Pomegranate-Garlic Lamb

This is delicious and pretty easy and impressive for a dinner party. We had our very good friends, Stephen and Kara, over last night to test out the new china. It was all very grown up. Thank you to all of our great friends for getting us all of those amazing candlesticks, plates, platters, vases etc - they will all be well used!

I've been making lamb a lot lately, using pomegranate molasses. It's a great ingredient. It's tart and sweet. I got two racks or lamb from Trader Joe's (they actually have really nice, Frenched racks of lamb) and marinated them in a mixture of pomegranate molasses, lots of garlic, some fresh ginger, and some dried herbs. The lamb was juicy and so flavorful.

I served it with some sauteed asparagus and Israeli couscous.

Tournedos Rossini

La Sirene is one of my favorite restaurants, so I tried to recreate their wonderful Tournedos. I made them with some frites and asparagus for Jamie for Valentine's Day, then made them again with Alice the next week. (I've been teaching her to cook, and she's been so good!) They're very impressive and not very hard to make. Jamie can't wait to serve them at a dinner party. For the french fries, I just use Trader Joe's frozen fries, serve them in a newspaper cone with some aioli, and sprinkle truffle salt on them. You have to try it! It also looks adorable.

Serves 2
Ingredients:
2 filet mignon
2 slices of French bread about the size of the filets
2 slices foie gras
2 tbsp red wine
salt and pepper
1/4 cup beef stock
1/4 tsp truffle oil
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Directions:
When you buy the filets, season them liberally with salt and pepper. If you're eating them later, wrap them up and put them in fridge.

Thai Chicken and Spicy Asparagus Stir Fry

After Cinco de Mayo tamales (recipe coming soon) and other fun eating with Chip and Siobhan last weekend, once again, Jamie and I found ourselves craving healthy, fresh food on Monday night. I picked one recipe from the Times and one from Food & Wine, partially from the mouthwatering pictures printed alongside them - Thai Chicken with Hot-Sour-Salty-Sweet Sauce (also, can you resist that name?) and Stir-Fried Spicy Asparagus because asparagus is fresh, healthy, and so delicious this time of year. It's also nice that the asparagus takes less than 2 minutes to cook. It's delicious! The asparagus is extremely fresh and light, and the chicken is juicy. The real star is the dipping sauce. I want to make a gallon of it and pour it on everything. It's pretty much a winning combination of all of the tastes. Yum!

Thai Chicken, serves 4
Ingredients:
Marinated Chicken:
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 tbsp Asian fish sauce
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
4 whole chicken legs
Dipping Sauce:
1/2 tsp tamarind concentrate dissolved in 1 tsp water (or 1 tsp tamarind paste)
1/4 cup Asian fish sauce
2 tbsp lime juice
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 small  Thai chili (or jalapeno) seeded and minced
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp water
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Shaved asparagus salad

Quick post! Made a super easy super tasty asparagus salad last night. It's so fresh and springy, and healthy. Get fresh asparagus and make it into ribbons with a vegetable peeler. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with lemon juice and a little apple cider vinegar and a teeny bit of olive oil. With the vegetable peeler, shred a few pieces of pecorino Romano. Eat!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Roasted chicken with potatoes, asparagus, and lemon

Yum! This is so, so tasty! And easy! One pot, too. Pretty perfect meal. I found this great recipe on MarthaStewart.com. The potatoes are super crispy on the outside and soft inside and sweetened from the lemon, and the roasted lemon is very mellow and sweet instead of tart and acidic. The asparagus is cooked perfectly and still has a little crunch and the pan juices are flavorful and great drizzled on top. She recommended a roasting pan which I think would work fine. I only had a pyrex one, so I opted for a cast iron skillet instead so the potatoes would be crispier. It worked perfectly. Also, I got 4 chicken legs instead of a whole chicken cut up because it was way cheaper. I recommend that, as long as you like dark meat. The whole dinner cost $12 and would serve 4 (or 2 and then lunch the next day). Jamie was so psyched about it he asked, "Do I get to live like this forever?" with a big grin on his face.

Ingredients:
4 chicken legs
1 1/2 pound little red potatoes, halved
3 tbsp butter cut into little pieces
salt and pepper
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2" pieces
1 lemon, cut into 8 wedges
1 tsp dried thyme (she says fresh, but I didn't have any)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 475. Put the potatoes and 1 1/2 tbsp butter in the skillet and season with salt and pepper. Roast for about 20 minutes until golden brown.