2nd Annual Lamb Jam

When I heard that last year's wonderful Lamb Jam event was going to be repeated, I started spreading the news. My parents haven't stopped talking about how much they enjoyed the event last year. Sponsored by the American Lamb Board and BostonChefs.com, the event pits some of the top restaurants in Boston against each other in a battle for lamb domination.

When I reached out to my press contact about getting a ticket, I was surprised and happy when she offered me a judging spot instead. I arrived early and joined my fellow judges for what ended up to be a rigorous tasting schedule. Each dish was presented to us without a hint of who created it, and we judged on presentation, creativity, and taste. There seemed to be a general consensus on things down at my end of the table, but I was surprised at some of the eventual winners. Restaurants had picked their cut of meat - leg, loin, shank, or shoulder - and we picked a winner for each category, as well as a "best in show."

Winners
People's Choice: Oleana
Leg: Citizen Public House
Loin: Gargoyles on the Square
Shank: The Fireplace
Shoulder: Garden at the Cellar
Best in Show: Gargoyles on the Square

All of the entries (in the order of our tasting):

• 606 Congress - Pulled Lamb Shank Agnolotti with Balsamic Brown Butter and Chocolate Gremolata (picture)
• Bondir - Chilled Braised Shank set in Clarified Broth with Parsley and Carrots, Pistachio Vinaigrette and Salad (picture)
• The Fireplace - Braised Lamb Shank with Sheep Milk Cream over Winter Squash Stew and Cheesy Cornmeal Porridge (picture)
• Henrietta's Table - BBQ Beer Braised Lamb Shank with Charlie Baer's Money Beans and Stone Ground Grits (picture)
• Tomasso Trattoria - Braised Lamb Shank Ravioli with Marscapone Cheese (picture)
• Garden at the Cellar - Lamb Sausage Ssam with Nuoc Cham, Kimchi Slaw, and Crispy Garlic (picture)
• Red Lion Inn - Porcini Braised Lamb Shoulder with Berkshire Blue Hominy and Equinox Farm Kale (picture)
• Rialto - Lamb Scotch Eggs with Winter Salad, Lamb Bacon Lardons, and Truffle Vinaigrette (picture)
  
• Oleana - Lamb Cammama - Spiced Lamb Shoulder with Onions, Moroccan Dates, Almond Bread, Carrot Salad, Blood Orange, and Cilantro (picture)
• Bistro du Midi - Cumin and Garlic Sous Vide Lamb Loin with Braised Lamb Neck Ravioli, Baby Carrot, Pine Nuts, and Lamb Jus (picture)
  
• Gourmet Caterers - Sumac Dusted Lamb Loin with Crispy Chickpea Cake and Preserved Orange Tomato Chutney (picture)
• Sel de la Terre - Shepherds Pie Napoleon - Maple Smoked Lamb Loin, Pea and Carrot Pastry, Pommes Dauphin, with Carrot Gelee and Pea Foam (picture)
• Gargoyles on the Square - Poached Lamb Loin with Black Truffle, Cauliflower Espuma, Bee Pollen, and Fried Garlic (picture above)
• Aura - Roasted Leg of Lamb with Merguez Sausage Cassoulet, Bruleed Eggplant, and Yogurt (picture)
• Citizen Public House - Jerky 3 Ways: Whiskey Smoked, Honey Ginger, Rosemary Sea Salt (picture)
• Pain D'Avignon - Lamb Leg Frankfurter cooked in Rapscallion Honey Beer with Lamb Bacon Sauerkraut and Rapscallion Honey Mustard on Lamb Fat Griddled Brioche Bun (picture)
• Russell House Tavern - House-made Merguez Sausage Slider with Warm Smoked Lamb Belly Vinaigrette, Minted Pickles, and Harissa Ginger Aioli (picture)

Full Disclosure note: My ticket to the event was given to me for free by the American Lamb Board.

Cherry Lime Pie

One of the funny things about family traditions is that it can be hard to tell that they're specific to your family only. Growing up, we had cherry pie every February for Presidents' Day. I mentioned this recently to one of my brothers, and he said "I thought Mom just liked cherry pie." I mentioned to some other people that I wanted to bake a cherry pie soon for the holiday, and almost no one saw the connection. Was this just specific to my family then?

Since cherries, along with almost every other kind of fruit, are out of season in the winter, I like using frozen dark cherries. They don't have quite the same flavor as sour cherries (the usual kind used for pie), but the addition of lime gives the cherries more depth. Cherries and lime just taste so bright and fresh, the perfect thing for a winter day.

I haven't included a recipe for the dough because everyone seems to have their favorite pie crust. I like all-butter dough. I was a little pressed for time this time, though, so I used store-bought dough. The outcome wasn't quite as good, but I was still happy with the overall pie.


Cherry Lime Pie
pie dough (use your favorite, enough for a double crust)
6 cups frozen dark cherries, defrosted
4 Tbsp cornstarch
1 1/4 cup sugar
zest and juice of 2 limes
1 Tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
milk
sanding sugar

Preheat oven to 425°. Line a deep pie dish with dough (1/8th inch thick) and crimp the edges. In a large bowl, combine cherries, cornstarch, sugar, and lime zest and juice. Pour cherry mixture into pie dish and dot with butter. Roll out second half of dough to 1/8th-inch thick and, using a small star-shaped cookie cutter, cut out as many stars as possible. Arrange dough shapes over the top of the pie, overlapping so they can bake together. Brush top with milk and dust with sanding sugar.

Place pie plate on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 375° and bake for another hour, until the filling is set and bubbly. Use a pie crust shield or foil around the edges if the edges brown quickly. Let cool completely before serving.

Citrus-Braised Endive Pasta

I had so much fun creating a recipe for December's Kitchen Play event that I thought I should try my hand at a recipe from this month's gathering, sponsored by California Endive. Frankly, I don't know if I've ever had endive before, but this seemed like as good a reason as any, so I jumped right in.

Wicked Good Dinner's recipe for citrus-braised endive (the amuse bouche entry on Kitchen Play) immediately intrigued me, and I thought it was perfect for this time of year. As I read through the recipe, though, I thought that the flavors would make a great pasta sauce as well, so I changed the recipe around to become a whole meal.

I'm so happy with how this dish turned out. The flavor combination is unique and unexpected but so harmonious. The final dish is sweet and salty, bitter and unctuous, soft and crispy - there are just so many good things going on! This dish serves 2, but could easily be doubled.

Citrus-Braised Endive Pasta (adapted from Wicked Good Dinner)

2 Tbsp honey
1 garlic clove, minced
1 small grapefruit, zested and juiced
1 Tbsp grated ginger
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 white endives
1/2 cup (3-4 slices) minced bacon
1 Tbsp olive oil
4 oz of penne (or other pasta shapes) (about 1/3 of a box)
1 orange or grapefruit, supremed (I used a blood orange)
1 avocado, cubed

Whisk together the honey, garlic, grapefruit zest and juice, ginger, and vinegar and set aside.

In a medium pot, bring salted water to a boil and add endive. Cook for 4 minutes, then remove from pot and cool slightly; chop into 1/2-inch pieces (I discarded some of the tips of the outer leaves that had turned brown while boiling). Set aside. Discard water (it will be bitter) and refill pot. Bring water to a boil for pasta.

In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium-high until crispy. Remove bacon pieces and drain on a paper towel. Add pasta to boiling water and cook according to package. Add olive oil to the remaining bacon fat in the pan, then add endive and spread it across the bottom of the pan. Allow to cook 3 minutes or so until it begins to caramelize, then toss the whole mixture and allow to caramelize on the other side for another 3 minutes or so. Remove endive from pan. Add honey mixture to the pan and bring to a boil, whisking up all the little bits from the bottom of the pan. Reduce heat and cook 3 minutes, until reduced. Add endive, bacon, orange wedges, avocado, and cooked pasta and toss to coat (you can add a few tablespoons of the pasta water to create a little more sauce). Salt and pepper to taste.

Mini Cinnamon Buns

Every January for the past few years, I spend a weekend at my friend Ann's house while her husband goes skiing in Vermont. Inevitably, the weekend turns into an all-you-can-bake affair, and I'm pretty sure Ann's favorite part is when I wake up before she does and bake something out-of-the-ordinary for breakfast. This year's treat? Mini cinnamon buns, as found on Can You Stay For Dinner?

I had been planning on making cinnamon buns for our extravagant breakfast, but all the recipes I was finding (including the one in the new Flour Bakery cookbook, which I ended up making other delicious things out of) involved yeast and many hours of rising time. So when I Stumbled (a great way to find food blogs, by the way) across this ready-in-half-an-hour recipe, I knew I had hit paydirt.

My buns didn't come out quite as pretty because I used a mini muffin pan, and the cups were the size of the sliced rolls, which didn't allow room for them to spread out. However, I think I prefer how mine looked - since they couldn't spread to the sides, they spread up, into little conical shapes, which made them look a little more substantial than they were.

Mini Cinnamon Buns from Can You Stay For Dinner?
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp butter, softened slightly
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
milk (about 1 Tbsp)

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Grease the cups of a mini muffin pan, and set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together brown sugar and cinnamon, and set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the cream and mix until the dough just pulls together and is soft and moist.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until you have a roughly 12x7 rectangle. Smear softened butter all over the surface of the dough, then sprinkle the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture evenly over the butter. Starting at one of the 12-inch sides, roll the dough up into a tight spiral.

Use a sharp knife to cut the roll into 24 small spirals. Place each spiral into a cup in the prepared baking pan. Bake about 12-15 minutes, until the buns are lightly golden. Cool on a wire rack.

While the buns are cooling, whisk together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and a splash of milk until smooth. Add a little bit of milk at a time until the glaze is just slightly runny (you don't want it too watery, so go slow!) Drizzle the glaze over the buns before serving.

Starting the Year Off Right

One of the best Christmas presents I received this year came completely out of the blue. I have somehow managed to get myself into the good graces of the American Lamb Board, and just before Christmas, a huge packaged showed up on my doorstep. Inside, safely wrapped in a duffel-sized cooler bag, was a beautiful crown roast of lamb - something I've heard of, but I don't think I had ever seen in person. My parents immediately claimed it for our family New Year's Day dinner, and it was packed into the freezer to await its date with the oven.

On the big day, I decided to go with the recipe that had been sent along with the meat (well, mostly - we left out the roasted veggies that the recipe places in the center of the roast). It involved two whole heads of garlic, panko breadcrumbs, and fresh rosemary and thyme. I absolutely loved how it turned out, and I would probably make this coating for other cuts of lamb as well. The only problem I had was that it had to cook much longer than the recipe said, mostly, I think, because I never managed to get the lamb into a circular shape, leaving not enough room in the middle for the hot air to circulate.

Of course, I wanted a side dish that was equally spectacular to go with such a great piece of meat. I turned to an idea that I had been wanting to try for ages - smashed potatoes. If you search for a recipe with that name, though, more often than not you'll end up with a recipe for mashed potatoes. Not the same thing at all. Instead, I cobbled together a few ideas to end up with what are, to me, the ideal potatoes. I would eat these every day, no joke. They're crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside, and topped with plenty of salt (rosemary is optional, but I think it helps). I even tried the same technique with little cipollini onions, and although they didn't crisp up, the flavor was a hit - sweet and unctuous. In fact, the softness of the onions served as a nice contrast to the crispiness of the potatoes. (You can see the onions on the tray better in this picture.)


Festive Lamb Crown Roast (from American Lamb)
2 heads of garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup Panko bread crumbs
3 tablespoons chopped herbs (rosemary, basil and thyme) I just used rosemary and thyme
1 American Lamb crown roast, cap removed from ribs
Salt and coarse ground pepper

Cut 1/2 inch off the tops of the garlic. Place in small metal pan and drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil. Roast in 375°F oven for 1 hour. Cool and squeeze soft garlic cloves into small bowl. Mash with remaining 1 tablespoon oil; set aside.

In small skillet, melt butter and add bread crumbs. Stir and cook until browned. Pour into bowl and mix in herbs. Place roast in roasting pan. Rub garlic mixture over outside of roast. Generously season lamb with salt and pepper. Pat on bread crumb mixture. Roast at 375°F for about 45 minutes or until desired degree of doneness. Remove roast from oven, cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Carve and serve 2 to 3 chops per serving.

Smashed Potatoes (or, the only potato recipe you'll need from here on out)
*This also works well with cipollini onions - just cook in the same way as the potatoes.*
small potatoes (1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter)
olive oil
kosher salt
chopped rosemary (optional)

Place potatoes in a small pot and cover with water (at least 1 inch over the potatoes). Add a good pinch of salt and bring water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until you can pierce a potato with a fork but there's still a little resistance (too soft and the next step won't go too well). Drain potatoes and let cool slightly.

Preheat oven to 450°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drizzle olive oil across the whole baking sheet. Place a potato on the sheet and slowly flatten it with the bottom of a ramekin or a large flat-bottomed glass; repeat with the rest of the potatoes. Drizzle more olive oil on top and sprinkle with salt and rosemary. Roast for 30-40 minutes or until desired crispiness is achieved.

Full Disclosure note: The lamb was sent to me for free by the American Lamb Board.

Holiday Castle Siege

What would Christmas be without creating something ridiculous out of cookie? A few years ago, there was the Great Gingerbread Massacre, and last year, my friends and I recreated the movie Zombieland with gingerbread. After "castle siege" was suggested this year, I knew I would have to attempt it. I immediately googled "gingerbread trebuchet" and got some great ideas. (Click the picture above to embiggen.)

(By the way, in my googling, I found the most amazing recreations of scenes from the Lord of the Rings, done entirely in candy. Check them out.)

My friend Melody was along for the whole ride, and many of her suggestions are what made this thing so awesome. While I was baking the pieces, she pulled out a toy horse cookie cutter and said that we had to make a Trojan horse. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a HUGE nerd about the Trojan war, so how could I not make one after she pointed it out? I put a little platform between the two horse cookies and loaded it up with little men. There's even a ladder on the back for them to climb.

There are just so many awesome things in this scene, and they make me laugh just thinking about them. There's a prisoner who's being set on fire, men on top of the wall with vats of hot pitch, a ladder thrown over the castle wall, a guy sneakily trying to set the castle on fire, and a few men impaled by thrown javelins.

And of course, there's the gingerbread trebuchet. The thing actually moves!! The counterweight is a little house-shaped box attached to a pretzel rod with a toothpick, and the basket is a mini cupcake wrapper attached to the pretzel with string licorice and loaded with Whoppers. The pretzel itself is attached to the base via a wooden skewer, and it moves up and down. The only thing missing is a mechanism to secure the basket pre-firing. Hey, I'm no engineer.

By the way, this whole thing was made with one batch of my favorite gingerbread and one batch of royal icing. It was all pretty easy (although I am aware that my definition of "easy" is a bit skewed.)

I love having fun with gingerbread. Have any good gingerbread creations to share?

Za'atar-Crusted Chicken with Pomegranate Tabouli

A few months ago, I heard the rumbling about a new site that would pair food bloggers with products in order to create unique recipes. Little did I know that I would be joining in the fun that is Kitchen Play so soon!

I was sent a link to MySpiceSage.com, this month's sponsor, with the instructions that I was to pick out something to use for an entree. Immediately, my mind was racing. With an entire spice store at my fingertips, how was I to narrow down my recipes? I wasn't sure what to do, so in the end, I just picked a wild (and not often used) spice, za'atar, figuring it could use a little love, and started brainstorming.

Za'atar is a blend of dried herbs (MySpiceSage.com uses thyme), sesame seeds, and salt. There are as many variations on this blend as there are cooks who use it (and can include oregano, marjoram, sumac, savory, cumin, coriander, fennel, or caraway), but those three ingredients are what makes za'atar za'atar. I opted to add some sumac to my mix to give it a lighter, fruitier flavor. Of course, if you like the base flavor of the spice mix, the real fun comes in blending your own to get exactly the flavors you like.

When it came to actually using the za'atar, though, I was a little stumped. The only place I've ever seen it used was on bread, much like foccacia, at my local Armenian grocery store - definitely not something to make an entree out of. So I opted to stick with the Armenian flavors and pull out a little trick that my mother had used in my childhood.

Whenever my mother and I would go through the effort of making boreg (either sou boreg or the crispy version that is much like spanakopita triangles), there would inevitably be leftover cheese filling. Instead of just throwing it away, she would combine it with chicken and bake it up for dinner, like a nice little preview of the special-occasion appetizers we had slaved over all day. I don't know why I never thought to ask her just to make that for dinner without having to go through all the other cooking.

So here we are: crazy Middle Eastern spice + childhood memories = a dish that is perfect for any dinner party (or any dinner, really). I paired the chicken with a winter-y version of tabouli, incorporating pomegranate seeds, more sumac (which may be my new favorite spice after this challenge), and just a hint of spicy cayenne pepper (ok, I added more than just a hint to my final dish, but you don't have to go as far as me). The chicken reheats wonderfully, and the tabouli is almost better the second day, so don't worry about having leftovers around.

You can join in the fun of the Progressive Party and earn a chance to win $100 by recreating this and other recipes at home. Check out the contest page of Kitchen Play for more details.

Za'atar-Crusted Chicken
2 cups (about 8 ounces) shredded muenster cheese
1/2 cup cottage cheese
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
6 chicken breasts
1/2 cup za'atar
1/2 cup panko
1 Tbsp sumac
2 egg whites

Preheat oven to 350°. Coat a 13x9 glass baking dish with cooking spray and set aside. Combine shredded muenster cheese, cottage cheese, and parsley, stirring well to evenly distribute, and set aside.

Place one chicken breast between two sheets of wax paper and, using the flat end of a meat tenderizer, a rolling pin, or the flat bottom of a pan, pound the chicken until it is uniformly flat. Don't hit it too hard or the meat will tear. Place 1/6th of the cheese mixture in the center of the flattened chicken and pull the sides up around the cheese. Use toothpicks to secure the chicken closed. Repeat with the remaining chicken.

In a shallow bowl, combine za'atar, panko, and sumac. Dip chicken in egg white, then za'atar mixture, making sure to evenly cover all the sides. Place chicken in the prepared baking dish, seam-side down. Bake for 40 minutes. Make sure to remove the toothpicks before serving.

Pomegranate Tabouli
1 cup fine bulgur wheat
2 cups hot water
1 tsp salt
1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
1 Tbsp mint, finely chopped
1/4 cup lemon juice*
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp sumac
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
salt and pepper

Place bulgur wheat in a large bowl and pour in water. Stir in salt and cover with a kitchen towel. After 30 minutes, drain off any excess water. Stir in parsley and mint. Whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, sumac, and cayenne and pour over the salad. Add pomegranate seeds and salt and pepper to taste; mix well to combine. Best served at room temperature.

*Microwave your lemon for about 10 seconds to get more juice out of it - 1/4 cup juice should be about one lemon.