Grilled Lamb Shank W/ Red Wine Reduction

I have made lamb a lot, but this is the first time I am writing about it. I think I may even be getting better at the plating thing. (See photo from my iphone)

Even if you do not like lamb, you will love this dish. Chances are somewhere in your past you had lamb that was not prepared properly. Lamb can be gamy (spelling?), but if you try out this recipe I promise it will make a lamb-lover out of you.

I went to Costco and scored some lamb shank. Please do not ask me what part of the lamb that is because I have not a clue. I usually only buy chicken at Costco because there is no toughness associated with it after freezing and then thawing. Red meat tends to get tough after it has been frozen and then thawed. Usually I buy ALL my meat at this specialty store called Lunardi's. They have a mile long meat and fish case...ok it's not a mile long but it has a great quality selection of butchered meats and fresh seafood. They will also prepare any cut of meat or fish that you purchase, to ease the preparation process.

You will need:

• 2-4 Lamb shanks
• bunch of green beans
• "red wine"
• Garlic
• Olive Oil
• Fresh Rosemary
• Unsalted butter
• salt, pepper
• Dijon mustard
  
• Jalapeno cheddar mashed potatoes (this is my secret recipe...not sharing it as I fear someone will steal it and make a million and if anyone is going to capitalize on this recipe it will be me :) )
  

My boy friend loves lamb as an alternative to beef. You, can have less of it and still be satisfied because the meat is so rich and savory. I marinated the lamb in some left over Lambrusco I had in the fridge. What in the H*** is a Lambrusco you ask? GREAT question but this is not a WINE blog...its a food blog...only kidding. Lambrusco is a sparkling red wine; Delicious and creamy and slightly sweeter than your usual "still" red wines. That is about as far as I go with wine...I only know what my tongue likes :) You can marinate this in red wine if that is all you have. Trader Joe's has a great "2-buck-chuck" that comes in all varieties of grapes...very worth it for cooking. Most of the food network chefs will tell you to cook with a wine that you would drink and I think that is a load of crap...I am not saying to short change yourself but you can get great wine at any budget.

Marinate the lamb in Lambrusco, olive oil, crushed garlic, fresh rosemary, salt and pepper.

Clean and snip the ends off the green beans. Just put the green beans in foil with olive oil, salt and pepper. Everything is going on the BBQ...hence grilled lamb shank. The green beans can go on the top rack in the grill. The lamb only needs about 3 minutes on each side on a high flame. You will need to stand there and watch it.

The red wine reduction is really easy. Just put red wine in a pan and bring to a simmer so the alcohol can cook out and start to reduce. Add the unsalted butter, salt and pepper, few sprigs of rosemarry and a teaspoon of dijon mustard. Dijon is a very common pairing with lamb. The sauce will reduce by half. Be sure not to over cook your sauce or it will seperate from breaking down too much. I made that mistake but quickly learned from it. If you look real close at the photos I took, you can tell my sauce broke...but it still tasted great.

Plate as you wish...use a starch that you like. I plated mine over MY mashed potatoes but you could use anything. I am a traditionalist when it comes to serving meat with just some good old fashioned potatoes.

Enjoy!

Potato Crusted Salmon w/ Broiled Asparagus

Ok...So I am a food network fanatic. I watch just about every show with the exception of anything that has to do with cake making or cake-making challenges. I don't make cake, let alone eat it...I have a savory tongue rather than a sweet one....People, especially other women, think I am weird...One of the societal norms is to "turn to chocolate" for comfort....and I simply cannot conform to that cliche. For comfort, I turn to flaming hot Cheetos with cream cheese! Don't knock it til you try it. My only warning: it's not as good on the way out, if you know what I mean....hahah. Invest in some tums or a nice soothing cream! Anyhow, the food network is very inspiring for me because it provides great dinner ideas, which lead me to the succulent meal I prepared last night.

I watched the show "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef," last weekend and the chick with the hideous wild blond hair made a potato crusted halibut (look it up if you want the real recipe.) Ok...at first I thought that it looked easy enough to try out at home. So, yesterday my better half said he wanted fish for dinner. I figured this was the perfect opportunity to try out this recipe as he is my genii pig for all things food related...He really thinks I am good enough to be on the food network...HAHA Boy do I have him fooled! Actually I can cook really good and sometimes it scares me.

The chef used a mandolin to slice the potatoes superthin. I figured I could just use my sharpest knife to achieve the same effect. My other alternative was to go out and buy a mandolin, but really, I did not think it would matter.

I only had salmon at home so that's what I used. I went to the store and got 2 white potatoes and some asparagus. Because I could not find the dang recipe on www.foodnetwork.com, I had to improvise. This is how I did it:

For the Fish:

2 fillets of Salmon (use what you want or what YOU like)

2 White Potatoes thinly sliced (we will get to that later)

Garlic Olive Oil (Costco!)

dried herbs, salt and pepper (whatever you have in the "pantry" as the folks on food network say...hhahah that always kills me because what if people don't have a "pantry" stockpiled with basic ingredients. People who believe they cannot cook or do not want to learn, usually only have a few condiments in the fridge...put that mentality aside because if I can cook, you can cook!)

Parchment paper and a NON-stick pan also needed.

For the Asparagus:

1/2 bunch of Asparagus (use it all if there are more that two dining)

Pear Olive Oil (I got it at a specialty shop in Napa. As this site expands, I will add places we go to eat)

Salt, pepper and grill seasoning

Juice of 1/2 of an Orange

Ok...here is where the fun begins. Because I LOVE to cook, I tend to be more experimental than most folks. So I entered into this with an open mind. My first thought was I needed to sharpen the knife to achieve thin slices so I can get that perfect scaled look that I saw on TV. HAAAAHAHAHA I thought a sharp knife would be the exact thing as using a mandolin. W.R.O.N.G., wrong (you need to spell that out loud and then say "wrong" after-hhaa it is quite funny. A nightmare former boss of mine once said to me- "you are W.R.O.N.G., wrong!" I laughed my a** off-sorry to digress-for the record I was RIGHT!)

Where was I, ah yes...So I was having trouble controlling the knife to make paper-thin slices. The whole point of this dish was to crust the fish, hence potato-crusted fish. If the slices are too thick they won't be pliable enough to warp around the fish. The knife ordeal was NOT working. I started cussing the food network as to why in the hell they make it look so damn easy!!! I was starting to tell myself "I CAN'T DO IT..." all psychological b.s. of course.

That's when I brought out the old fashioned "knuckle grater." No, my grandmother did NOT give this to me, I bought it. I used the box grater to slice the potatoes. Use of mandolin=paper-thin perfectly round potato slices; Use of box grater=you get what you get. On tv, the slices were so prefect that once the dish was done, it looked like the fish had perfect potato scales.

I arranged the half-a**ed potato slices on a piece of parchment paper. (Just arrange the slices in uniform rows making sure to overlap each row slightly. You will end up with a canvas of potato slices (just big enough to surround the cut of fish you have.)

Then I drizzled the garlic olive oil over the slices and sprinkled salt, pepper and dried herbs to taste, so the fish would become seasoned once wrapped. (Use a good amount of the olive oil because that acts like the glue that will hopefully hold the potato wrap around the fish.)

I put the fish in the middle of the potato slices. I used the same technique to wrap the fish as seen on the food network.

Basically you take one end of the parchment and fold it over the fish tightly then take the other end and do the same. I cannot explain it any better so just research this episode to see how it is done....

I do not know if this next step will matter BUT the potatoes were not staying wrapped around the fish on their own...so I placed the tightly wrapped parchment paper with the fish into the freezer. I thought this would help it set-up and stay in place during the searing process. I think I left it in the freezer for around five minutes.

You have to use a nonstick pan for this. I got the pan HOT with some nonstick olive oil cooking spray. I placed the fish on the hot pan very gently so as to not disrupt the slices. A few will get out of place and that is unavoidable. Now here is where the "if I can cook, you can cook" theory comes into context. The trick to cooking is timing things, watching the food, being patient, etc.

I let the fish sear for 7-10 mins on each side so the potatoes got brown and crusty!!! DO NOT MOVE OR TOUCH anything or the crust will not develop. Just let it sit there.

Once I got a good crust on each side (I can't believe it actually came together!) I finished it in the oven at 375 for another ten minutes, along with the asparagus.

Now for the asparagus. If you ruin the asparagus please do not expect anyone to want to eat it. The trick to asparagus is not over cooking. When it is over cooked it becomes flaccid and olive-green colored. You want it to maintain its integrity throughout the cooking process. Vibrant green and a crisp in the center!

I tossed the asparagus with the pear olive oil, orange juice (I just squeezed it with my hands) and grill seasoning. I added a pinch of salt and pepper.

I put that in the oven with the fish for the ten minutes I mentioned above.

The photo on this site is the finished product. Ok, so I took the picture with my iphone. I guess I could have wiped the plate and fixed the one out-of-place asparagus but hey...I never said I had presentation skills or food photography experience...sheeeesh give me a break..this is only my first entry and I am not usually in the habit of capturing everything I plate :)

Well, the boy friend was thoroughly impressed as was I. At that point I became inspired to research food blogs and start my own. So here I am and I hope you enjoy...