Archives for December 2007
When in doubt, stuff it
When I ordered a leg of lamb from Eric and Carrie Johnson they asked me if I wanted it boneless and I said no; I always prefer my meat roasted with its bone in as it increases the flavor of the final product. But that’s just my stock answer, actually I had no idea how to cook a leg of lamb and even on Sunday as the lamb sat on my counter I still wasn’t totally sure what to do with it.
I have a Cook’s Illustrated book about roasting meat checked out from the library, so I consulted it. Very rarely does CI steer me wrong, and yet when they do (much like google maps) it can be a confusing and tense situation. Unfortunately for me this proved to be one of those instances of “what the hell were they thinking”. They began by advising me to place the leg, meaty side down! What do they mean, meaty side down, it’s all meaty? Then they instructed me to remove a gray lymph node from the leg, cautioning me not to pierce the node with my knife. So I fondled the meat, trimmed the excess fat, and hesitantly poked about for this “lymph node”. At that point I’m doubting the whole idea of leg of lamb, and that’s when I decided that those well defined lobes of meat were coming off the bone.
This brings me to a truth I’ve encountered on more than one occasion, but which I always forget; the best way to get to know a new cut of meat is to debone it. Working my blade through the tender meat allowed me to see clearly that there was no lymph node hiding anywhere. Not there, thank god! I butterflied all the large pieces of meat and the odd scraps and bits were chopped fine and cooked up for Lovejoy.
I have a standby, foolproof, stuffing for meat that is so simple and flavorful it never misses. I take 4 slices of whole wheat sandwich bread and toast them. One they are cool I grind them up in the food processor along with 2 cloves of garlic, a 2 inch chunk of Parmesan, half of a frozen cigar of basil, salt and pepper. Add just enough olive oil to make it come together and it’s done.
Season the lamb on both sides with salt and pepper, spoon the stuffing onto the meat and pat it evenly across. Add strips of a fire-roasted bell pepper. Roll it up, secure it with string and bake it on a roasting rack in a 350F oven until the thermometer reads 135F. Remove it, let it rest for 10 minutes, cut the strings off, slice and serve.
The results were, much to my relief, extraordinary. The lamb was flavorful, tender, and almost sweet. The stuffing was indeed the perfect foil, and it was cooked perfectly for our tastes. Everyone liked it and I’ll certainly make it again.
Lessons learned: Cook’s Illustrated is sometimes scary wrong, using your knife to get to know a new cut of meat isn’t a bad thing, and when in doubt, stuff it.
French yogurt cake with apples and vanilla mascarpone
It is that time of the year when darkness settles down around us so early in the afternoon that it seems like a cruel joke. 4:30 rolls around and I’m ready to snuggle into a spot on the couch with a glass of red wine, the fireplace on, and a good book to read. Can’t someone else make dinner? Of course, that’s a rhetorical question. What few cooking skills Genius Husband had before he met me have all been lost and replaced by elegantly simple programming skills. Besides, it’s not time to cook dinner yet, there are errands to run, appointments to keep, groceries to purchase. Once I do finally make it to the kitchen I’m looking for quick and easy satisfaction. Even better is a quick and easy dessert that is so good you’ll actually lick the plate.
It all starts with the one of those elegantly simple things I do, the french yogurt cake. That cake is like solid gold, so flavorful, moist, and effortless. The only rule with this cake is you absolutely must use good vanilla, otherwise it’ll lack flavor. I find that if I preheat the oven when I first enter the kitchen I can have the cake baking while dinner is cooking on the stove. Once the cake is out of the oven it doesn’t take it long to cool.
Now here’s the good part. Peel, core, and slice one apple for each person you’re serving. Add some butter to a skillet and melt it over medium heat then add some brown sugar and stir to dissolve. Add the apples and let them skitter about the pan for 5 minutes or so…they shouldn’t be fully cooked so much of this depends upon the apple itself. When you feel they’ve cooked enough add some Brandy. I used armagnac and I recommend it for its fruitiness. Light it on fire and let it burn off while you shake the pan. Once it’s subsided add a bit of cinnamon. Remove the pan from the heat and set it aside for a moment.
Turn the mascarpone out into a medium bowl and thin it with a bit of cream. Add the insides of one vanilla bean (about 3 inches long) and stir well to combine it and work out the lumps. Do not under any circumstances leave this component out, that would be a huge mistake…like leaving the bacon out of a BLT. Sure, it’s still good, but it is absolutely not the same.
To plate this dessert coat the bottom of the plate with the juicy syrup from the apples. Place a slice or two of cake on top of the syrup and pile the apples up alongside the cake. Top it all with a really big dollop of the mascarpone.
This could only be made better with a sprinkling of toasted or candied pecans…but that might be gilding the lily and I know I can be excessive. As it stands, ungilded, the flavors are epic, yet subtle. I must admit that it is, by far, my favorite dessert of 2007, and lets face it…I’ve had a lot of good desserts this year.
S’more me to my soul
Lucky us, we got a snow day today. I guess if you grew up in the city or in a balmy part of the world you might not have experienced the pleasures of a snow day. But I’m sure you can imagine…a day just like every other day, filled with appointments, to-do lists, and obligations, then suddenly…it’s all called off on account of snow. Oh, happy day!
I took advantage of my unplanned day off to craft a new bar cookie, one I’ve been contemplating ever since I made those marshmallows. LAmonkeygirl’s comment about deconstructed s’mores got me to thinking about a s’more bar cookie. I searched the internets to see what was out there and all the recipes were miserably disappointing and involved a chocolate chip cookie base. That just didn’t sound like a s’more to me.
I started with a standard graham cracker crust. Then I added a layer of milk chocolate. Yes, I could have used bittersweet, but honestly, those s’more I had as a kid were made with Hershey’s milk chocolate and I wanted to stay true to that experience. After the chocolate melted I added a layer of my marshmallows. Back into the oven until they were all melty and soft then I topped it off with buttered graham cracker crumbs and I let that bake for a bit. When it came out it had melted all together and look really gooey and good.
The results are heavenly…a chewy, buttery, chocolaty treat that is sure to bring back memories of campfires, friendship bracelets, and kumbaya. But really these are so much better…no nasty mosquitoes, outhouses, or poison ivy. These s’mores are right at home on a cold winter day.
S’more bar cookies
1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
Another ½ cup of graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons butter, melted
10 ounces milk chocolate
Marshmallows
Put the first three ingredients in a 11” x 9” baking dish. Using a fork or your fingers mix this together well and then press it into the dish so it is flat and level. Bake at 350° for 7 minutes or until it begins to brown on the edges.
Crush 8 ounces of milk chocolate into little bits and distribute them evenly across the surface of the crust. Put the dish into the oven for 5 minutes or until the chocolate has melted enough to be evenly spread across the crust.
Once the chocolate is spread about add enough marshmallows to cover the chocolate. Put the dish back in the oven and allow it to cook for 5 minutes or until the marshmallows puff up and turn golden brown on the edges.
Remove the dish from the oven and spread the marshmallows so they evenly cover the surface. Combine the remaining butter and graham cracker crumbs and spread them across the surface. Bake for 10 minutes or until it looks golden brown, bubbly, and gooey.
Recent comments...