Lamb Supper Club: Flock-upy Wool-street
The nice folks on the Tri-Lamb Council recently sent us our next shipment of lamb. The seasonal recipe this time around was a lamb flatbread with arugula and goat cheese. It is ground lamb, which is a fun switch from the large roast we had last time. They sent the lamb, along with everything needed to make the flatbread. We again teamed up with our downstairs neighbors and decided to go with a Mediterranean theme.
I am always a fan of making your pizza dough, since it is super easy if you have a food processor. However, they included some frozen pizza dough, so I gave that a shot and it turned out good. If you are holding off making your own pizza because you don’t want to deal with the dough, give frozen dough a try, it seems to work pretty good.
I cooked the lamb ahead of time, which made it really easy to put the flatbreads together later. With the prep work done ahead of time and the oven preheated, we were able to prep and bake the pizza’s in 25 minutes or so and most of that time was just baking them. Everything was easy to put together and required minimal attention, I would definitely recommend this dish if you are having people over. You get to have fun hanging out and you still impress your guest with a delicious dish.
Lamb may not seem like a normal pizza topping, but really it is a natural fit. On pizza you want a strong meat, like pepperoni or sausage, and seasoned ground lamb delivers perfectly. While this recipe has more of fancy, Mediterranean flare, you could easily take it in a different direction with some Italian seasonings and a tomato base.
The Mediterranean theme really came out in the dessert and our drink selection. One of our guests brought Galatoboureko, which is a Greek phyllo custard and is extremely delicious. Between the eggs, butter and phyllo, it may not seem that healthy, but the recipe makes a lot of servings and it is really good, so who cares. We also had a nice assortment of Greek liquors, all of them were pretty strong. Metaxa is a Greek brandy, which if you are a fan of brandies, is supposedly pretty good. No one was too keen on it though, it might be better mixed with something as opposed to straight up. Kitpon Naeoy is a lemon liquor that is produced on the island of Naxos and is made with the fruit and leaves of the citron tree. Since citron taste sort of like a lemon, it tasted a bit like lemoncello, but was a bit more mild. It used to be popular, but went out of style and most of the citron trees were cut down. It is pretty rare now and almost impossible to get anywhere besides on Naxos. This was a much bigger hit and everyone was a fan. The final liquor Carolyn and I brought back from Crete, where we got it from a random honey vendor on the side of the road. It is a honey liquor that was about the same strength as citron one and quite tasty too. Unfortunately, we have no idea what it is called and can’t read Greek.
One of the best parts of the evening were the pun filled place cards that came with the Lamb kit. Here are a few of our favorites, along with some educational lamb tidbits.
- What is a lamb’s favorite protest movement? Flock-upy Wool Street
- What do lambs do if they can’t sleep? Take a Lambien
- How do lambs get to the hospital? In a Lambulance
Facts:
- On average, a 3-ounce portion of lamb contains 25 percent of the daily value of niacin, necessary for processing nutrients and proper enzyme function.
Lamb Pizza with Peppers and Arugula
Ingredients:
- 1 package pre made whole grain pizza dough (about 1pound), thawed if frozen
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound ground lamb
- 1 medium shallot, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon dired oregano
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 cup slices pepperoncini peppers
- 3/4 cup goat cheese crumbles
- 2 cups (about 2 ounces) arugula
Directions:
- Heat oven to 450 degrees. Brush rimmed baking sheet with 1 teaspoon olive oil; using your hands spread dough over entire length of the baking sheet, pushing dough to edge (or roll out on floured surface and transfer to pan). Bake pizza dough for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.
- Heat 1tablespoon oil in large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat . Add lamb, shallot, garlic, tomato paste, oregano, 1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, cook until lamb is completely browned about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Brush par-baked crust with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Evenly distribute cooked lamb and pepperoncini, top with crumbled goat cheese. Bake for about 15 minutes, until cheese looks slightly melted and edges of crust are golden brown. Toss arugula with remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil, set aside. Remove from oven and top with dressed arugula.
Galatoboureko
(Greek “milk pie” or phyllo filled with custard)
Ingredients:
Custard filling
- 1 lb. phyllo dough (12”x”18 recommended)
- ½ lb. butter, melted
- ½ gallon whole milk
- ½ c. sugar
- 8 eggs
- 1 c. farina (cream of wheat)
- 2 tsp. vanilla
Syrup
- 1 c. water
- 2 c. sugar
- juice of ½ lemon
- 1 tsp. vanilla
Directions:
- Bring syrup ingredients to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Cool completely and refrigerate.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook milk and sugar and vanilla in a large saucepan over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Slowly stir in farina. Continue stirring until mixture comes to a boil and thickens slightly. Beat eggs in a bowl until very thick. Pour a few ladlefuls of hot milk mixture into beaten eggs to temper. Pour egg mixture into milk mixture and continue stirring over low hear until mixture is thick and foamy. Remove from heat.
- Butter a 11.5”x17”x2.5” pan. Layer 4 sheets of phyllo, overlapping the sides of the pan and buttering between each sheet. Layer 6 more sheets on the bottom of the pan, buttering between sheets. Pour custard into pan and turn overhanging phyllo on filling. Brush with butter. Cover custard with the remaining (10 or more) phyllo sheets, buttering between each sheet. Before baking, cut through the top layers with a sharp knife into 2” squares.
- Bake 45-60 minutes or until phyllo is golden brown. Test for doneness by inserting knife into the center of the galatoboureko. Knife should come out clean. Spoon cold syrup over galatoboureko. Use ¾ syrup at first and add remaining syrup as needed. Cut when completely cool and refrigerate.
Pasta With Caramelized Onion, Swiss Chard and Garlicky Bread Crumbs
For the past month we have always come back from the farmer’s market with a nice bundle of Swiss Chard so we can make our new favorite pasta dish. We still love Putanesca, but this dish offer a nice alternative. It has the same pungency from the garlic and anchovies, but the substitution of breadcrumb and chard for the tomato sauce completely changes it attitude.
You can just use store bought crumb, but it is pretty easy to make your own if you have some bread lying around. Simply cut it into cubes and microwave it on half power until it is dried out. You could also dry it out in the oven if you have it already going. The simply toss it in the food processor and process away. Keep them in an air tight container and they should last a while. If you do use store-bought ones, reduce the amount you use. Try only using 1/2 a cup.
Pasta With Caramelized Onion, Swiss Chard and Garlicky Bread Crumbs
From: NY Times
Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
- 5 anchovy fillet
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2/3 cup bread crumbs
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus additional for drizzling
- 1 yellow onion, halved from stem to root and thinly sliced crosswise
- Kosher salt and pepper
- 1 pound Swiss chard, ribs removed, leaves chopped
- 1/2 pound whole-wheat pasta, such as fusilli.
Directions:
- In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add 3 anchovies to the skillet; cook until melted, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute. Stir in the bread crumbs and toast until golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
- Wipe the skillet clean and return it to a medium-high heat. Add the oil, the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until very soft and caramelized, 15 to 20 minutes. Chop the remaining 2 anchovies and add them to the skillet. Cook until melted. Add the Swiss chard, a handful at a time, and cook until wilted, about 4 minutes. Cover and keep warm.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain well. Toss with the chard mixture and bread crumbs, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil.
Japanese Octopus Snacks
Luke | October 5, 2011 |
I picked up this snack from my favorite grocery store in DC, Hana Japanese market. They have an amazingly good selection of Japanese products given the size of the store and staff is nice and helpful… and they are on Twitter!
It is pretty easy to figure out what this snack is… it is very clearly octopus. The mysterious thing about this snack is how they managing to preserve them. The octopus have a texture similar to cooked ones and are definitely not dried. They are sold on the shelf though and don’t have any indication that they need to be refrigerated. Clearly the Japanese have managed to create a shelf stable, cooked octopus snack. Ever more impressive, it is still tasty.
If anyone has any insights on how they are preserved or the name of this style of snack, please let us know!
Supper Club – Broiled, Butterflied Lamb
So here is a conundrum: “Do I not cook 7lbs of meat because I don’t host dinner for 10?” or “Do I not host dinner for 10 because I don’t cook 7lbs of meat?”
Luckily, the Tri-Lamb Group helped me break out of this Catch-22 with an offer of a Lamb Dinner Kit for 10. We are big lamb fans, as we have posted previously, and even had Lamb for Thanksgiving instead turkey a couple of years ago. The offer of free lamb was just what was needed to help us break this stalemate and overcome our hesitations for having a large dinner party.
Just pulling off a nice dinner for Carolyn and myself is a bit of challenge with Elena running around. In order to pull this off I realized we needed a Team approach. Luckily, our awesome neighbors who live downstairs, Matt & Natalie, were game for helping out and more importantly, hosting.
We scheduled the dinner for Saturday and a large, insulated box stuff with a lot of lamb and all the necessary recipe ingredients arrived on Friday. While it is not to tough to cook large amounts of meat, it can take a lot of time. If the meat is left in one large piece, the heat has to penetrate all the way through. However, if you butterfly or flatten it out, you are able to cook it much quicker. Butterflying a portion of meat exposes more of the surface to any marinade or rub and also gives it chance to brown; both of which add lots of flavor. the challenge in creating more surface area is that you need a larger pan. If you have a grill, that is not much of a problem. Unfortunately we are stuck in a condo without a good place to grill. A broiler does make for a good grill substitute though and worked great. There was an alternate recipe included for indoor cooking, but it called for searing the butterflied lamb in a pan before roasting it in the oven and we didn’t have a pan which could fit all that lamb. I butterflied the lamb in the morning and let it marinate all day in the fridge. It was very easy to butterfly, the only challenge was trying to get all the lamb in to a ziploc bag.
The Dinner Kit also came with what I thought was an absurd amount of green onions, to be grilled and served with the lamb. The onions get tossed with oil, salt and pepper and then grilled (or broiled). The funny thing with onions though is that they cook down… a lot. I had to cook the 4 bunches of onions in 3 batches and they ended up yielding a couple onions per diner. I made them ahead of time, along with a batch of herbed and roasted potatoes. We reheated everything downstairs while the lamb cooked upstairs. The green onions were delicious, they had a slight char but a sweet flavor from the roasting. They would be a great addition to any meat you are grilling or broiling and worked particularly well with the lamb. Natalie also put together an Asian slaw that had red cabbage and apples. Its brightness and crispness provided a great contrast.
Since the marinade for the lamb had ginger in it we made some cocktails which had ginger in them. Matt made a bourbon based one with ginger which he put through their juice along with a dash of orange bitters. I made a slushie drink that had a frozen lemon, ginger and mint simple syrup which was blended and frozen ahead of time. Everyone came over around 7pm and we started by sampling the drinks. Meanwhile, I started the lamb going upstairs under the broiler. One of the benefits of butterflying lamb, is that it cooks much faster. The only drawback is that it means it can get overcooked more quickly if you are not watching… perhaps because you are enjoying drinks downstairs. Even with my inattentiveness, the lamb ended up being medium-well instead of medium. Since the butterflying leaves some portions thicker than others, you end with different amounts of doneness. This is good because not everyone like the same The smaller portions were a little overcooked, but the larger portions were just right.
Another valuable lesson for cooking large portions of meat for lots of people: always prepare a sauce. A little bit of sauce can cure almost any amount of overcooking. Since the marinade was little Asiany and because I had a ton of Shiso growing in our garden, I made a pesto out of it. The flavor of the shiso pesto and acidity from the lime juice into worked great with the lamb and give a nice little flavor boost.
Of course what dinner would be complete without a little dessert?! Carolyn made a fruit salad that continued the ginger theme with a ginger syrup. We served it on pound cake, topped with toasted coconut and a side of vanilla ice cream.
While the thought of cooking a large portion of meat or hosting a dinner for 10 seems a little daunting, both are pretty easy, especially with a little teamwork.
Grilled Butterflied Leg of Lamb
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup Low-Sodium Soy Sauce or Tamari
- 1⁄4 cup Honey
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 3 to 4 Anaheim Chilies, thinly sliced (ribs and seeds removed for less heat)
- 1 (5 to 7 pound) boneless butterflied leg of lamb (see directions below)
- Canola oil
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 4 bunches, green onions
- Salt and pepper
Directions:
- Whisk soy sauce, honey, ground ginger and chilies in small bowl, transfer to large plastic zip top bag. Add lamb, close bad and rub marinade into lamb. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, but up to 8 or even overnight if time allows.
- Remove lamb from marinade and set on tray.
- On a gas grill, turn all burners to high, close lid and heat until hot, about 15 minutes. Scrape grates clean and brush with oil. Grill lamb, fat side down, 25 to 35 minutes total, turning half-way through cooking, depending on desired doneness, about 145 degrees for medium rare and 160 degrees for medium.*
- Remove from grill and loosely cover with foil, let rest about 15 minutes and thinly slice. While lamb is resting, toss green onions in 1 teaspoon olive oil, season with salt and pepper and grill, turning occasionally, until charred, about 3 minutes.
Serve with charred green onions, sautéed sugar snap peas and steamed brown rice.
Alternate Broiler Method: Position oven rack 4 inches from broiler element. Broil the meat until it is nicely browned, even a little charred, on both sides, about 20 to 30 minutes, and the internal temperature at the thickest part is about 125°F; this will give you some lamb that is quite rare, as well as some that is nearly well done. Let rest for 5 minutes before slicing thinly, as you would a thick steak.
Icy Lemon-Ginger Vodka Cocktails
From: Food & Wine
Ingredients:
- One 3-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 cups water
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1 cup fresh lemon juice (roughly 6 lemons)
- 8 cups crushed ice
- 2 cups vodka
- 8 mint sprigs, for garnish
Directions:
- In a small saucepan, combine the sliced ginger with the water and sugar and bring to a simmer over moderate heat. Simmer for 5 minutes, then let the ginger syrup cool slightly. Transfer to a blender and puree. Strain the syrup into a large, shallow glass dish. Stir in the lemon zest and juice. Cover and freeze the lemon-ginger syrup until firm, at least 4 hours.
- Let the frozen lemon-ginger mixture stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Chop the mixture into large pieces. Put half of the pieces in a blender, add 4 cups of crushed ice and 1 cup of vodka and blend until slushy. Pour the vodka cocktail into 4 glasses, garnish each with a mint sprig and serve. Repeat with the remaining frozen lemon mixture, ice, vodka and mint sprigs.
- Serve at once.
Make Ahead: The lemon-ginger mixture can be frozen for up to 1 week.
Notes: Peel the ginger’s thin and delicate skin by scraping down the root with a metal teaspoon. A spoon maneuvers around the nubs more easily than a pairing knife.
Shiso Pesto
Note: I just guestimated when I made and had to quadruple it since I had lots of shiso
Ingredients:
- 2 ounces green shiso leaves (japanese perilla)
- 1 ounce chopped walnuts
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (halve if using regular salt)
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lime juice (from 1/2 a lime)
Directions:
- Put the shiso, salt, olive oil, and lime juice, in a blender or the work-bowl of a food processor and whirl it around until it’s a fine green puree.
- Add the walnuts and process until it is chunky.
Blue Bottle – Fancy Pants Coffee
While I was out in San Francisco last month, I was able to get brunch at Blue Bottle Coffee. They are very persnickety about brewing coffee and make a pretty mean brunch too. Since I was luckily on East Standard Baby time, I got there right as the started serving food and right before the lines started forming.
While they can do extra fancy espresso drinks from their human powered, lever driven machine, the true jewels are there cold brew and vacuum pot machines. Both of these beauties were imported from Japan and are a marvel of persnicketiness.
The cold brew machine is similar to method we use to make iced coffee. However, instead of letting the grounds and coffee to sit, they slowly let the water drip through the grounds. Very slowly. And precisely I should add, roughly 88 drops per minute. The result is a very strong cup of coffee that is full of flavor without much acidity. It doesn’t have the cardboard taste that the coffee we cold brew sometimes does, but I am sure they are using better coffee than Folger’s.
Their other amazing machine is a set of halogen powered vacuum pots. Vacuum pots are nothing new, but they are sort of finicky and not very common. The pot has two bulbs, connected in the middle with a valve. There is water in the bottom bulb and coffee in the top. When you heat the water filled bulb, it boils and expands up to the top bulb mixing with the grounds. You then take it off the heat; the lower bulb begins to cool creating a vacuum and sucking the coffee back through a filter. The standard pot goes for about $40 or so, and gets heated on the stove. The Blue Bottle folks use the same style pot, except they heat theirs with a $20,000 computer controlled, halogen heat lamp. I didn’t get a cup of this style because: I already had a cup and become twitchy with two and the price wasn’t listed, which scared me.
One of the advantages of going on the weekend is that they serve breakfast. They only have 6 or so dishes, but they all sounded great. I went with the poached eggs, served over braised greens and a catalan style tomato sauce. I like my eggs a little runnier than they made them, but they were awesome mixed with greens and sauce. By the time I was heading out, the caffeine was just kicking into high gear and the line was out the door.
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