fire Roasted Tomatoes, diced

1 jalapeño or serrano, remove seeds and ribs,mince fine

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced

1 small yellow onion, minced

a few glugs of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Aleppo pepper to taste

1-2 tsp sugar

Sauté the onion in some olive oil until soft, Add the jalapeño and garlic, stir once or twice and cook about 1 - 2 minutes until fragrant. Add the tomatoes, season with salt, pepper and sugar.  Simmer over low heat until it begins to thicken, about 15 - 20 mins.  Add the Aleppo pepper and taste for salt.  This can now be shut off and reheated later or proceed with the recipe.

For the Yogurt Sauce (skip if paleo, make if primal)

2 cups thick Greek yoghurt like Fage at room temp, stirred well. (I will sometimes add a clove of garlic mashed well with salt in a mortar and pestle.

For Kofte

1-1/2 lbs ground lamb

1/4 - 1/3 cup minced fresh flat leaf parsley

salt and pepper (season generously)

1 small yellow onion, minced fine

In a bowl, mix the lamb with the salt, pepper, parsley and onion.  Distribute the ingredients well.  If you are curious about the seasonings, cook a small patty in a pan to taste for seasoning. 

Again, you can cover this and leave it in the fridge until you are ready to cook.  It gives the seasonings a chance to permeate the meat.

Finish and Assembly

2 pitas (skip this for paleo and primal)

1/2 - 1 tsp sumac

2 TBS pine nuts

2 TBS butter or olive oil

Heat oven to 450F

Reheat the tomato sauce if necessary, bring the yogurt sauce to room temp.

Line a sheet pan with heavy duty foil and smear with a small amount of oil to stop the kofte from sticking.  Take the kofte mix and form long sausage shapes.  Make them 2 or 3 or 4 inches long, but make sure they are all of even thickness.  Arrange them spaced well on the sheet pan. 

Toast the pita lightly in the oven on the rack.  Remove and break the pita up onto a platter.

Place the kofte in the oven and cook for 5 minutes.  Turn the kofte.  Roast 3 - 5 minutes more. Turn the kofte again and set the oven onto broiler and cook kofte under the broiler for another 3 minutes or so until nicely brown. (this cooking time is based on a kofte about the thickness of a fat Italian sausage, your mileage may vary)

Meanwhile melt the butter or heat the oil in a small pan.  Add the pine nuts and cook until butter stops foaming or until the oil and nuts smell fragrant.

Spoon the warmed spicy tomato sauce over the pitas on the platter.  Sprinkle with some of the sumac.  Spoon the yogurt sauce over the tomato sauce.  Arrange the kofte on top of the platter and pour over the pine nuts and oil or butter.  Sprinkle with more sumac and serve.

12 hours in the Kitchen with Ali: Osso buco, Veal Stock, Split Pea Soup, Lancashire Hot Pot and an experiment

Ali was back home from the UK on another school break so I invited him over on friday for an all day cook-a-thon while my chimney guys came and repaired the flu for the living room chimney.  All week I plotted and planned to try and decide what we were going to cook. In the end it was rather a hodge podge of dishes, but braise and simmer seemed to be the keywords.

I started at 9:00 getting the bones ready to roast for the veal stock.  30 pounds of veal bones hit the oven to get nice and brown.

Once the bones hit the oven we started the split pea soup. Bernie, my half pig from Heritage Hill Farm had a few gorgeous smocked hocks and one of husband's favourites is split pea soup. I thawed a hock out and tipped that in a pot with some sweated carrot, celery, garlic and onion, tossed in a few bay leaves and 1 package of green split peas, 1 package of yellow split peas and a load of water and set the white pot on a diffuser plate on a back burner to simmer away.

Meanwhile Ali kept checking the stock to see if we needed to skim the scum.  

Next I had seen something over at Ideas in Food where they made perfect soft scrambled eggs using an Isi cream dispenser.  I forwarded the link off to Ali who is obsessed with all things related to molecular gastronomy or new cooking techniques.  I picked up a new Isi at Restaurant Depot on Thursday and set up the thermal immersion circulator on the counter.  Eggs, butter, salt, hot sauce and skim milk were mixed and then poured in the canister.  This sat in an 82C water bath for 1 hour. 

We let the canister rest and added to nitrous charges and shook, shook, shook the canister, but sadly in the end we had to scrape out the eggs.  82C is below eggs coagulation point of 180F so we aren't sure why it didn't work so we will test it again dropping it a degree or two and doing it for a little less time.

They tasted mighty fine though.

While the soup was simmering and the veal stock gently bubbling we started on the osso buco.  I'm not going to bother giving you the recipe because we loosely followed the one in Molly Stevens All About Braising and if you don't own that book yet I really don't know what you are waiting for.  Every damn idea in that book is delicious.  We started them on the stove and popped it in a low over to do it's work.

Here they are at the half point stage.

And here they are completed.  At this point I popped it in the fridge and then last night as the teenage trick-or-treaters were stealing all of the candy in my bowl in one fell swoop, I reheated it in a low oven with a bit more of that fresh veal stock and made the risotto bed. Need I say yum?

The last project was a surprise for husband.  I made him Lancashire hot pot and braised red cabbage. I'm sad that I don't have any pictures of this dish because it was gorgeous with a cap of perfectly placed potatoes in concentric circles on the top. I will definitely be repeating this one again. Lamb loin chops, dredged, browned and added to a ton of onions, carrot and swede (rutabaga or purple topped turnip to me and you), veal stock and a few other things simmered UNDER a crust of thinly sliced potatoes.  

Here's Ali prepping the cabbage for the braised red cabbage and in the foreground is the gratin dauphinoise he whipped up with the leftover thinly sliced potato from the hot pot.  He had just made one last week when he took the Teens Cook: Julia Child class and this one was spectacularly good!  Traditionally Lancashire hot pot is served with pickled cabbage but husband who professes to hate vinegar and all things pickled said he would have preferred having the pickled cabbage over the braised cabbage.  Who knew?  I can't keep up. Ali ate so much of the red cabbage raw his lips and entire mouth were stained deep purple when I eventually sent him home with his Dad. I also apologised profusely to his Dad since i introduced Ali to Ideas in Food, StudioKitchen, JB Prince, Le Sanctuaire and a few other dangerous places. He left as excited as a kid at Christmas since he finally found where to order an anti griddle and a pacojet.  I don't think he shall ever be the same. He left on Halloween morning to go back to school for another semester but he'll be back for a long break in December and I have to come up with some plans to keep him busy!

Thus ended our long day mucking about in the kitchen.  Yesterday morning I portioned and froze the soup and then strained and packaged up the veal stock, labeled it and divided it amongst the freezers for the long winter ahead.  And I just have one thing to say about that stock.

  Look at that gelatin baby!

Lamb chops (lollipops) with baharat and harissa cream

Long long ago when I first married the Brit he deemed all lamb 'too fatty' and declared it not dinner material.

this statement from the man who came from fields and fields of glorious gorgeous sheep, the very land where I fell in love with both the man, and the cuteness that is baby lamb season. Country of mint sauce and mutton. How, I begged, could you not love lamb?

I have spent many hours over the years breaking down lamb legs, removing all the fell, the layer that lies between the skin and the fat that has that lanolin smell and taste, dissecting the leg into little pieces to remove every trace of fat.  I cooked it in spicy Indian curries and added it ground to burgers and meatloaf and slowly, slowly  he realised that eating lamb did not equal eating fat.

Still, when it came to the Cadillac that is rack of lamb he still grimaced and made faces. A couple times a year I would buy a rack and roast it for myself slathered in mustard and a lemony, parsley, persillade.  And smack my lips as I gnawed on the bones. 

I know, carnivore. 

My Mom and I both agree that the bone on a prime rib often tastes better than the meat itself. 

We're bone cleaners.

Finally one night years later when he was finally brave enough to eat most of the things I passed his way I made a batch of Baharat the gorgeous spice mix from the Eastern Mediterranean filled with earthy tastes like cinnamon and nutmeg, oregano and black pepper, bay leaf, cumin and clove.  I cut the rack into little lamb lollipops, cleaned as much surface fat off of his as I could without making the meat fall off the bone.

Then I rubbed it with the baharat and grilled each chop individually to his medium/well taste and my rare/medium rare taste and served it with some spicy hot harissa paste from Tunisia and damn if I hadn't finally won the battle!  Now it has become our date night dinner since a nice rack of lamb can set you back quite a few pennies.

Tonight we'll have it with some Brussels sprouts that I cleaned and blanched.  They will be crisped in some guanciale and shallots and we'll have some leftover boiled potatoes that I will sauté until the edges are all crispy.  A perfect dinner for a fall night.

Another Weekend cooking fest

It's another weekend of cooking around here as I adjust to life with a 50+ hour work week.
What on earth am I doing you ask?  Well, I accepted an offer that I just couldn't turn down.  Renee and her business partner offered me the opportunity to come on board and run create a cook.
Me.  The girl who was laid off 4 years ago from over a decade in IT in the financial sector decided to have a midlife career crisis and pursue her first love for feeding people went to culinary school and fell in love with teaching and now, now, I am running a cooking school.  Life is a crazy ride people, take what it throws at you and run with it.

What started out as just a cooking school for kids is now rapidly expanding to offer adult classes and adult cooking parties, and soon we may just be building out a third kitchen.  It's been a heck of a curve in the last month going from the calm life of planning recipes and teaching a few classes a week to full throttle since September 1st, but I am loving EVERY long CRAZY minute of it. 

The hours mean it is a little tough to cook as much as I used to during the week so I have been making the most of the weekends to make life a little easier and get some Bento Box fodder for lunches during the week.  On top of the usual roasting of some chicken breasts for husbands lunch, Saturday found us working on the following three dishes...all at once.  One can never have too many Le Creuset pots is my mantra.

We made a trip to Captain Marden's to pick up halibut steak for a recipe from Molly Stevens All About Braising. Cut a bunch of leeks (quantity is irrelevant as some leeks have 2 inches of white and some have 6 or 8, in the end, we had about 3 cups of sliced leek) in half inch, half moons and saute quickly in some butter, coating them all over, add a bunch of chopped thyme and 4 - 5 cloves of minced garlic, stir a few times, add about 3/4 of white wine, bring it to a boil and then cover it with some parchment paper and a lid and toss it in a 300F oven.  Stir after 20 minutes, back in the oven and then after an additional 20 minutes check that the leeks are nice and soft.  Season well with salt and pepper.  I held the dish at this point since I had to run to work from 6-7.  In the end when I got back home I turned the oven back on, heated the leeks on the stove and then proceeded.  Salt and pepper some halibut steak and lay it on top of the bed of leeks, pour in 1/2 a cup of cream and put the parchment back on, no lid this time and place the whole thing back in the oven for oh say, 20 more minutes or until the fish is nicely done and flakes off the bone.  Put the fish steaks on a warmed plate, remove the skin and bone and tent to keep them warm.  Place the pan with the leeks and cream on the stove and over medium heat, season to taste with salt and pepper and allow the sauce to thicken just a bit.  Serve the fish on a bed of the creamy leeks and we had it with a side of fried potato slices that were fresh dug Red Pontiacs from our farmer in Maine at Mt. Nebo orchard.

The apple pie I made on Sunday with the apples from Mt. Nebo orchard. Last weekend Mom and SD picked tons of apples ( we like Macs and Cortland) and brought them when I went to meet her in New Hampshire for the closing of Maine for the winter items.  Saturday I made my standard pie crust and it rested all day in the fridge.  This morning I rolled it out and peeled and tossed the apple slices with dark brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg with some lemon juice.  I dumped it all in the pie case and tossed on some dots of unsalted butter and slapped a lid on it. Husband was just standing over my shoulder while I took the photo above saying.."Can I eat yet, Can I, Is it done, Please?" 

I'm making him wait until after dinner. I'm mean like that.

Also on Saturday we went over to John Dewar in Wellesey and I picked up some flanken cut beef short ribs.  A perusal of Molly Stevens All About Braising (have you bought this book yet?  Shame on you if you haven't!) had me browning them all over to a nice mahogany colour and removing them to rest. In the same pan, brown some onions and carrots for aromatics.  The pan was deglazed with a goodly amount of Porter and then some veal stock (homemade from my pals at Citrio)  toss in a few sprigs of rosemary from the garden and a few bay leaves.  On went a nice parchment lid and an inverted lid of foil and the Le Creuset lid and this hit the 300F oven for 3 hours.  After the 3 hours were up, I let the ribs cool and tossed them in the fridge overnight.  Braises taste so much better on day 2 and the rest lets you remove the boatloads of fat that will have solidified on the top of the pan.  Tonight we'll warm them back up in the braising liquid and then toss them in a roasting pan.  Then they get glazed with maple syrup that has had a rosemary infusion by heating the syrup and steeping a few sprigs of rosemary in it for an hour. This will have a fire under the broiler to make the glaze all sticky and bubbly. I don't know why I never thought of maple syrup and rosemary together before, the taste is amazing and woody and piney with the sweet maple on top.  So good.  I'll probably mash up some more of those Red Pontiacs tonight as a side.

While the ribs and the leeks were braising in the oven the neighborhood must have smelled pretty strange as I was also making a giant batch of Pho chicken stock for dinner one night next week.  I skinned a whole chicken and cut it into pieces, put them in a pot covered it in water and added an onion and a huge chunk of ginger that I grilled until they were nice and brown.  I tossed some smashed garlic, cloves and black peppercorns in a hot skillet and stirred them around until they were fragrant.  These all went in a tea steeper and plunged in next to the chicken.  4 peeled shallots, 2 pieces of lemongrass smashed with the back of my knife, some fish sauce and rock sugar went in and the whole thing simmered for around 2 hours.  The chicken was all pulled off the bone while the puppy sat directly ON MY FEET willing me to please drop some here.  I drained the stock, discarded all the aromatics and put the chicken back in the stock.  It's now hanging out in the fridge upstairs.  Again, the fat will have risen and solidified so it can be discarded before we have Pho one night next week.

Right now we are photographing a ton of Fiesta pieces and putting them up on ebay for Mom, there might even be a fire later in the kitchen fireplace and a Manhattan before dinner.  Life doesn't get much better than that.

Lamb. The better red meat.

Lamb. 

Why does mentioning eating lamb get more reactions than any other kind of meat?
When I was in culinary school the run through regional Italian had a host of lamb dishes, each time the chef would tell those that pulled a face, you know the one, rather like a two year old trying their first pea, that this version of lamb would change their opinion.  When asked why they disliked lamb their only reaction was to say it tasted gamey. They remained skeptical throughout the creation, but when we all sat down family style to try our spoils there were often one or two in the group who were willingly swayed in favor of lamb.

I just think they grew up eating cuts of lamb that either weren't treated properly or worse, weren't cooked properly. Lamb that has been raised well, slaughtered before they are 1 year old, and properly cleaned of the fell which has the lanolin taste is not gamey at all. Lanolin is the protective coating on a sheep's wool that acts as a waterproofing agent as well as possessing anti fungal and antibacterial properties to protect the sheep. There are even some breeds of sheep like the Katahdin that have a very thin coat that needs no shearing and the breed produces very little lanolin so the meat has a very delicate taste.2

Growing up my Italian father despised lamb above all other foods.  In fact, he wouldn't even tolerate it being cooked in the house.  My Mom would always wait for him to depart on a business trip and immediately go out and buy lamb chops to grill.  We grilled year round on a screened in porch where my Mom had a permanent charcoal grill installed.  Rain, snow, cold, hot, it didn't matter.
My husband, though not as bad as my dad, isn't really a lamb fan either, he'll eat it grudgingly, expecting it to be prepared in the oh so British fashion of a well done Sunday Roast with mint sauce, NOT mint jelly I might add, mint sauce.

Me? I adore it.  I  have lamb at least once a week but I generally have to cook separate meals for me and for him.  I routinely try different presentations, convinced that one day I will hit upon the magic bullet where the little light goes off in his head.

A few weeks ago I was reading Fading Feast: A Compendium of disappearing regional foods by Raymond Sokolov (originally published in 1981) and his essay titled Fleece Afoot: Colorado Lamb caught my attention.  Sokolov talks about the American sheep farmers disappearing nomadic lifestyle of grazing the sheep by following the mountain trails in summer:

"...utilizing a modern system...Gus Halandras pays $2,700 for grazing rights on  20,000 acres of USDA forestlands in the summer.  In the winter he uses 60,000 to 70,000 acres of desert controlled by the Department of the interior's land Management."

In fact "Sheep grazing offers low-cost, natural benefits to the environment and wildlife habitats. Sheep will eat grasses, brush, weeds and other plants, thus controlling undergrowth (and potential spread of fires) in forests and other wooded areas. The U.S. Forest Service has used sheep grazing to decrease soil erosion and to help regenerate tree growth after fires."1

In 1979 when this essay was originally written the amount of American lamb yielded just 1.6 pounds per person, compare that with 120 pounds of beef per person and you can see why the American lamb industry was a dying breed.  According to the author, 90% of that lamb came straight here to the East coast bypassing consumers in the South and the so called fly over states completely. 

Why don't Americans eat more lamb? 

Another quote I came away with from this article was made by sheepherder Gus Halandras:

"What could be more sensible, environmentally, than open-range graising? It takes no grain, no supplementals.  We produce prime meat with grass feed.  Is this country so affluent it can abandon a renewable resource and keep it just for recreation?"

I recently spoke with Kelvin Whall of Meat and Wool New Zealand Limited and Rachelle Lacroix representing the American Lamb Board and I asked a few questions about domestic vs imported lamb. Currently New Zealand exports approx 22,000 tonnes (metric) of lamb annually to the U.S.  this figure only represents 13% of the total US meat market. All of that lamb is 100% grass fed. The U.S. produces approx 207.5 million pounds of lamb/mutton annually, much of this lamb is grain fed. The goal of both of these groups along with the Australian producers is to raise the US consumption of lamb from it's current 1.1 pounds per person a year an amount that is less that 1% of U.S. beef consumption per person. More than 90% of lamb is USDA grade choice or better.

Why are we shipping tons of lamb, and now grass fed beef, here from new Zealand instead of eating lamb from America?

Some have stated that the lamb shipped from Australia and New Zealand is shipped packaged in Cryovac, effectively wet aging it for the 6 weeks or so it takes to come here by boat.  According to this author it makes the imported lamb more tender and delicate than the U.S. based lamb.  I've had lamb from all three countries and I can assure you that American lamb can be just as tender as the imported.  What it will boil down to for most is whether or not to follow the locavore based diet and only eat lamb raised domestically.  I think in theory the locavore diet is a good idea, but I would rather see the U.S. lamb producers feeding a grass based diet instead of the grain based diet they currently use.

Recently I received a gorgeous cut of lamb from the American lamb Board and I set about to make something that might, just might, sway my husband into my corner.  His love of spices led me upstairs to the library to have a consultation with Madhur Jaffrey, Ana Sortun, Cladia Roden and Marcella Hazan.  Ana tempted me with Spoon Lamb from Spice, Claudia showed me some gorgeous Moroccan and Turkish ideas, Marcella just wanted me to roast it, but Madhur, she had so very many ways to tempt me.  I was finally swayed by a Korma recipe with almonds, pecans and sour cream in place of the usual yoghurt or cream. I decided on a side of plain basmati and husbands favourite Gujerati sem with some Kentucky Blue beans I picked up at the farmer's market in Nonantum.
The lamb was so tender, so good, a knife was really not required. He licked his plate clean, saved his leftovers and dragged them out of the fridge to have my mom and S.D. taste them as well bragging about how tender the lamb was.  He really loved it.  I'm so pleased that I'm going to branch out in another direction next time.  We didn't eat all that roast you see, I still have a nice piece tucked away in the freezer. 

Stay tuned for what I'll do next with lamb.

Lamb Korma with almonds, pecans and sour cream

Slice 5 onions in half moons and saute them until they are nicely browned.  Drain on paper towels and reserve.
In a blender (or food processor, but a blender creates a better vortex) puree 1 onion, a peeled 1 inch chunk of ginger and about 5 - 6 peeled cloves of garlic with a little water until it makes a nice paste.
Brown the cubed lamb in the oil the onions were sauteed in.  Turn the pieces on all sides and get some good color. Do this in batches and don't crowd the pan.
Remove the lamb to a plate.
Add that lovely ginger/garlic/onion paste and stir. Cook it until it changes colour and looks brown, just a few minutes.
Add 1 TBS coriander, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp turmeric and stir.  cook this for about 1 minute.
Add 2 - 3 TBS tomato sauce, 1/4 tsp mace, nutmeg, cinnamon and ground clove. 
Cook and stir for 3 - 4 minutes.
Add 1 tsp salt, a few good grindings of black pepper and, if you are us, 1/2 - 1 tsp cayenne, if you are you, adjust accordingly.
Rinse out the blender that had the paste in it with about 1 cup of water and pour that in the pan, toss back in the lamb, stir, cover and cook 25 minutes at a nice simmer.
Meanwhile, add 1/4 cup blanched almonds and 10 pecans along with a little water to the blender and make a nice paste, opening it up and scraping down the sides here and there.
After 25 minutes, add that nut paste and 2 - 3 TBS sour cream.  Stir, cook on low heat with the cover on for another 20 mins (depending on the size of your lamb pieces) or until your lamb is nice and tender.
Taste for salt and serve over basmati rice garnished with the fried onions and if you are a fan, some chopped cilantro.  Serve with a nice mango pickle or lime pickle on the side, a few papadums or some naan and Bob's your uncle.

1: American Lamb Board

2: Heritage Foods USA

Rack of lamb with Gremolata

Dinner tonight.

The photo above is from one I made a few weeks ago.  It was so delicious, that I have been obsessing about it ever since, lamb lollipops anyone?

Gremolata is so easy to make.  In a food processor pulse up some cleaned flat leaf parsley, make a paste of garlic and add that, toss in the zest of a lemon, or two, if you like lemon as much as I do, and then some panko crumbs.  Season the mixture with a bit of salt and pepper.

Sear the fat side of your lamb rack that has been sprinkled liberally with salt and pepper until the fat has some nice colour.  Brush dijon mustard all over the fat side, be generous, pat on the gremolata mixture, drizzle on some melted butter and then bung the whole thing in a nice hot oven and roast for 10 - 15 minutes or until about 145 (less if you really like it rare), it should rise to about 148.

Pull it, tent it with foil and rest it.  Cut the lollipops and enjoy with tiny new potatoes, boiled skin on, and served with butter and loads of chopped chive and a good sprinkling of Maldon salt.  In the oven with lamb roast a few cherry tomatoes, dredge them in some olive oil, salt and pepper and balsamic vinegar.

Spring on a plate.

Kheema with Peas and Fried Onions

On a night when you are looking for something that will cook quickly, taste great and you can make it rather inexpensively as well, Kheema is just the thing.  You can serve it with rice, roll it in pastry to make samosas, stuff an eggplant or a zucchini (courgette) with it and add a bit of sauce to the top.
Kheema, means ground meat and I have made this recipe with all beef or beef and lamb mixed.  It is just as good either way.  It's a bit like sloppy Joe, Indian style coutesy Madhur and her Mum.

Yorkshire Pudding

I decided to make a traditional Sunday dinner this week. We bought a Sirloin end roast from Dewar's, I had horseradish and creme fraiche for horseradish sauce, we had carrots from the farmer's market for mashed carrots (husband's favourite), all that was missing was the Yorkshire Pudding.
Ah...Y.P., what can I say, simple alchemy of eggs, flour, milk and pan drippings turn into the most amazing thing in the oven.
Over the years I have tried many recipes. My mother's, my grandmother's, Delia, packaged mixes but no recipe for me has ever beaten the one from Jane Grigson's 'English Food'. I shall be very bad and copy it here verbatim because the recipe is perfect and the story surrounding it, hilarious.

The Prize Winning Chinese Yorkshire pudding

Several years ago, six chefs competed at Leeds in the 'Great Yorkshire pudding Contest'. To the chagrin of native cooks, the winner was Mr. Tin Sung Chan from Hong Kong, who ran the Chopsticks restaurant. 'his methods were unorthodox,' wrote the Guardian reporter, 'his ingredients oddly arranged, but his pudding swelled to the height of a coronation crown and its taste, according to one of the judges was superb.'

300 ml (1/2 pt) milk
4 eggs
Just under 1/2 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
1/2 tsp. tai luk sauce*
250g (8oz) plain flour, sifted

Mix all ingredients except the flour, beating them well together. I use a one of those cuisinart hand mixers and I let this mixture sit out to get to room temperature or while the roast cooks. I have found that this matters a great deal to the end result. Whisk in the flour. Again, I use the Cuisinart hand mixer for this. Lots of air is good. Heat a roasting pan (I use a Pyrex 9X12 glass dish for this) with either some drippings from the roast or if you are really bad and have Duck fat from D'Artagnan in your fridge use some of that, in desperate times I have used canola oil in a 450F oven until very hot.
Carefully pour in your batter and place back in the oven and cook for 20 minutes 52.2 seconds.
Watch it grow through the window, better than Shrinky Dinks!

*For years i puzzled over tai luk sauce, asking at Chinese groceries without success. Then an enterprising niece found what seems to be the answer: her request for tai luk was greeted with much laughter: apparently it means 'mainland' i.e. 'mainland China'. So tai luck was a kind of secret-ingredient joke, an amiable joke at the expense of Yorkshire patriotism.

Slice or tear into pieces.

J.R.'s Veal Grillades

Back in the day when we used to all hang around in a pack a la Breakfast club we would have Sunday Brunch at a rotation of our houses. It started out with the best intentions of brunch followed by a walk somewhere but generally turned in to an all day food and drinking fest. My friend J.R. from Gulf Shores Alabama gave me this recipe and it is one of my favourites. It is very easy to make and one of those recipes where you see a short list of ingredients and think well, that can't add up to much, but you would be oh so wrong. The alchemy that happens to this dish in the oven turns out a sublime silky sauce created by the roux and the wine and the veal which requires only a fork to eat. J.R. always made it as part of a brunch, but I like it for dinner as well. You can do the first step of this, pop it in the oven and walk away for an hour and a half which is my idea of Sunday cooking.
Oh, and if you ever find yourself in Atlanta and thirsty, stop by Max Lagers and ask for J.R., he's the head brewmaster and part owner, tell him I sent you and make a southern boy happy, tell him you love his grillades.

J.R.'s Veal Grillades

1/4 cup of all purp flour (or more depending on your quantity of veal
salt
pepper
cayenne
1 pound Veal cutlets (Costco has some great ones - and a very resonable price)
butter
Olive oil
2 onions
2 cloves garlic
1 full bottle of white wine (I've used Sauvignon blanc, white bordeaux even pinot grigio just please, please, for the love of grillades DON'T use Chardonnay)

You can do this one of two ways. I season each individual cutlet before dredging in flour. Alternately you could season the flour and just salt and pepper the cutlets lightly as well. You also need to know your audience and how much they like or dislike heat and adjust your cayenne accordingly.

My way:
Preheat the oven to 350 (300 if convection)
I grind a good amount of black pepper in a small bowl, I have kosher salt in another small bowl, cayenne pepper in a spice jar with a shaker lid and then a third shallow bowl with the flour.
Use a heavy bottomed dutch oven with a lid that can go stovetop to oven, heat 2 TBS butter and some olive oil in the pan (again, you made need to add more depending on your quantity of veal), I use about 1/4 cup.
Sprinkle salt and pepper and a shake of cayenne on each side of a cutlet, lightly dredge in flour, shake off excess. Place cutlet in pan and brown on both sides (maybe 1- 2 minutes each side). You are just looking for colour here. Continue with each cutlet, removing them when done to a plate.
When the last cutlet has been removed pull the pan off the heat, sprinkle in the remaining flour (if you seasoned your flour before dredging, add this, if you did it my way, season the flour with some salt and pepper) and whisk. You are creating a light roux here. Jsut cooking it enough to remove the flour taste. Put it back on the heat on med-low and stir for 1 to 2 minutes. Shut off heat when done.

At the same time as I am doing the cutlets I have sliced the onions (pole to pole) and minced the garlic and in a saute pan with some olive oil I carmelize them while the veal is cooking.

When all of the cutlets are cooked and the onions are soft and browned you will assemble this all back in the dutch oven.
Put a layer of the onions on the bottom, layer of veal, layer of onions, until done. Now pour the FULL BOTTLE OF WINE down the side of the pan, not directly on the cutlets if you still haven't covered all of the veal with the liquid you can add some stock at this point. Cover. Put this in the preheated oven and after 1 hour, put a knife in the veal, if it is not butter soft give it another 30 minutes.

When it comes out, it looks like this. Man I wish the web had smell-o-vision.