recipe – Page 2 – The Constables Larder

Roasted Lamb with Grain Mustard and Soy Sauce

Lisl first made this lamb roast not long after we met. If I went for sensational titles I’d call this the “how to impress your new boyfriend without slaving in the kitchen, but make him think you did” lamb roast. It actually remains my favorite way to cook lamb by a long shot, and it is so easy to do that it isn’t really a recipe but a simple process (which is one reason why I have time to blog it at the moment).

Lisl prefers to do this roast with a leg of lamb, but we used a boneless lamb sirloin roast and while it fell apart a bit when slicing, I found this cut to be incredibly good. I also loved the gratin we served with it, which I’ll describe at the bottom of the post.

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Sauted Beet and Turnip Greens with Bacon and Legumes; misc food notes

Beet greens are a new, delightful discovery to me. For the longest time, I carried a grudge against beets for the appalling way they treated my childhood taste buds. My conclusion, at age 8, was only the only one logical, or even thinkable: like Romeo from Verona, the vegetable must be banished. Of course, my mother wished that I could think in terms of the Bard at that tender age, but I was probably too focused on drawing spaceships destroying each other with intricate multi-colored laser beams.

Lisl has brought many new things into my life which I find surprisingly enjoyable, like children (well, maybe the jury should be out on that one), washing up as I cook, pavlova (more on that below), and beets. Roasted beets with goat cheese, walnuts, and arugula. That’s so good, it doesn’t need to be a grammatically proper sentence. However I digress from the initial impetus of this post, which was me using more of the greens from the vegetables I purchase. Who knew that you could eat beet, turnip, radish, dandelion, etc etc greens? (Answer: many of you, but not me until last year!)

I purchased some beets with the greens still attached and fresh. I also found these baby turnips with their greens at the Kingston, NY farmers market (now open). When Lisl and I had dinner at Blue Hill at Stone Barns the other weekend (wonderful experience), one of my favorite elements was the simplest: raw baby turnips with a subtle dressing. And that is exactly how I ate the beauties in the above picture. But rather than throw out the greens, which I might have done in an earlier, more ignorant phase, I sauted them with the beet greens in this fairly classic combination:

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Grilling ideas: ground lamb, marinated london broil steak

When summertime arrives, as it did in gorgeous fashion this weekend, a lot of my cooking shifts outside to the grill. If you are the same, and looking for ideas, here are two different flavor profiles you might find interesting: grilled lamb and feta meatballs with a yogurt mint sauce, and a ginger, mustard seed and soy sauce marinated london broil (aka flank steak).

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Cauliflower and Fennel Gratin (say “bechamel” 10 time fast)

My predilection for comfort dishes means that gratins, bechamel and cheese are recurring themes, but before I begin, forgive me a small rant: there is a fine line between a dish that is richly delicious, and one that is so packed with cream and butter that you can barely eat a second bite. Too many restaurants err on the wrong side of that line.

I remember reading the author of Cooking School Confidential write about learning the optimal way to prep potatoes for mashing in order to get as much butter into them as possible. My first reaction was “interesting” and my second was “maybe this is why I never like the mashed potatoes in restaurants.”

It reminds me of watching Anne Burrell explain, as she grabbed a huge handful of salt, how restaurant food is tasty because it is “better seasoned.” And I thought, “is that a euphamism for salty?” It is true that many tentative home cooks under-salt in the cooking process, but at least guests have a chance to rectify that. I find American Italian restaurants to be the worst offenders of over-salting.

This isn’t just about health, although that is relevant to this topic, but just the observation that more is not always better. I understand a restaurant’s desire to exude luxury, but you shouldn’t need a red wine strong enough to punch you in the jaw to make it through more than a few bites of a dish.

Now isn’t that a marvelously hypocritical way to introduce a dish with bechamel (one with more butter than flour even!) and cheese?! This dish is not something I would eat every night, but it was utterly delicious and while it went right smack up to the aforementioned line, it stayed just on the right side.

I’d quip that I ate my hypocrisy most happily, but perhaps the serious analysis is that the term “too rich” is subjectively like what the judge said about pornography: “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.”

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Chicken, Ramp and Hot Paprika Skewers

If you are like me, and have used your ramp whites for pickling, then you have a whole bunch of delicious ramp greens to use before too much time passes. Here is a really simple thing to try that got a great response from Lisl:

Chicken, Ramp and Hot Paprika Skewers
Chicken breasts
Ramp greens
salt
pepper
hot hungarian paprika (or a mix of paprika and chili powder)
olive oil

If you are using wooden skewers, soak them in cold water.

Place chicken breasts between two sheets of plastic wrap on a sturdy surface, and thin them to 1/4 inch or less by banging with the bottom of a heavy sauce pan (cast iron has *so* many uses!).

Cut into slices 1.5 inches thick and about 4 or 5 inches long. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then place a ramp green on top, roll it up, and place on the skewer. If you end up with some smaller pieces of chicken, just cut them into squares about the same height/width as your rolls, cut up some ramp greens to about the same size, and alternate chicken and ramp green on the skewer, packing together closely.

Sprinkle both sides of the skewer with a little more salt, pepper, and a liberal amount of the hot paprika. Flip and do the same for the other side. Let rest for 20 minutes or so.

Ideally you will cook these on a hot grill, but in my case my grill is not totally fixed, so I broiled them right up under the heating elements in the oven for just over two minutes a side.

Serve by drizzling e.v. olive oil on top, and with a slight sprinkle of coarse sea or kosher salt. The ramp flavor really comes through and it all works together nicely. Don’t forget the olive oil at the end!

Pork Pastries with Pickled Onions, or The Stuffed Cabbage That Kept On Giving

stuffedcab-meat-pie-plated

I barely know how to start this post, or write it. It was the story of the recipe that turned into three. Our saga begins with our protagonist (that would be me) adapting a Richard Olney recipe for stuffed savoy cabbage. Enter cabbage stage left. Enter stuffing stage right. The audience gasps.

Now, I don’t know what kind of uber-cabbages Olney was eating in the south of France, but as my imaginary heckler would say, “zat stuffing will nevarre feet in zat cabbage! Zat ees not a vrai Franche cabbage!”

I had a lot of extra stuffing. I mean I had 6 pork pastries and a meatloaf worth of extra stuffing. But like all good tales, our protagonist learned along the way and came to a happy conclusion. The learnings: that I prefer to stuff individual leaves to an entire cabbage, and that this stuffing makes a damn good meat pastry/pie! Yes valiant readers, unlike a French movie, this tale ends happily (and with no cigarettes or accordian music either!).

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Stuffed Zucchinis with Pork, Ramp Greens, Asiago, Crème Fraîche and Lemon Zest

What defines a “comfort” dish? Sentimentality, based on good home cooking? Texture? Ingredients? Process? Rustic presentation? I can’t quite put my finger on it. This particular dish qualifies, but perhaps anything with the word “stuffed” in its name stacks the deck a little too steeply in its favor. It is interesting how a word so derogative when applied to humans becomes so delightful when applied to food.

As I mentioned the other day, Gourmet Worrier’s recipe for Qarabaghli mimli bil-laham caught my eye. I ran with the concept, and created my own version, which combines ground pork shoulder, some nicely smoked bacon, aged asiago cheese, breadcrumbs, crème fraîche… oh nevermind, the recipe is below the fold!

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Ramp and Mushroom Risotto

Every once in a while, you read amusing stories about the tension and strife that ensue when cooking in your mother’s kitchen. The hovering. The unsought advice. The skeptical brow. Unfortunately for you, dear reader, I have no such stories from this recent dinner. In the making of this ramp and mushroom risotto, I had free reign. Perhaps it is because I am male, or perhaps it is simply the nature of my mom, but there was no drama to rivet this tale.

I think we got most of the mother-child conflict out of our systems when I was in high school and needed heavy pushing to study and get into a good college. Her obstinate determination at that task exceeded even my own innate and not-insubstantial stubbornness. In the end, her mission was accomplished, for which I am eternally grateful.

Turning the tables and making her a great meal is the least I can do. This risotto, while not innovative in the slightest, was particularly good for three reasons: a homemade vegetable broth made with patience, the use of the last of my ramps, and a mix of porcini, shiitake and oyster mushrooms.

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Prosciutto-wrapped figs, arugula and goat cheese salad

I learned to cook from two women: my mother, and Julia Child. The latter was from a book, but nothing beat looking over my mother’s shoulder and pestering her with questions. This occurred shortly after I graduated from college, moved to Austin, and quickly realized that the only way I could afford decent food was to make it myself. It did not take many canned soup evenings to tenderize my brain into an eager state to learn.

When we traveled down to Washington D.C. this past weekend, I had a chance to cook in my mother’s kitchen and tried to make the most of it as time permitted. The dinner was not complex, but the results were successful: this salad followed by a ramp and mushroom risotto (posting next). This post is about the salad: simmering dried turkish figs with thyme, wrapping them with prosciutto, and serving on a bed of arugula, walnuts and goat cheese with a lemon/olive oil dressing. At the bottom of the post, I’ve also included some photographs taken while walking around Georgetown.

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Ramps, Ramps, and Ramp Fritters

Easter Sunday was a bit unusual for me this year. I spent the morning with family, but ever-patient Lisl gave me special dispensation to spend the afternoon tromping around the woods with a bunch of other food bloggers collecting wild ramps, fiddleheads, stinging nettles, wild garlic, and more. This outing was organized by Marc of No Recipes (who has a full write-up of the event and resulting menu on his blog, along with some great photos) and Jonathan of Lab 24/7.

(Clockwise from top-left: ramps; stinging nettles; fiddleheads; non-edible but pretty flowers)

I now understand the special appreciation people have for ramps. Douse them in olive oil and sea salt and toss under the broiler for a few moments, and the results will make you go weak in the knees. Since Sunday, I have also eaten pickled ramps, sauteed ramps with the drippings from a roast chicken, made ramp fritters (recipe below), and later this week will be making a ramp risotto. One has to strike when the iron is hot!

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