I'm having a little trouble re-entering blog-land, so I thought I would share pictures (such as they are — I started out with great intentions and quickly got bogged down with the intensity of preparing and consuming this dinner, so don't laugh too hard at my attempts) of Phil's birthday gala, since it was a departure from our normal round of family dinners (which I love, don't get me wrong, but I can do more than meatballs and soup!).
He has me in charge of his big birthday, so it kinda got short shrift. Why? Because he doesn't really want anything and he's not super…sociable. I mean, he loves our friends and enjoys being with them, but gathering them for a party for him would be a little too close to torture for his taste. Yes, that's right, honey, it's your fault that I am not good at throwing you a party.
I guess he wants an observation hive, but it's not like I can make that for him. {He did ask for my consent to his making one. It's a hive. With bees. Indoors.}
He needs a new mouse pad. I could get him that. It's a little sad for a 60th birthday present.
Never mind all that. Back to my amazing story.
First, as you very well know, he gallantly made us dinner on the actual day, because we thought we'd have a normal Tuesday schedule in which we go from violin to art class to soccer practice to choir practice.
As it turned out, Bridget was sick and all those activities got canceled, but even more schedule-upending, my mom was in the hospital awaiting open-heart surgery! (She's quite better, now, thanks. All the prayers and good thoughts did wonders. She's taking the stairs two at a time and doing push-ups in the shower. Well, not quite, but almost!)
But about a month ago, when asked what he wanted for his birthday dinner (to be celebrated on the weekend), he told me that he wanted to give me a Top Chef challenge. He'd give me a list of ingredients and I'd have to make him a meal!
That is my kind of fun. (Wait, whose birthday is it?)
Maybe it would have been more fun with other people competing (I think Nick and Natasha did something like that once), but this way is a blast. I'm not sure what I'd do with people in my kitchen competing with me. I think I wouldn't think that was fun.
So here was his list:
lamb
garlic
ginger
mint
eggplant
cumin
raisins
figs prunes (I don't know what was up but there were no figs to be had. If I hadn't spent all week going back and forth to the hospital, maybe I could have found them. But we went with prunes.)
He had no pre-conceived ideas, he says. And that list isn't too odd — I mean, the things all work together, in my opinion, but still, given the real shortage of interesting lamb cuts around here, it got my creative sap on the rise.
See the beet in the wrapper back there? For some reason my beets went pfffttt this year. |
By the way. Are you someone who is a little nervous about entertaining? (I didn't entertain with this meal at all, in the sense of having company. In fact, it was just Phil, Bridget, and me!)
My number one secret to feeling calm when throwing a dinner party is to make dessert first.
Entertaining and hospitality get a little overwhelming once you move beyond the “who's bringing the six-pack” phase of life.
I find that having dessert squared away, as it's the most expendable yet memorable part of an evening, gives a good sense of control.
I made the cake in the little bundt I found at a yard sale and a layer cake pan, rather than one big bundt. |
It turned out that I had to shop and prepare this meal all in one afternoon! I just never got out before the last minute! Aargh.
So I got those little expensive lamb loin chops (these were the choices in the two big stores I went to:
The measliest little leg of lamb — it won't be good, because it's too small! Roasts have to be big to be succulent. I think these are from little pygmy lambs.
Ground lamb — okay, but not super festive and Top Chef-y, eh? I wished afterwards that I had gotten some anyway for the eggplants…
No rack. Domage, because that would have been showy.
Boneless roast, also from pygmy lambs.
So chops it was.
My photographer and my floor licker, respectively.
I had little eggplants from my garden that I had roasted whole and tucked in the freezer and all the other things on the list on hand (except the blankety figs).
Now, you know, in a Top Chef challenge you get to use other things as well as the required ingredients.
So our first course was a salad made with a big round of garlicky roasted beet with spinach, pistachios, feta cheese, and dried tomatoes (from the garden). The dressing was a balsamic vinaigrette. It was truly fabulous if I say so myself.
Do you see that beet round in there? |
The main course was pan-roasted (you have to say that because “fried” is not appetizing and it was too wet out to grill) lamb rib chops. They had a topping of caramelized onion and a brown sauce of pan drippings fortified with beef stock (from the pot roast I had made earlier in the week), wine, a little balsamic vinegar (okay, the last of the dressing that was left over, and it was perfect), and mint.
I forgot about taking more pictures until half-way through the meal, but there were two chops per person (man those things are small) and so I figured that if I scrunched everything over to one side of the plate you'd be none the wiser.
The sides were creamy mashed potatoes and snow peas lightly steamed (to a perfect delectable crunchy tenderness) with a little dusting of mint.
Aaaaaaand, stuffed baby eggplants. They are stuffed with basmati rice, the last of the garden's little green pepper, mushrooms, cumin, but not any ground lamb because of getting a little cheap there on my shopping trip, and topped with a little tomato (from the garden) coulis.
We're not laughing at my pictures, remember? |
Where's the ginger? Where's the figs prunes?
Ha!
The cake is the Brown Sugar Bundt (I guess she shied from mentioning the prunes in the title) from Dorie Greenspan's Baking that Rosie got me for Christmas. Moist, tasty, delicious. It has pears in it as well, and luckily I had some good ones left from the trees.
I can't believe I managed to make ginger ice cream in the midst of all this! In a true Top Chef moment yes, I made the ice cream!
Since there was no hope of me taking pictures of any kind, even an empty bowl, at that point, these are from this morning with the very last bit of ice cream and slices of cake (they are quite small, but the plate is small too). The plate looks oddly shiny because I had everything scooped out and then realized my camera battery was out, so it had to go in the freezer (the plate, not the battery, that would make no sense at all).
Ginger is one of The Chief's favorites and wow, it was creamy and the flavor was like a little Asian breeze. They say that Top Chef never scores on dessert!
Want the recipe?
Ginger Ice Cream that you will not believe.
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
Heat until about 170° or just below boiling. I think the key to making a really creamy (I mean silken, velvet, lush, seriously heavenly) ice cream is to not let things boil, really.
Beat an extra large egg or two smaller ones in the measuring cup you used for the cream. Add the hot mixture a few tablespoons at a time, beating, until you've added about a cup. This is to temper the eggs.
Then add the egg mixture back to the rest of the hot cream mixture, beating well, and heat until it coats the back of a spoon or reaches 170°. This is the custard.
Grate about an inch of peeled ginger into this custard. If you want no texture whatsoever to your ice cream, you should do this first with the milk and then strain it (before heating with the sugar). I'm too lazy for that and I thought the texture was out of this world, in case you didn't pick up on that already 🙂
This much ginger yields a gingery, slightly warm flavor (warm as in hot, pay no attention to my husband snorting at my astonishing wimpiness).
Put this all in the freezer and chill for a few hours. I like my ice cream custard to be really freezing before I put it in the machine, because I don't like the anxiety of wondering if the freezer bowl of the machine will hold out long enough to make the ice cream firm enough to get it from the bowl to the freezer to cure. If it's already partially frozen before you put it in the machine in the first place, you have a leg up.
Freeze according to your machine's directions. Or just beat and chill, beat and chill, until it freezes in the original bowl. It's got enough cream and sugar so that it should still be pretty darn good.
Double for a 2 qt. machine. This amount makes about a pint and a half.
Suki says
Wow! That looks so amazing. Yet another reason I wish I'd been there for Pop's birthday!
Jill Farris says
Leila,
You describe the intricate nuances of food and its preparation like a true chef. As one who is married to someone who loves food and creates dishes similar to some that you have described and a mother who has raised a daughter who became a chef (ette?), I have come to the conclusion, you are either born with such taste buds or you're not. I would (I am sure) work my way through your mouth-watering meal with much amazement and delight, savoring every mouthful but…on my own I would end up eating my made-from-scratch macaroni and cheese and be perfectly happy with it three times a week.
I continue to stand amazed at people like you(…and a few of my near and dear) who write about “snow peas, lightly steamed (to a delectable crunchiness) with a dusting of mint” (!!)…I hope you appreciate the fact that there are some of who couldn't cook like that if our life depended on it!!
You've got the gift.
debbie says
Actually, Leila, I was just leafing through my cookbooks trying to decide what to prepare for dinner tomorrow night (*with* guests), and there's one Persian lamb recipe in there that calls for, basically, everything on your list; you could have done it in one dish!
Yours, of course, was much more fun and elegant, since it was an entire meal.
Happy birthday to Phil!
Love,
Debbie
_Leila says
I think he was expecting me to put it all in one dish, although he says he had no expectations. But bwahhhahaha! I fooled him!
Susan (DE) says
Wow, you are SOOO out of my league! I am impressed.
What brand of ice cream maker do you have? Is it the kind where you freeze the bowl and put it in the machine and it churns it up? (I mean, as opposed to the old-fashioned kind where you churn and have all that crushed ice and salt?) Is it a good machine? Should I get one? I want to make my own ice cream because I don't know where to find any good stuff anymore now that Breyers has gone down the tubes (my humble opinion).
_Leila says
It's a Cuisinart that I found at TJMaxx for half price off of Amazon. I got two, actually, and gave one to Suki! Yes, it's electric. I really like it.
Decadent Housewife says
Oh stop! Bring on some more bachelor swill!
Guest says
Every time I go to the museum of science I go check out the bees but in my house, umm, I'm not that brave! PS- I am craving ginger now 🙂
Janey says
THAT . . .was awesome. I am inspired and my mouth is watering. How fun! Thank you for that. I am a novice housewife and i am in the process of reading and re-reading and memorizing, oh, and implementing all of your EXTREMELY WISE advise. . . if only I WAS NOT SUCH A SHIRKER!;O) Thank you so much for everything.
Janey (Kansas)
Nick L says
Wow, i am jealous!
Sue says
Oh my! I am completely full right now, but your salad still made my mouth water!
I must figure out a way to make that ice cream. We got an ice cream maker for our wedding, but considering the fact that we were coming back to Japan to live in a Tokyo apartment roughly the size of your foyer, I left it behind. I wonder if it's still in my dad's attic…
Joy says
It sounds delicious, Leila. I'm so impressed. That salad looks fabulous! And ginger ice cream. I'm wishing I had an ice creamer maker about now.
LOL about pygmy lambs. I adore lamb but it is almost impossible to find decent lamb cuts for less than a year's worth of meat money. And I can't find lamb shanks anymore, which were my budget way of satisfying my lamb cravings. So I enjoyed your photos of lamb instead. 🙂
Bobbi says
THAT IS SO COOL! I just can't wait to suggest this for my husband's birthday…he'll get a kick out it. My kind of fun too! HAHA! I do not have your “mad kitchen/cooking skillz” but if I blog about it in Dec. I'll make sure I tell you! Smiles!!
Meg says
I beg your pardon, but “fried” most certainly IS appetizing. Especially in leftover bacon fat. And yes, I do reside below the Mason-Dixon.
Now that that's off my chest, I love your blog, prayed for your mom, and think your fried lamb chops look yummy!
priestswife says
love the idea of a top chef challenge for inspiration- and the salad looks delicious (is the dressing recipe somewhere in your archives? I just bought a bottle of dressing from Trader Joe's- boo hiss)
I am going to make that ice cream- I wonder how it would be with coconut?
By the way- I put Rosie's post here- http://remnantofremnant.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-…
margo says
awww, I just love your posts. I feel like we're having a conversation.
Good tip about making dessert first.
We're buying half a lamb in a few weeks and I don't have a lot of experience with lamb (although I love it so much I order it at restaurants when I can).
And I dried some tomatoes and socked them away in the freezer and nowwwwww I know what what to DO with them! Thank you.
TN_MOM says
Bravo! You have a very lucky husband.
Michelle says
That is a beautiful dinner. Lamb is one of those meats that scare me. Never really had it growing up so I'm not sure how it should come out. It always looks so pretty on a plate though. 🙂
natashamlawler says
This looks so fun! Top chef challenges are super inspiring… it' s so nice when you are forced off of your set plans and have to make do. The stuffed eggplants in particular look amazing. And I will have to try ginger ice cream some time–there is so much ginger here in China. Finally, I totally, one hundred percent, could not agree more that the best way to feel like you're on top of entertaining even when you most decidedly are not is to 1. make dessert (people will always say the food was good if the dessert is delicious and somewhat impressive 2. set the table.
Deb Meyers says
i think you are amazin' : )
deb meyers
Christina A says
Such great advice! A good dessert really is so memorable, especially with a Sunday dinner. My SIL gave me Dorie Greenspan’s book a few Christmases ago, so I cracked it open and made the Brown Sugar Bundt for guests; what a hit! My husband said it reminded him of Bread Pudding Pear Pie from Taste of Home (I think?), which is served with a butterscotch sauce. I happened to have a small container of said sauce pining away in the back of the fridge, so we served it over the last two pieces of The Bundt; yum! Incidentally, the BPPP was a recipe friends made for us years ago after a dinner of a very memorable (though not in a good way, unfortunately) meatloaf; the BPPP redeemed the whole meal, and we have made it at least once a year ever since. I was also thinking that The Bundt (as well as the BPPP) would be amazing with some lemon curd, which my grandma always served over her traditional bread pudding. Wow, long comment; I guess I get a little passionate about sweets!