herb-crusted roast leg of lamb

Lamb is one of those less expensive cuts of meat I'm trying to use more often, and especially since you can throw a roast in the oven and dinner is ready a couple hours later. This one was so easy, and I suppose it's a technique you could use for almost any roast cut.

Grocery list: 2-4+ pound leg of lamb (or other roast cut), 1 lemon, 1 large gallon-size ziploc bag, olive oil, and herbs (mix of dried or fresh - rosemary, thyme, oregano, mint - really, whatever you have, just a lot of it).



Trim any excess fat or silver-skin from the lamb leg, then drop it in the ziploc bag. Add a good drizzling of olive oil, then throw in excess amounts of herbs - you're trying to cover the entire surface of the roast. Salt and pepper it generously, then cut your lemon in half, squeeze the juice into the bag (you can throw the lemon halves in the bag for good measure). Let it marinate for at least a couple hours, or set it up at night for roasting the next day. It can sit in the bag for 1-2 days.

Roast at 350 degrees for 1.5-2 hours, or until the internal temperature measures 150 degrees for medium. Remove from the oven and tent with foil; the temperature will continue to rise to about 160 (now it'll be medium to medium well). Adjust if you prefer more or less done - just remember that the roast continues to "cook up" another 10 degrees when you remove it from the oven! Carve and serve - I made this with the spaghetti squash & ricotta dish.

lamb cacciatore

Ah, one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco is SPQR. I originally read about it in Food & Wine magazine, and took my little brother there for his birthday. We were fortunate enough to get seats at the "chef's counter" - basically a bar setup over the kitchen, where you can watch the meals being prepared. The best part was hearing the lead chef talk to the line cooks. He would taste some of the dishes under way and tell the line cooks what was missing. My favorite overheard quote was "more salt, more salt! If it's not over-salted it's under-seasoned!" So I was justifiably excited - practically giddy - when I saw the September 2008 Bon Appetit, the "Restaurant Issue": recipes from SPQR! I did not have this lamb cacciatore at the restaurant, but I will try it when I'm back in the bay area to see how it compared to my own version.

Grocery list: 3 pounds boneless leg of lamb, trimmed and cut into 1 inch chunks [note, ask your butcher, but I substituted shoulder and it was only $5 a pound - you have to trim it anyway, so it was perfect in my opinion]; 1/4 cup white wine, 2 garlic cloves, olive oil, 2T chopped fresh rosemary, 1 T chopped fresh oregano, 1 T chopped fresh mint, 4 anchovy fillets chopped (or 1-2 T anchovy paste), 1 bag fresh arugula, lemon wedges.

Drizzle wine over lamb pieces and season with salt and pepper. In a small bowl, make the marinade by mashing garlic with 4T olive oil, then mixing in all the herbs and anchovies.



Stir into lamb, cover with saran wrap, and chill for at least 2 hours.



The recipe says you can cook the lamb either over a grill (using metal skewers to make kabobs), or by sauteing - I used the latter method.



Heat 1 T oil in large pan, then saute lamb in batches over high heat, about 5-6 minutes for medium-rare. Toss the arugula with a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper. Serve the lamb over the arugula with lemon wedges on the side.

cooking my way through jamie's italy

My friend Lydia told me that she has a habit of reading cookbooks cover to cover, even curling up in bed with them like they were novels. I like cookbooks too, but never really understood what she meant until I discovered Jamie Oliver's "Jamie's Italy." I saw a review for it on Orangette, and ordered it immediately. As soon as it arrived, I started flipping through, and before I realized what had happened, it was an hour and half, and 300 pages, later. Normally, I dismiss "celebrity chefs" for the most part - I mean, if you're going to sell out and endorse the Applebee's restaurant chain, you lose a lot of credibility with me. But this guy's cookbook is amazing, and I know nothing about his "celebrity personality" behind the book. He basically traveled all around Italy for a few months in a camper van, collecting different regional recipes - and *amazing* photos of local people and their food. There hasn't been a thing from the book that I've cooked that we haven't raved about. Here are some highlights...



The first photo above is for his "grilled swordfish with salsa di giovanna" (the second picture, immediately above, is the salsa). To make it, you just grill the swordfish steaks (brush with olive oil if you're using the outdoor grill especially) with salt and pepper. The sauce is simply juice of 1 lemon mixed with 3 times as much olive oil, salt, pepper, 3 cloves of garlic sliced very thin, a sprig of chopped mint leaves, and a sprig of chopped fresh oregano.



Who doesn't love stuffed mushroom caps? Jamie's recipe calls for 3oz ricotta, zest of 1 lemon, 1 fresh red chili chopped and deseeded (I substituted dried chili flakes), 2 T chopped fresh oregano or marjoram leaves, handful of freshly grated parmesan, 4 handfuls of mushrooms. Start by preheating the oven to 425 degrees, then pull out all the mushroom stems. Toss the caps with olive oil, salt and pepper, then arrange on a baking sheet, upside down.



The filling is simple -- mix all the other ingredients together. Spoon into the mushroom caps, and bake for about 15 minutes. You could also turn on the broiler for a minute or 2 at the end, to make the tops more golden.



In his section on first courses, I love how he pushes the concept of serving fresh blanched greens, dressed with a little olive oil, lemon, and garlic, as a starter. What a healthy way to add more greens into a meal. He recommends adding the chard stems to the boiling salted water a minute or 2 before the leaves, since they are a little tougher. I also tried his suggestion of adding a garlic clove to the blanching water, then slicing it thinly to top the chard. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sea salt, and you have a nice little salad.



This is the recipe that Orangette blogged about that got me to try the book in the first place - "funghi tagliati a fettine sottili, con mozzarella fusa e timo" (sliced mushrooms with melted mozzarella and thyme). This was truly amazing - I could probably eat an entire baguette myself, just scooping up these mushrooms... It's so simple: arrange thinly sliced mushrooms (crimini, shitake, anything you have) in a single layer of a pan, then drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle finely chopped thyme leaves across, season with salt and pepper; tear apart a ball of buffala or scamorza cheese and drop little pieces all across the dish. Broil for a few minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and golden. Wow.



Jamie presents several different bruschette topping options; I tried the "mixed roasted vegetables" to start (I'll get to the others I'm sure, not soon enough!). Chop some vegetables (1/2 a bulb of fennel, 1/2 a yellow pepper, 1 red pepper - which I skipped because I wanted to cut the recipe down, 1/2 a zucchini), then toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, 1 tsp dried oregano, and a handful of chopped fresh mint.



Roast for about 30 minutes at 425 degrees, then allow the vegetables to cool. Pulse in a food processor for a few seconds with a drizzle of olive oil, juice of 1/2 a lemon, and some herb vinegar (I actually used good balsamic, with great results). For the bruschette, you can brush slices of bread with olive oil then grill or broil - top with the vegetable mix.