Lamb Osso Buco!
New Year's Eve found me and the husband at home, and me spending most of the day cooking. His aunt raises lambs for the state fair, and this year we purchased one and had them send the butchered cuts to us. 75 pounds of lamb has led to a number of Google searches for lamb recipes! I'd tried Osso Buco with one of our packs of shanks, and it turned out so tasty I had to use our new Dutch oven (thanks, Grandma!) to replicate it for New Year's. Like last time, too, I forgot to bring out the gremolada, despite having the parsley and the lemon in the fridge. Oops.
In the pot before being served:
The Osso Buco is based mostly on this recipe:
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/200/Osso-Buco
As you can see, the shanks didn't come as shank steaks, so I had to add a little extra liquid to make sure the shanks were completely covered while braising. I used a can of crushed tomatoes instead of drained diced, 32 oz box of organic chicken broth, and 1 cp of white wine, and I left out the bay leaves 'cause I just don't like them. The sauce took a while to reduce, even with a cornstarch slurry, but that was okay, I had a risotto to make.
Not the most professional plating ever, but you get the idea. It was my first attempt at a risotto. It was getting kinda late, so the rice was slightly more al dente than I would prefer, but it was still a lovely accompaniment. For the risotto, I used this as my reference:
http://italianfood.about.com/od/creamyrisotti/r/blr0095.htm
Another box of the chicken broth, and I fished out some of the marrow from the lamb shanks. Not nearly 70 grams, but hey, I tried. (Also had no saffron, ah well.)
This was my attempt at this pear tart posted last year on this community. It ... kinda worked. A true tart pan would've helped reduce the lumpage, and I think I missed how to properly prep the pears -- I ended up poaching them for 5-10 minutes in twice the amount of simple syrup. And shoot is that crust tricky! The walnuts made the pastry very delicate and fragile. Next time I'm rolling it out on wax paper and just flipping it into the pan instead of trying to lift it with the rolling pin. The top actually was from me inverting the whole cutting board.
New Year's Day found me too lazy to pull back out the camera, but we enjoyed dessert for breakfast: crepes with macerated strawberries, fresh blueberries and blackberries, diced bananas, the rest of the walnuts that didn't go in the pastry last night, homemade chocolate sauce (melted Ghiradelli bittersweet chips, caster sugar, vanilla and cream/milk), and fresh whipped cream with vanilla. Diabetic comas all around. :)
(cross-posted to food_porn)
In the pot before being served:
The Osso Buco is based mostly on this recipe:
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/200/Osso-Buco
As you can see, the shanks didn't come as shank steaks, so I had to add a little extra liquid to make sure the shanks were completely covered while braising. I used a can of crushed tomatoes instead of drained diced, 32 oz box of organic chicken broth, and 1 cp of white wine, and I left out the bay leaves 'cause I just don't like them. The sauce took a while to reduce, even with a cornstarch slurry, but that was okay, I had a risotto to make.
Not the most professional plating ever, but you get the idea. It was my first attempt at a risotto. It was getting kinda late, so the rice was slightly more al dente than I would prefer, but it was still a lovely accompaniment. For the risotto, I used this as my reference:
http://italianfood.about.com/od/creamyrisotti/r/blr0095.htm
Another box of the chicken broth, and I fished out some of the marrow from the lamb shanks. Not nearly 70 grams, but hey, I tried. (Also had no saffron, ah well.)
This was my attempt at this pear tart posted last year on this community. It ... kinda worked. A true tart pan would've helped reduce the lumpage, and I think I missed how to properly prep the pears -- I ended up poaching them for 5-10 minutes in twice the amount of simple syrup. And shoot is that crust tricky! The walnuts made the pastry very delicate and fragile. Next time I'm rolling it out on wax paper and just flipping it into the pan instead of trying to lift it with the rolling pin. The top actually was from me inverting the whole cutting board.
New Year's Day found me too lazy to pull back out the camera, but we enjoyed dessert for breakfast: crepes with macerated strawberries, fresh blueberries and blackberries, diced bananas, the rest of the walnuts that didn't go in the pastry last night, homemade chocolate sauce (melted Ghiradelli bittersweet chips, caster sugar, vanilla and cream/milk), and fresh whipped cream with vanilla. Diabetic comas all around. :)
(cross-posted to food_porn)