Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6
That looks amazing John, what is it?
|
A boneless leg of lamb. Mustard-herb mixture inside, then sous vide for 6 hours at 130F. For some reason that I don’t understand, it took forever to heat up. I was running late on prep and overconfident. Started with lamb at room temp and water at 130F, but 5 hours in, the internal temp was still <120F. I finally pulled it still below target 130F, and tried to salvage an underdone situation by cutting the 7 lb leg in half, opening it up, and searing it hard on inside and outside. Worked, just barely. Dinner guests liked it, though I’d have liked it a bit more done. On top is a chimmichurri (minced basil, cilantro, jalapeno, garlic, shallots, tomato, lemon juice, etc).
Normally I do leg of lamb with rosemary, garlic, butter and roast in oven. This was an experiment. Whole dinner was an experiment, made stuff I don’t usually do. Lentils with eggplant puree, grilled zucchini salad, etc. Turned out okay.
The grilled zuk was trivially easy. Cut small zucchini on the diagonal into long 3/8" slices, salt, pat dry, grill to get nice char marks, then roast until tender, and toss in balsamic vinegar. Cut Parmesan cheese into large flakes and crumble onto the zucchini. Toss peeled hazelnuts in olive oil, salt, and sugar, roast until fragrant, break into fragments (2 second spin in the RobotCoupe), and add. Chop up mint leaves, cilantro, garlic, spices of your choice (cumin, etc), and toss in. Drizzle with red wine vinegar. This was very popular.
The lentils were more complicated. Simmer small green lentils with carrot and onion until tender, drain and discard the carrot and onion. Dice carrot, celery, tomato, garlic, shallots and roast in a pan. Roast eggplant, extract flesh, put in Robot Coupe with creme fraiche (or yoghurt or tzatziki sauce) and process to a soft puree, adding spices (I used paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, wasabi power, salt and pepper) until the sweetness of the eggplant is accented with some heat. Mix lentils, roast veg, eggplant puree, and maybe a little olive oil, stock, water (or puree'd lentils) to get a loose, moist texture. Top with creme fraiche (or yoghurt or tzatziki sauce). My wife hates lentils, but loved this.
I also made panko crab cakes, which were tasty but didn't hold together - next time I'll add some egg white as binder. I'd defrosted some salmon filets for salmon cakes, but wife picked up lump crab instead, so I have to cook the salmon soon. Going to figure out some way to use the left-over roast hazelnuts on that.