Holiday Party - Leg of Lamb with Potatoes

I hosted the Christmas party for my family this year and made it pot luck. There was only the five of us so nothing too crazy but it was a fun time. I made leg of lamb.

One 4.5 lb leg of lamb (bone in)
some dried crushed rosemary
salt and pepper
three cloves of garlic.



This recipe that I found online was so easy, I figure it was the safe thing to do. I chopped up the garlic and mixed it in the rosemary, salt and pepper. Rubbed it all over the lamb and stabbed small slits in the lamb to push the garlic pieces in.



Then it was just the matter of cooking it. The recipe I found saids to cook it low and slow. 250 for four hours covered and 2 more uncovered. It is not going for medium rare. It is cooking it til it falls apart. I like this kind of cooking; it is kind of like the pulled pork and the lamb shank that I've cooked before. I like both of those.

After 6 hours of cooking the lamb and my condo is smelling delicious, tear the meat apart, rip the bones out, and let it sit. The lamb should be tender enough where you can use two forks and rip the meat apart. I actually cut them into slightly bigger than bite size pieces(chopstick friendly size) with my brand new kitchen shears because we are having it Chinese family style. The meat soak up some of the juice that the meat have sweated out. Moist meat is good.

It's time to make the potatoes.

5 small red potatoes
Lots of salt
Some dried rosemary
A little garlic powder (not pictured)
Enough olive oil to cover all the potatoes



I quartered (cut into fourths)the potatoes with my brand new santoku. Did I mention I bought a brand new knives set? It is sweet. The knife glided right through the potatoes with no effort. Best purchase of 2007 for me.

Throw the chopped potatoes in a baking pan and add the rest of the ingredients. I mixed it all up by hand make sure every pieces are covered. Bake the potatoes at 450 for 30 minutes, toss them a bit at 15 to make sure all sides get a bit of browning.

The lamb kind of cooled a bit so I put everything on the plate and put it all back into the oven a to keep warm as the oven cool back down from 450. About 10-15 minutes later, it was nice and warm and ready.



It was a pot luck and my parents brought sticky rice and Chinese broccoli. My brother brought desert, chocolate dipped strawberries. Dinner was awesome.



Happy Holidays!

-a

Chili

I just thought it's about time I learn to make chili. It's winter time, there is nothing better than coming in from the cold to a hot bowl of chili. ...Well, I can think of a couple things, but this blog is about food.

2 pounds of grounded beef/pork combo
1 big red bell pepper
1 white onion
1 jalapeño
1 cubanelle pepper
2 cloves of garlic
28 oz can of diced tomato
10 oz can of kidney beans
10 oz can of black beans (later added)
6 oz can of Tomato paste (later added)
grounded pepper
salt
chili powder
cumin
a bottle of sam adams winter lager



First I seasoned the meat with cumin, pepper, and salt, then brown the meat in a big pot on high heat. Take the cooked meat out but leave the meat fat in the pot. Finely chop up the vegetables and in the pot they goes. Cook the vegetables on medium heat season with chili powder and more cumin, salt and pepper. When they start to smell good, put the meat back in and stir. Oh this is important, when chopping the jalapeño and cubanelle, take the middle guts and the seeds out and throw them away. That is where the death heat are. You don't want any of that.

Then I pour in the beer, diced tomato, and kidney beans and bring to a boil.



This was originally all the ingredients I had. The consistency seems off. It was too thin. So I made a quick run to the store for a can of tomato paste. I also picked up a can of black beans to add. I added the new extra ingredients and now it looks right.



I keep tasting to test and season accordingly. I let it simmer for about an hour and a half and it's done.



The chili was good. For a first time chili, I was please with what I made. Just the right amount of heat. The proportions of meat to sauce to beans to vege was just right. Good job Alex!

Chili is one of those things that can be adjusted every time until the perfect mix is created. So I will definitely make chili again sometime and change it up a bit next time.

-a

Pan-seared scallops

This one I saw on TV once and it seem easy to do.

a pound of big sea scallops
non-stick canola oil spray
salt and pepper
mango salsa, I bought store bought stuff because I'm lazy and these store bought ones are actually fresh and good.
shredded carrots for garnish
a lemon for juice



Defrost and rinse the scallops, pat dry. Sear each side for about 2-3 minutes with the non-stick spray on medium high heat. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on each wide while it cook.



THAT'S IT!. The rest is just garnish and side stuff. Put it on a plate with the salsa on the side and carrots the half lemon for juice. Easy.



This is one of the more fancier dish for the effort. This is good if you like scallops like I like scallops.

-a

Knife Skill Class

Last week I went to a Knife Skill class at the Chopping Block. My bro gave me a gift certificate from there for my b-day a while back and I finally get to use it.It was a nice class, taught me how to use a chef's knife and learn about other knifes. Now I'm dangerous. I've been holding a knife the wrong way all this time. This class also let me know that my knifes at home sucks. I will be getting new knifes hopefully soon.

-a

Curry Chicken

OK it's been a while. Lately, I've been repeating recipes and been busy haven't updated in over a month. And I've been lazy, I have 2 dishes with pictures and I just haven't written about them. Here is one I repeated, Curry chicken. Last time i made sauce and poured them on a cornish hen. This time I do it properly, bite size chicken pieces and heated in the sauce.

About 2 pounds of chicken thighs cut into small bite size pieces
Salt
Curry powder
2 cans of coconut milk (I only used one in the picture and decided I needed both later)
1 large onion
1 large potato
chopped carrot and celery
a couple slices of ginger.



First marinade the chicken with just salt for a day. Bake the chicken at 350 for a half hour. After that, drain the chicken, set it aside for a little bit.

Chop up and boil the potato for about 10 min. Chop the onion and ginger and sizzle in a pot with oil for a minute. Pour in the coconut milk and add about 1 and a half table spoon of curry powder. Drain the chopped potato and add to sauce. Add the chicken after about 15 minutes. Let the potato pieces break down a bit to thicken the sauce.



Cook everything for about another 15 min and it's good. I served it with rice.



I liked this, I'm glad I made a lot and this fed me for a few days. This time the vegetables was a welcomed addition. Everything in a sauce was better than pouring the sauce on top. Will do this again. Next time more potatoes.

-a