jim brentar dinner report 8 sept 2013 It’s been a bad week for cooking stuff from scratch. First, I was feeling a little under the weather. Then there were rehearsals and a gig. Not much time for cooking, and not feeling up to cooking when there was time. One evening was hot dogs and beans. One or two evenings featured carry-out. Last night was soup sandwich—a classic comfort food standard (and I’ll share that recipe at some point); but it makes use of processed food product from a well-known food company. Not from scratch. So, it’s Sunday. I’m feeling better. Nothing on the schedule that I absolutely have to get to—although, I was tempted to go to Acoustic Artform’s open mic at Grillers. Those guys run a great open mic, and they’re great people, too. But I didn’t want to go an entire week without a home-cooked meal. And there’s a long list of little things that need to get done before Mary Kay and I leave for Kansas (less than a week away!). So... Lamb chops! Parslied potatoes! Zucchini parmesan crisps! Easy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ve already posted the recipe for the zucchini parmesan crisps. Of course the first thing I do is to turn on the oven on, even though I start on the potatoes before the zucchini. Do I then put water on to boil for the potatoes? No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mary Kay can explain it much better than I can (so I won’t try to explain), but you don’t drop the potatoes into boiling water. You start them at room temperature. Anyway, you do start by scrubbing and/or peeling potatoes. WARNING! DIGRESSION: Let’s talk about potatoes. There’s a whole bunch of different varieties of potato; however, they generally fall into two categories. There’s the ones with the slightly heavier, thicker brown skin (idaho, russet, etc.), and the ones with the thinner, smoother skin (white potatoes, redskins, yukon gold, etc.). Your average local health nut will tell you to eat the skins regardless of which type you use. Your super extra fussy eater will not eat the skins no matter what. If you’re like me, you peel the idaho/russet ones and you scrub (and eat the skins of) the non-russet ones. Digressing further: I am slow in the kitchen. For some reason, I can peel potatoes faster than I can scrub them. Maybe I’m just too fussy when I scrub? I don’t know. But there’s also the eyes and the stem button. When you peel, you don’t worry about eyes or anything. They come off with the peel. When you scrub, you also need to check for little eyelets that didn’t scrub off and cut out the little belly button where the stem was. (And I can safely assume that you know why you don’t eat the eyes.) You can make parslied potatoes with russets, but for this dish I prefer white potatoes or redskins or yukon golds. Meanwhile, back at the dinner preparation... So, scrub the spuds. Cut out the eyelets. Cut the potatoes (redskins and yukon golds) into quarters (or halves if they’re small enough). Into the water, and onto the stove. (A pinch of salt is optional.) Mary Kay would also recommend one final rinse before cooking to remove extra starch. I don’t see this as being absolutely necessary; but Mary Kay is always right!!! (Aren’t you, dear?) Mary Kay would probably even go so far to say that if you want the potatoes to remain extra firm when well-cooked, boil them with some tomatoes or tomato juice. If you missed the link to the zucchini parmesan crisp recipe, and can’t find it, please let me know. Thanks to Mike for the homegrown zucchini (that was big enough to double as a lethal weapon). Lamb!!!!!!!! Widely known secret: Most grocery stores will mark down prices on meats when they reach 1 or 2 days from their sell-by date. Lamb chops can be very pricy. But at 20% off, they become a delicious and affordable indulgence. Once again, if you’re trying to eat less meat and more vegetables, a little lamb now and then can help enforce moderation while maximizing yumminess! Here we go! Dry rub! Broiler! Quick! Easy! If you can stick it under the broiler, you can cook it quickly and easily! Meanwhile, back at the potatoes... We started them at room temperature. Gotta keep a half an eye on when they start to boil—off with the lid, turn the heat down a little to prevent boil-over. Once the meat is cooking, check the potatoes. How easily does the fork go in? Perfect! Done! Now you’ve got boiled potatoes. But you don’t have parslied potatoes yet... Parsley. Fresh parsley! Or maybe I should say, “FRESH Parsley!!!!!” I suppose you could make it with dried parsley, but it would be just wrong. Wash and chop. When the potatoes are done, drain them. Then back in the pan and back on the heat on the stove. Yes, don’t turn that burner off—or if you did, then you need to turn it back on. First, give it a few seconds to dry out the potatoes a little. Then add butter. Real butter. Here at Cabbage Creek, we don’t ever use I-Can’t-Believe-You-Didn’t-Serve-Butter. Oleo? No, no, no. Butter. Now, the butter might start to brown a little. That’s okay. That’s what you want. The browned butter gives it extra flavor. Just don’t burn it. Toss potatoes in butter. Add the chopped parsley. With heat on, toss and/or stir until potatoes are uniformly coated with the butter-parsley mixture. Turn off the stove. One last quick toss or stir and they’re done! I assume I don’t even have to ask whether you’ve been keeping an eye on the lamb chops and flipped them halfway through? (Mary Kay says that for the cookbook I will have to spell all these things out in detail.) For a gourmet touch, arrange the zucchini crisps in a spiral or fan or some pleasing arrangement. All the chops facing the same way in a fan or spiral. Add a sprig of parsley and/or a sprig of fresh mint. And always serve lamb with mint jelly. Always. It’s a law somewhere, not sure which jurisdiction. But be advised that if you serve lamb without mint jelly (or some type of mint sauce) that the food police will come after you. Then sit back, relax, and enjoy dinner while watching Food Network. Or, if you’re my wife, watching Cedar Cove—a show where there are no ugly people allowed, no poor people allowed, and everyone is required to wear designer clothes and drive late-model cars. But then again, was it a bigger waste of time when I sat and watched the Browns game this afternoon?
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 03:14:06 +0000
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