Channeling Julia Child - Part 2: Lamb Shanks

As previously mentioned, I've been on a bit of a French food binge lately!!  And as promised, here's the "two" of the one-two punch of French deliciousness I promised, my lovelies: Lamb Shanks!  For the serious carnivores out there, this is the recipe for you :)

While I could eat mounds of ratatouille just by itself, I decided that this special harvest from the family's garden warranted an all-out feast.  And since I had lamentably neglected my kitchen for a few weeks between work and wrist surgery, I was jonesin' to spend an entire evening in an apron-wearing, sauce-reducing, wine-sipping euphoria!!

Lamb has always been one of my favorite proteins - with a few tricks it's easy to cook well, and it's a departure from the everyday trifecta of beef/chicken/pork monotony.  The only problem with lamb is that most cuts can be *ridiculously* expensive, even from places like Costco (which are cheaper...but also not that great!)  This is why the lamb shank is a thing of beauty - it's a cinch to cook, and you can usually find it for about $4-5/lb....which is cheaper than boneless/skinless chicken breasts in alot of places!  TIP:  Always ask your butcher the days that they order lamb to ensure you're getting the freshest cuts. 

In order to bring out the full flavor of the lamb shank, it's necessary to brown it before cooking in the oven.  (I highly recommend long sleeves for this part, because it's gonna spit sizzly-hot lamb goo at you!)  Make sure you get a nice golden brown crust on all 4 sides - this ensures that the thin outer layer of fat & fell (which is a thin, paper-like covering on most shank-style cuts) will break down nicely during cooking. 

Transfer browned shanks to a deep roasting/braising pan (a good 4" deep should do the trick!) and add in the veggies, wine & herbs. Be sure to use a good red...Chile produces a fantastic red called Carménère, which is part of the Cab family of grapes.  It has nice, soft tannins and ranges from plummy to curranty.  My two favorites that are widely available are Montemar Andes and Root 1. 

There's one secret to ensuring the cooking liquid is extremely flavorful:  Before adding the wine, pour it into a large saucepan, add the fresh herbs, and simmer for 10min.  This will ensure that the flavor of the herbs is integrated with the braising liquid, rather than two separate flavors.

My biggest challenge with cooking lamb shanks is not being able to dive in the second they come out of the oven, because seriously, the entire house smells ridiculously delish! But to get the perfect dish, there's still alot of work to do.  If you want some silky-smooth lamb gravy (of *course* you do!) you'll need to remove the shanks to a plate & keep them warm, and transfer the veggies to a serving dish.  Strain the remaining braising liquid into a saucepan, add a pat of butter and some cornstarch to thicken, and let it simmer for about 5-10min.  If there was a way to pump this sauce straight into my veins, I think I'd do it.

I served this with couscous cooked in half beef stock and half pomegranate juice and a nice, generous helping of ratatouille.  Voila!

I was blessed to share the evening with one of my favorite people in the whole wide world: my Mama!! She has been my "culinary guinea pig" for some time now, and despite the fact I utterly lack her magical ability to have all of the dishes ready at the same time and we seem to eat at about 10pm, we always have a blast :)  We paired the meal with a 2006 Domaine Chandon Les Collines Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir...and lots of laughter!!

I hope when you enjoy this meal that you have someone as wonderful as I did to share it with!

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(Addendum:  I can't believe I forgot! One of the best things about cooking lamb is the leftovers...the next day, I seared some fresh apricots in cloves and agave nectar, grabbed a nice crusty roll, found some peppery arugula, and made a killer lamb sandwich.  C'est magnifique!!)

Channeling Julia Child - Part 1: Ratatouille

I'm reasonably certain that with the amount of French food I've been cooking lately, my blood is now flowing with butter instead of Chianti.

Perhaps the inspiration has come from finally purchasing the collector's edition of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and part of it is hoping that if I keep making slow-cooked comfort food that Fall will finally arrive!  Either way - while I've been woefully remiss about posting for the last few months, I'm going to bring you a one-two punch of French deliciousness this time.

One of my favorite things about summer is the bounty from our garden - between Tiffane and my Auntie Diane graciously keeping me stocked with beautiful tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, eggplant and other tasty treats, I hardly have to spend any time in the produce section anymore :) These tomatoes are just incredible!! I've been known to stand over the sink, add a quick dash of Kosher salt, and just eat them standing up, juices running down my arm....and if this were a crime, I think everyone in my family would be locked up ;)

 

When you have access to vegetables this fresh, inspiration comes very easily...I took one peek at the bag of veggies and decided that it was about time for some Ratatouille.  I've made it many times before - tried a chunky version, and a more blended/incorporated version, but the texture and presentation were never quite right - it always ended up tasting great but looking like mushy baby food!  This time, I decided that I was going to try it in a pie dish, and for the "look" I turned to the Disney movie Ratatouille for inspiration (yes, you're free to mock me for getting my inspiration from a cartoon rat!) Those perfectly round slices, all overlapping so nicely, steam wafting off the top....THAT'S what I'd been missing!  I tracked down my mandolin, cued up the movie on Netflix, and went to town....and *finally* nailed it.  

One of the secrets to this dish is the layering - a layer of tomato paste on the bottom, a layer of thinly-sliced garlic, a layer of heirloom tomatoes, and a layer of eggplant...all before the zucchini and bellpepper layering begins! I made sure to drizzle each layer with a little bit of olive oil and fresh herbs - and the result was an incredibly moist, flavorful dish. 

I can't quite describe the feeling that comes over me when I take the first bite of a garden-to-table creation and I'm just transported to another place - when the tastes, textures and temperature all come together in a perfect symphony...The finished product:

So, since it's Labor Day weekend....take this opportunity to wear white one last time, then hit up your local farmer's market or roadside produce stand, get what's left of the summer tomato and squash harvest, and enjoy!!

Making the Foreign Familiar

One of the things I love the most about food is it's ability to transport you back to a previous place and time...My senses of smell/taste, as anyone who has lived with me knows, is insanely potent (which is good news if you're a self-proclaimed foodie, and bad news if you're walking down NY streets in the summer on garbage day!)

My mom and I just returned from a fantastic trip to Italy to celebrate her 60th birthday.  One of the best and simplest meals we shared were some nice toasty panini at a little outdoor patio in Siena. They couldn't have cost us more than about 2E each (and perhaps it's because I had just schlepped up the 400+ stairs to the top of the tower!) but they were wonderfully savory and delicious.

Mama's sandwich had thick-cut prosciutto, melty mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, and artichoke hearts marinated in lemon juice that were nice and tart.  And the bread. Ohhhhh, the bread.  Kinda like how bagels are better in NY, *all* bread is better in Italy.  The gelato is too, but that's another post for another day ;)

My "little" slice of heaven was stacked full of some fabulously fatty pancetta and nice peppery arugula. That's it. I'm a purist, I suppose!  Here's a shot for you to feast with your eyes:

Now that we're home, I find myself having these intense cravings for all of the wonderful tastes that we had while in Italy...If I'm this bad now, heaven help me and my cravings when I'm pregnant!!  Since one of my favorite pastimes is enjoying a meal then whipping up a similar concoction at home, I thought I would give it a whirl this weekend.  So I bring you the Sapori d'Italia Sammy:

 Voila!!  The fig preserves are what complete the recipe - a little trick I stole from a sandwich in an airport lounge somewhere during my travels...Mom and I sat out on the balcony, enjoyed this manna from heaven, and reminisced about our trip to Italy.  Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

 Ciao a tutti!!

The Healing Powers of Zuppa

Ever have one of those days where your body just needs the healing power of soup?  I'm there.  Between fighting a head cold, a blood infection, and a case of the Mondays, my body needed some TLC. 

There's lots of good folklore about soup in my family...We have Stracciatella, lovingly referred to as "sick soup" that we make *all* the time - but that's another recipe and story for another occasion.  And my Nana used to say that if you ate hot soup in hot weather, it will help cool you down. While those in my family suffering from hot flashes may disagree, I think she was on to something.  So in 73 degree Sacramento weather, I cranked up the gas stove and got cookin'.

There's something distinctly therapeutic about chopping veggies.  Perhaps it's because I've slowly gotten better at it over the years, and perhaps because it helps me empty my mind, but whatever the reason, it really calms me.  Some people do yoga, I chop veggies.   

Forgive the crap-tastic iPhone photo, since I can't seem to find the battery for my camera. But if you make the Recipe yourself, this is what awaits you:

May the healing powers of Zuppa be with you :)

Polpette (aka: That'sa Spicy Meata-balla!)

I'm a sucker for tradition.  Yeah, I said it.  And nothing says old-school Italian tradition like an insanely large batch of homemade meatballs.  Crunchy on the outside, deliciously meaty and seasoned and tender on the inside.  ::muah:: Bellisima!  So I marched over to see my buddy Brian at the meat counter at Bel Air to pick up some ground beef and pork, popped the rest of the ingredients into my cart, and headed home to whip me up a batch of tradition :)

One of the things I remember about meatballs when I was a kid was that it was really the only meat I would eat.  My poor mom, God bless her, used to do *anything* to get me to eat in an effort to keep my freakishly lanky body nourished (clearly, I'm making up for lost time now!) She'd make batches of meatballs and add in wheat germ - not a bad trick for some extra nutrients - and let me dip them in honey (yes...honey) to get me to eat.  As I've grown, I've come to associate them with more family - meals at Grandpa & Shirley's house, eating bowls of pasta and meatballs off of Shirley's brightly colored dishes, using garlic bread to sop up the sauce. My family has clearly never met a carb they didn't like. 

One of the things I promise to do is to share the recipes for all of the photos of the food I make myself.  So check out the Recipes page for this one!  (A warning to all my vegan/vegetarian friends...you may want to divert your eyes)  Here's batch numero uno:

For those of you with a veggie aversion, I'm sure you're thinking "that's an awful lot of green in that meatball" - but trust me...the fresh herbs are what makes this recipe a knockout.  And make sure that you keep a golf ball handy to gauge that they're the right size - I keep it right on the counter, since I have a tendency to want to make them tennis ball sized. Bigger is better, right?? Not in this case...

Seriously, the hardest part is waiting.  Once you pop these babies in the oven, the whole house starts to smell like toasty, meaty goodness.  Honestly, if I could bottle that scent and dab it behind my ears, I don't think I'd be single anymore ;)  When they come out of the oven, they've got this little crust of bubbly goodness around the bottom and they just sit there and sizzle.  

 

Yum.  The finished product is rows upon rows of deliciousness: 

If you're going to try out the recipe, I must insist: Friends don't let friends use sauce from a jar.  If you're considering using sauce out of a jar, please call/text/send up the Italian Batsignal immediately and I'll come to your rescue, even if I'm out jetsetting somewhere.  Do yourself a favor and pick up the May edition of Bon Appetit Magazine for some so-easy-your-helpless-college-roommate-could-do-it recipes & tips for all things Italian. 

Buon appetito!

A Fresh Start

There's something both refreshing and wholly terrifying about starting a blog.  I think it's the notion that there's something so *permanent* about putting your ideas, your dreams, your thoughts, and your photos out there for all to see. 


If you're here, you know how much I love food. And photography. And sharing what drives me.  Whether it's the uniting love of my family, the grace of a country sunset, or that moment of bliss that comes from absolutely perfecting a dish...I've always had a desire to capture and share these moments the best way I've found: through the lens of a camera. 

Cheers!