Easter cooking can present a dilemma to many home chefs. Will they go with the traditional ham or try lamb , another truly traditional main course? That's the conumdrum facing many. Ham is delicious and can provide with enough leftovers for a week. Lamb, is rich tasting, marrying ancient and modern times together. It's also becoming trendy thanks to a more adventurous American palate.
Kim Severson explores the two in her column in today's New York Times Food section. She herself grew up on Easter ham dinners, thanks to a mother who was raised on a dairy farm that also raised pigs. Serving ham was a no brainer.It also provided her family with more than enough leftovers for a variety of different dishes, from sandwiches to pea soup.However it is time to try lamb. It's making a comeback with a newer generation who are into Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes and flavors. Most older Americans have an aversion to the meat ,preferring beef and pork. One of the reasons why is that US soldiers were fed rations of lamb because the meat was so abundant. There were fifty-six million sheep in 1946. Now there is only about six million.Lamb chops themselves, are still considered a luxury item, only being served at high priced restaurants or special dinners at home.Leg of lamb can be tricky to cook and many home chefs just cooked it and slapped some mint jelly on it, hoping for the best.Today lamb is gaining in popularity with people buying lamb shanks,
lamb necks, and ribs.There is even a lamb ham that's also gaining in popularity these days.
How should you cook lamb? Ms. Severson goes back to her Italian roots and tries a Roman style Spring lamb with sugar snap peas. She gets three pounds of young lamb from the shoulder or the leg and cuts it into uniform two inch cubes. After seasoning the cubes with salt and pepper, they're cooked in lard or olive oil. it's an easy cook, putting the cubes in batches and sauteing them. Rosemary and garlic are added along with sifted flour. White wine or Champagne is poured in along with water. It's simmered for an hour. At this point take some of the sauce from it and mix it with four large anchovy fillets (it reminds me of fileto Piedmontese - where anchovies are cooked with steak juices to create a mouthwatering sauce). The sauce is then poured back into the pan and over the lamb cubes. Ms. Severson throws in a sugar snap pea salad with Calabrian peppers and fennel. This is a spicy accompaniment with a dressing made from the peppers and their oil.Lemon zest, shallot and garlic are also added along with fresh lemon juice.The snap peas are julienned while the fennel is thinly shaved. Shaved pecorino is then sprinkled on top. I would add fingerling potatoes roasted in garlic and olive oil to round it out.
Ham may be associated with Easter but lamb now is giving the traditional meat its' run. It is versatile and delicious, perfect for the holiday. Try it and taste its richness and lux flavor.
Showing posts with label fingerling potatoes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fingerling potatoes. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Memories From Jacques Pepin
Jacques Pepin is one of the world's greatest chefs. He has contributed so much to the culinary world., giving us classic French recipes along with classic sound advice. As he turns eighty, he reflects on that in a special article in today's Food section of the New York Times, It's insightful and interesting, much like the chef himself
As with his fellow Frenchman, Marcel Proust, Chef Pepin, recounts his food memories, through taste and smell. He even calls to mind that moment when Proust's beloved madeleines bring the author back to his boyhood summers at his aunt's house in Normandy. The combined flavor of them mingled with the tea that they're dipped in, bring to mind, the heat of those summers, the family cook , the garden and finally the entire seaside town of Combray. Such is the sensual power of food. Chef Pepin has the same moments, many of them, in fact as he calls up his earliest culinary memories.He is, after all, a child of a restauranteur, He knows the power of a flavor or aroma. However his first strong memory was not in his mother's eatery but at farm where he stayed during a school vacation. realizing he missed his mere, the farmer let him milk a cow,. The taste of warm, foamy , fresh milk seared into his memory, and forever shaped the way he looked at food.From there he waxes lyrically about his family's dishes, as he writes, our family recipes are what shape us as people. They mold our tastes and define how we cook.It's obvious with Chef Pepin. He recalls his mother's treatment of fresh picked fingerling potatoes(skins that were simply rubbed off by gentle caressing and then sauteed in butter until crisp) and his Aunt Helene's chicken in cream sauce.
His life in America has also shaped his palate as well as his cooking style. Chef Pepin lives in Connecticut but has worked in some of the best kitchens in New York City. His recipes are linked to his local markets, in his town of Madison and the nearby town of Guilford. Eggs from a vibrant Jamaican named Nathalia also are part of the mix..He also credits a farm in Hammonnasset for fresh peas and the Lobster Landing in nearby Clinton CT for lobster. The markets of his native southern France figure large in their influence, especially the ones from Provence such as Arles, Avignon and st. Remy. Seasons are another influence as well. He lovingly recalls the sensations and food that make up the year. Summer is walking in cool grass , picking up mushrooms or along the shore , gathering up tiny fish to be fried.It's picnics with a Gallic twist, lobster, corn, and fried chicken along with lukewarm tomatoes and cooled white wine , celebrated on the Hammonnasset River, Fall is the aroma of baking apple tarts, making cider, and the flavor of Concord grapes and his favorite holiday's Thanksgiving turkey.Winter brings him back to 1959 when he first arrived in New York City and smelled that Manhattan street classic roasted chestnuts.It's also the comforting aromas of bean stews and homemade split pea soup made with ham, along with cheese fondue. There is also fond remembrances of the holidays with oysters and foie gras, chocolate truffles and homemade caramel candies.
Chef Pepin could be considered the Proust of our age. He has such beautiful memories of the foods , flavors and aromas that have shaped his life. Every one should have those fond and warm remembrances.
As with his fellow Frenchman, Marcel Proust, Chef Pepin, recounts his food memories, through taste and smell. He even calls to mind that moment when Proust's beloved madeleines bring the author back to his boyhood summers at his aunt's house in Normandy. The combined flavor of them mingled with the tea that they're dipped in, bring to mind, the heat of those summers, the family cook , the garden and finally the entire seaside town of Combray. Such is the sensual power of food. Chef Pepin has the same moments, many of them, in fact as he calls up his earliest culinary memories.He is, after all, a child of a restauranteur, He knows the power of a flavor or aroma. However his first strong memory was not in his mother's eatery but at farm where he stayed during a school vacation. realizing he missed his mere, the farmer let him milk a cow,. The taste of warm, foamy , fresh milk seared into his memory, and forever shaped the way he looked at food.From there he waxes lyrically about his family's dishes, as he writes, our family recipes are what shape us as people. They mold our tastes and define how we cook.It's obvious with Chef Pepin. He recalls his mother's treatment of fresh picked fingerling potatoes(skins that were simply rubbed off by gentle caressing and then sauteed in butter until crisp) and his Aunt Helene's chicken in cream sauce.
His life in America has also shaped his palate as well as his cooking style. Chef Pepin lives in Connecticut but has worked in some of the best kitchens in New York City. His recipes are linked to his local markets, in his town of Madison and the nearby town of Guilford. Eggs from a vibrant Jamaican named Nathalia also are part of the mix..He also credits a farm in Hammonnasset for fresh peas and the Lobster Landing in nearby Clinton CT for lobster. The markets of his native southern France figure large in their influence, especially the ones from Provence such as Arles, Avignon and st. Remy. Seasons are another influence as well. He lovingly recalls the sensations and food that make up the year. Summer is walking in cool grass , picking up mushrooms or along the shore , gathering up tiny fish to be fried.It's picnics with a Gallic twist, lobster, corn, and fried chicken along with lukewarm tomatoes and cooled white wine , celebrated on the Hammonnasset River, Fall is the aroma of baking apple tarts, making cider, and the flavor of Concord grapes and his favorite holiday's Thanksgiving turkey.Winter brings him back to 1959 when he first arrived in New York City and smelled that Manhattan street classic roasted chestnuts.It's also the comforting aromas of bean stews and homemade split pea soup made with ham, along with cheese fondue. There is also fond remembrances of the holidays with oysters and foie gras, chocolate truffles and homemade caramel candies.
Chef Pepin could be considered the Proust of our age. He has such beautiful memories of the foods , flavors and aromas that have shaped his life. Every one should have those fond and warm remembrances.
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