by Sam Tackeff | Dec 9, 2013 | Holidays, Meat
When I committed to eating down my fridge before our trip to Canada this coming weekend, I wasn’t quite sure what I had on hand. Which is to say, I was pretty sure that there were some edible things in my pantry, but perhaps not enough to create cohesive meals, and certainly not enough fresh leafy greens. Nevertheless, I set off with a mission, and I’ve been largely sticking to my resolve.
For the last night of Hanukkah, we feasted on latkes with sour cream and apple sauce. There was salad with butternut squash, pepitas, and feta– and (please don’t smite me food gods) Lasagne Hamburger Helper. You just can’t recreate that with real food and hit the perfect ratios. You can’t make it paleo. You can’t make it wholesome. I don’t drink soda, I rarely drink booze, I keep my home largely free of processed foods, but sometimes, something’s gotta give.
Thursday night, we each had our holiday parties, so dinner was provided – I held back from over-indulging on too many passed appetizers, and introduced several of my coworkers to the sidecar. Friday, we had our date night, at the Cottage, in Wellesley – we’re pretty much regulars there – mostly because their lamb burger is divine, and they are highly accommodating to my penchant for substitutions (even the few times I’ve been on Whole30).
On Saturday, I defrosted a lamb’s neck in my freezer – with about enough meat on it for only one very patient person – and you really have to pick at it. I decided to braise it sweet, spicy, any sour, and made a braising liquid of two shallots, a few cloves of garlic, a knob of ginger, some salt, cumin, and a few large scoops of orange marmalade – processed with some water in my Vitamix. I cooked the lamb in this for nearly two hours on the stovetop, turning the neck every half an hour or so. At the very end, I tossed in a few warmed Swedish meatballs for Devon. To go with the lamb, I made some bulgur with orzo, mint and goat cheese – cooked to consistency of polenta.
Sunday night, I cooked a batch of Rancho Gordo red beans, which I warmed with a little bit of salt, cumin, and salsa. I cooked some chicken thighs between two hot cast iron pans, and made myself a big bowl of collard greens. I topped my greens with a little bit of the beans, and added a few spoonfuls of whole milk yogurt.
Tonight, I simmered meatballs in some tomato sauce. I rummaged around for something to go with it all – a vegetable perhaps? There was a package of frozen pizza dough that I had defrosted – and I thought to myself that I could make rolls. When the dough failed to rise, perhaps because it was nearly two years old, and then seemed to be dried out, and then baked into lumps of hardened play dough consistency, I gave up and dumped the failure into the trash.
And so meatballs were all we had.
I think I might have to give up and get us some vegetables.
by Sam Tackeff | Oct 15, 2012 | Meat
Sorry for that title. Really. The puns and bad jokes are getting worse and worse around here. I’ll let the management know.
Saturday
On Saturday morning, I woke up and picked up my race packet for Sunday’s 5k. I was having a bad morning, worried that my car was dying, and then running late to Jeremy’s gymnastics clinic. I normally only go to the gym twice a week, but the focus was on handstands, and bar practice (toes to bar, kipping, and pull-ups), all of which are skills that I desperately want to improve on. Mostly for the street-cred, really.
When I finally made it (with about a minute to spare), I was psyched to see that the class was really small: D-Paine and Melody, Alexann, Mary and myself, which meant that we each got a lot of hands on attention. By the end of class, we were all working on being able to kick up into freestanding handstands, and my kipping on the bar may be getting somewhere.
When I got home, I made myself brunch: fried eggs and mini lamb merguez sausages from the butcher. I always forget how much I enjoy merguez. It’s a rich and spicy sausage common to North African (and French) cuisine, and is so completely satisfying.
In the afternoon, I took a pomegranate break, and spent a good 40 minutes or so picking out the jewel-red seeds one by one, popping them like popcorn.
For dinner, I had garlic-thyme sausages from the butcher, and these perfect little lamb kidneys to play with. I debated what to do with them – as the bulk of my rognons-eating occurred in France nearly 15 years ago, I was unsure what I wanted to do. So first I set about cleaning them.
I then butterflied the kidney, to assess how much I’d have to clean from it. Most of the recipes I consulted were for whole kidneys with minimal cleaning, so after breathing in the smell of the kidney to make sure it wasn’t ahem… uric smelling, I opted to do as little to it as possible. I trimmed off most of the attached fat, and saved it to render later.
Kidneys are a lusciously textured, strongly flavored (a little bit like a barnyard, in the best way) cut of meat, and stand up well to assertive spices. I debated Chichi Wang’s version of Fuchsia Dunlop’s deep-fried, huo bao slices of kidney in Serious Eats, and Nigel Slater’s classic devilled kidney recipe. Ultimately, I decided on a riff on these grilled lamb’s kidneys with rosemary anchovy butter from Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal by Jennifer McLagan.
To prep the kidneys, I drizzled them with olive oil, seasoned them in salt and pepper, and stuck some rosemary in the middle. I then set about making my dressing. Because I’m not cooking with butter (for now), I made a dressing with anchovies, olive oil, salt and pepper.
I cooked my kidneys for two minutes on each side, so they were just cooked through but still pink in the middle. They were served on a bed of baby spinach, with my garlic-thyme sausage on the side, and the anchovy dressing poured over. Delicious.
For dessert, because I was craving something a little sweet, I made a small chocolate mug cake. I’m still trying to tweak the formula – they tend to come out a little bit dry.
I went to bed early to get some sleep before Sunday’s race.
* * *
Sunday
I’ll be posting my race recap separately, but the race went well! Despite the cold, rainy weather, and a near meltdown when I woke up in the morning, no coffee, and a single banana 20 minutes before the starting line, I made it through the race, and P.R.’d!
When I got home, I set about making lunch.
I sauteed brussels sprouts with a little bit of bacon.
And served the bacon-y brussels sprouts topped with sardines and lemon juice, and a side of guacamole. This is one of those meals that you eat alone and don’t tell anyone about, but I swear it was good.
In the afternoon, I realized that I hadn’t had a cup of coffee yet, so I remedied that quickly.
Because our house was freezing, I put my oven to good use, and roasted some romanesco and cauliflower, and this ambercup squash with some salt and pepper.
For dinner, I had another off-cut from the butcher to use – lamb neck. I was first introduced to lamb neck in 2009, thanks to (top chef winner!) Chris Cosentino – during this spectacular meal at Incanto.
I wanted to prepare it as simply as possible, so I adapted this Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe.
I rubbed the neck in olive oil, salt, and pepper, and browned it on all sides in a small pot in a few more tablespoons of olive oil. I then added the juice of two small lemons and a cup of water to the pot, added about a teaspoon of dried thyme, a teaspoon of oregano, and a sprig of rosemary on top. I brought it to a boil, turned it down to a simmer, and covered the pot. I then cooked it for an hour, turning it every 15 minutes in the braising liquid. (My neck was about a pound, but if you had a larger one, you’d just cook a little longer, until tender.)
While the meat was cooking, I microwaved cauliflower for about 15 minutes until super tender, and added salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and pureed with my immersion blender. Voila! Mashed cauliflower!
I then took the lamb out of the pot, and shredded the meat – all 4 ounces of it… this was a very small lamb.
Devon got his shredded on a bed of mashed cauliflower, with a side of cheesy toast. I got mine in a bowl with the neck to gnaw on, and the rest of the braising liquid poured on top. While I would have liked a little bit more meat, the flavors were outstanding, and I’ll be making something similar soon.
Dinner was served in front of the television – for good reason (brace yourself) – it was my first time watching The Shawshank Redemption. I should clarify, first time, aside from the 50 + times I’ve seen various 20 or so minutes of it on TV*.
(Via)
I’m not sure what I was expecting. Actually – I was expecting to be let down. There’s no way that the movie (#1 rated on IMDB of movies of all time) was going to be that good. But it was. Thank you Stephen King, Frank Darabont, Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, and everyone else involved in this motion picture for being awesome.
