Herbed Roasted Lamb with Cauliflower Gratin

Start by taking a head of cauliflower and separating the florets into one-inch pieces. Chop the core and place in a food processor.


Blanch and shock the florets in salted boiling water, and process the core until minced.


Dice a shallot and mince garlic, adding bay leaf, thyme, and parsley.


Add the minced core, a bit of chicken stock, and some heavy cream. Simmer gently for several minutes to soften the core and extract the flavors.


Remove thyme, parsley and bay leaf, and put the mixture in a blender. Add nutmeg and curry powder, and blend until smooth.


Combine florets and puree, and then fill ramekins with the mixture. Top with emmenthaler cheese and panko breadcrumbs. Place in hot oven until bubbly and browned.


Season the lamb with rosemary, salt, and pepper. Roast at low heat until internal temp is 145 or so, then sear in a hot skillet until browned.


Ok, we're not done. Just for the hell of it, we decided to make an aioli sauce the original way. Mortar and pestle, garlic, a bit of sauce. Mash the hell out of it.


Squeeze some lemon and make it a paste.


Slowly add olive oil and keep grinding away. When I say "slowly", I mean drop by drop for about 20 minutes. Keep going until smooth and creamy.


And here it is all put together, Yeah, I realize it could use some color for presentation, but maybe next time.

I don't know what it's called... I call it brunch.

Char the skin of a jalapeno. Throw it in a tub and let the skin steam off for about 10 minutes.


Peel off the char underwater, then chop it up along with red onion, garlic, grape tomatoes and cilantro. While you're at it, grate some cheddar cheese.


Sautee the onions with a pinch of salt and some cumin, then add the garlic and jalapeno. Remove from heat.


There was some leftover roast chicken, so that gets chopped up too, and browned in fat with a little more cumin, and some chili powder.


When browned, add 3/4 of the onion mixture, and deglaze with white wine. Add a bit of chicken broth, some thyme, oregano, and lemon juice. Reduce heat.


To a pot of cooked rice, stir in the tomatoes, most of the cilantro, and the rest of the onion mixture.


Fry an egg.


Ok, we're ready to plate. Rice, cheese, meat, cheese, egg, cheese and cilantro.



Proceed without caution.

Shrimp en Papillote

This is surprisingly easy, amazingly tasty, and unwittingly healthy.

Broccoli, shallot, garlic, carrot, hot pepper, shrimp.




Brush a sheet of parchment with a little vegetable oil.


On one half of the parchment, arrange as follows: Garlic, hot pepper, broccoli, carrot, shallot, shrimp. Drizzle sesame oil and soy sauce over top, and a little ground pepper.


Fold parchment over, and fold up the edges several time, creasing as you go to create the seal. Place on a sheet, and bake at 400F for 12 minutes.
(before/after)


Serve by cutting open the pouch with scissors. There will be steam, so don't burn yourself.