Thankful

It's been one hell of a year and I've got a lot to be thankful for. Thanks to YOU for reading my blog! I'm consistently flattered to hear of friends and strangers who find inspiration in my posts, and you inspire me to craft the best posts I possibly can. I'm glad I can simultaneously archive my recipes and share them with you - and because of you, this archive is becoming something I can actually be proud of. Thanks, guys.

Enough with the mushy holiday feelings - let's get cookin!

----- LAMB -----

Since moving to Berkeley last year, I've only ever bought meat at the farmers markets. Primarily from Prather Ranch. For Thanksgiving this year, I procrastinated too long and Prather was sold out of all the special holiday meats by the time I asked. They recommended Marin Sun Farms, which has a butcher shop in the Rockridge area of Oakland. Their website is super groovy and they claim to be conscious stewards of the land, raising deliciously sustainable animals. So I made the trip down to Rockridge.

Marin Sun Farms Butcher Shop is in the back of Rockridge Market Hall - A glorious food menagerie, reminiscent of DeLaurenti in Pike Place Market.  I traversed the jungle of imported fine cheese samples, locally carved wooden kitchen utensils, fine wines, and fresh/live seafood. Joy washed over me as I stepped into the Marin Sun Farms corner of the hall - so much beautiful meat! Sausages hanging from the ceiling, coolers full of dog food and stocks, an employee skillfully breaking down an entire lamb in plain view, sweatshirts that simply say "CARNIVORE" on the back, and they have a map detailing where all of their meat comes from and how it gets to the butcher shop (via processing facilities etc., all in CA). Even the employees seemed to be thrilled to be there (always a good sign of a good business).

When I asked the young gentleman behind the counter for a whole leg of lamb, bone in, horror flashed across his face as he told me it would be about 10 minutes. He pulled a full lamb leg from from the walk-in and got a few cuts into it before a salty old man scooped up the lamb leg and ushered the kid to the back. I sneakily watched the older man teach the young guy how to prepare a leg of lamb. This warmed my heart so deeply and brought back many fond memories from when I was learning to be a butcher (though I never truly was). 

Once I had the leg in hand, I had to contact my friend, Trevor, who makes the most amazing lamb I've ever had - lovingly dubbed, "blam lamb". Trevor inspired me to used spices - like cinnamon and coriander, in addition to herbs.

I made a mixture of salt, black pepper, Ceylon cinnamon, and fresh ground coriander. Then I lathered the leg of lamb in olive oil and the spice mixture. To sear this beast, I put a sheet pan directly over two burners on my stove and added some extra olive oil. Searing happens quickly on high heat. A roasting pan would be far better, but sometimes you just gotta work with what you have!

I turned off the heat, removed the meat from the sheet pan and lined it with a bed of onions, garlic, parsley stems, and a bay leaf.

Then I laid the lamb on top of the veggies, sprinkled on the excess spice mix and put it in the oven. After I got it into the oven, I added about a quart of water and a few cubes of frozen homemade chicken demi-glace. Then I covered it with foil and let it braise for 5 hours at 325F.

Before removing this beast from the oven, I carefully poured off most of the drippings into a pot, which I put on the stove to boil down into concentrated deliciousness. 

Since we were biking to our friends house for a Thanksgiving potluck, I deboned and sliced up the entire leg and crammed it into a tupperware. Then at our friends house, I spread the lamb out in a baking pan, covered it in the pan drippings (transported in a ziplock bag), and reheated it in the oven.

Lots of chopped parsley for garnish!

To recap...

Braised Leg of Lamb

1 Whole Leg of Lamb, bone in (7-8#)

~couple Tbsp Kosher Salt

~1-2 tsp Black Pepper, freshly ground

~1 Tbsp Ceylon Cinnamon

~1 Tbsp Coriander, freshly ground

Lots of Virgin Olive Oil

2 Onions, sliced (1 red, 1 yellow)

2 bulbs Garlic, whole cloves

1 bunch Parsley (stems for braising, leaves for garnish)

1 Bay Leaf

1 quart water/stock

....

Rub meat with spices, sear on high heat, put lamb on a bed of veggies with stock, cover with foil or lid, and braise at 325F for at least 4-5 hours.

----- CORN DOGS -----

I'm not sure why I got inspired to make corn dogs, it just seemed like the right thing to do. I adapted the following recipe from Saveur. 

Corn Dog Batter

1 cup Flour

2/3 cup Cornmeal

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Baking Soda

Big pinch salt

3/4 cup Whole Milk

1/2 cup Buttermilk

1 Large Egg

Mix together the dry things, then add the wet things and thoroughly whisk together.

Prepare the sausage! I used Prather Ranch's Apple Bacon Sausage, cut into bite-sized chunks.

Meanwhile, have a pot of vegetable oil heating on the stove. I usually set it to low heat and test if it's ready by sprinkling a tiny bit of flour or batter into the oil. If it bubbles, it's ready. Dust the sausages in flour, shake off excess flour, then dip them in the batter, and then carefully transfer them to the hot oil. A fork works well for dealing with battered sausages.

Fry for several minutes until golden brown. Use tongs to make sure they are cooking evenly and not sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Any left-over batter can be fried alone. I added some cornmeal to the left-over batter before frying it to make hushpuppies.

Corn dogs on the left, hushpuppies on the right.

----- THANKSGIVING ETC. -----

This is when I began taking photos rather sporadically. I completely forgot to photograph my steamed artichokes and lemon beurre blanc. Here is the only photo I have of Alex's deliciously colorful salad:

Kale, Chard, Chioga Beets, Yellow Beats, Apple, Pear, Ceylon Cinnamon

Believe it or not, in two normal-size backpacks we fit: an entire leg of lamb, pan drippings, corn dogs, salad in a fancy salad bowl, a bowl of parsley, four artichokes, lemon beurre blanc, a six-pack + a 22oz. bottle of beer, and Cards Against Humanity (including 3 expansions). Luckily we only had to do this for a short bike ride.

We arrived at Kate's house, and walked into the most chaotic deliciousness I've ever experienced. Every surface in their sizable kitchen was being used to prepare food. There was food stacked on top of food, and food being "set aside" inside the cabinet next to the plates. There were at least 3-5 people in the kitchen at all times - cooking, chopping, heating, eating, moving, cleaning, prepping, yelling, laughing, and calling for another stick of butter. So much butter. 

Kate made each one of us a damn fine hot buttered rum. Each with our own tablespoon of butter.

We snacked on corndogs and artichokes and played a silly role playing game called Munchkin.

And then there was duck. 

One of Kate's housemates got two ducks from the same producer that The French Laundry goes through. He made confit with the legs and sous-vided the breasts. There were so many of us that we only got a few bites of duck, but oh my, it was divine.

After the duck, we filled up our plates with the next round of food...

Clockwise from about 10-11 o'clock - Gavin's yorkshire pudding, Alex's salad, Ben's cinnamony sweet potatoes, Kate's brussel sprouts, turkey leg, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes #1, Aaron's matzo stuffing, Justin's mashed potatoes.

And then there was lamb, and sweet potato pie complete with marshmallows on top, apple pie, pumpkin pie, whipped cream, bread pudding, and last but not least, Angus's fairy cakes:

I'm likely forgetting something. There was an unbelievable amount of food, and I think we may have somehow ended up with more food than we began with. Thanks for all the delicious food, good times, and mountain of left-overs! ...and thanks for reading ;-)