Pistachio encrusted lamb chop with asparagus
This fabulously simple and elegant feast was made possible by the kind farmers of Wisconsin. The lamb was procured back in December from Carrie and Eric Johnson of Jordandal Farm. I’ve been hording it for this exact meal…the first feast of the spear. But holy smokes, this lamb blew the asparagus out of the water. Don’t get me wrong, the asparagus was everything it should be, tender, sweet, toothsome. But the lamb…wow, it’s as if pistachios were made just to dress up this already tasty chop. Then I gilded the lily by napping it with pure pistachio oil…oh yeah, pistachio oil is the schizz.
The pistachio oil was procured from Madison’s Vom Fass. This unique store sells wines, spirits, oils, and vinegars from the casks. The pistachio oil is just one or dozens of oil they have on tap. Since it’s salad season I recommend some quality olive oil and vinegars for your garden, market, or CSA greens. They also have some inspiring brandies that I can’t wait to try.
The pistachio crust was just a few handfuls of pistachios, breadcrumbs, olive oil, and a shallot whirled about in the food processor.
Frozen cheese and sherbet cake
I’m only human and occasionally I have moments of lapsed judgment. When I was younger that might have entailed too much alcohol, hilarious dancing, and howling at the moon…seriously folks, I was a wide wild child. But now that I’m older I try not to damage myself…so in this case my lapsed judgment involved some organic berries trucked in from Cali. I know…the carbon footprint on those delicate little guys is almost more than I can bear; and although I hesitated, I still did it.
Because that’s when I began to imagine this frozen confection. I had some graham crackers from TJ’s that were nixed for s’more duty by my youngest, so I figured they could be used for a crust, and as I shopped I decided that some raspberry sherbet sitting on top of that crust wouldn’t be a bad thing, especially if I embedded the berries in the sherbet. Then in the back of my mind I’m going over what I could add for the next layer and I decided cream cheese and Greek yogurt mixed together with some vanilla would be a tangy, creamy counter point to the sherbet and berries.
Was it good…yup, it was. Did it have problems…oh yeah…major problems…
- It weighed a ton.
- I forgot to chill the cheese mixture after I whipped it up and when I put it on top of the sherbet it made the sherbet melt.
- Once it was fully frozen it was solid…solid like a rock.
- Did I mention it was heavy?
- The berries were large and when they froze they were like stones.
- It had to sit on the counter for at least 30 minutes before it could be cut.
- It then had to sit on the plate for another 10 minutes before it could be approached with a fork.
- It had the potential to damage teeth.
Obviously I need to rework this concept. Here’s the thing, I like cheesecake but I don’t like cheesecake that’s baked…it’s texture really freaks me out. The cheese portion of my cake was delicious, tangy and cheesy, but alas, frozen hard as a rock. The sherbet was a good addition with its sweet smoothness contrasting nicely with the crunchy hardness of the crust, but it melted before the cheese mixture softened. I think when I try to make this again I’ll use gelatin instead of freezing it…that would give my cheese portion some sturdiness. The sherbet could be substituted with… a fruit puree? Hmmm, I’m not sure about that. I do think the next crust should be made with amaretti cookies, that would be an improvement.
Okay my über intelligent, creative readers…any suggestions on how to fix this?
Avocado, cucumber salad
I hate to admit it but I can lose a lot of time reading food blogs and drooling at food porn on Tastespotting. I can easily rationalize it as time well spent keeping up with my fellow food bloggers. I get my best ideas from food blogs and the more I read, the more creative I get.
This salad is a riff on Kalyn’s shrimp and avocado salad. I’ve been hooked lately on these little persian cucumbers. They’re about 4 inches long and they’re seedless. Their flavor is very intensely cucumber and they’re dense and crisp…everything you want in a cucumber. I added them to the shrimp, green onions, and avocado chunks.
These baby mustard, beet, kale, and mizuna greens make a soft and tasty bed for the avocado, cucumber, shrimp mix.
For the dressing I threw a large handful of cilantro into the cuisinart, added an avocado, and a big splash of lime juice, and 1/2 teaspoon of chilpotle. I whirled that around and tasted it. Then I added some olive oil to smooth out the flavors.
Plated and garnished with pistachios and coconut shavings it was much prettier than I thought it would be. As I’m writing this up I’m thinking it sounds like a frankenstein salad. But it all worked well together. The cucumber’s crispness was a nice contrast to the shrimp. The slightly spicy baby greens were the perfect compliment to the cool smoothness of the avocado and the dressing was delicious. Almost like a guacamole, but not really.
