Chopped Challenge: The Lamb that Almost Was, but Wasn't

This week The Box arrived with a wide variety of familiar goodies and a couple of strange ones. Nothing exactly made me want to jump up and down and cook like a mad woman, but for the most part the ingredients were useful. Here's what I got:

• Sorrel
• Orange Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes
• Texas Onions
• Elephant Garlic Rounds (basically one big clove of garlic)
• Cucumbers
• Mammoth Basil (Looks like Basil, Smells like Basil, is 2X the size of Basil, I called it Mega Basil)
• Italian Sweet Basil
• Elephant Garlic Flowers (big fluffy purple flower thing)
• Something that looked like a Zucchini and a Eggplant mated
• And Purslane (because MIL thought it would be funny.....THANKS)

Again, we had some odd ducks, like the Purslane, which is essentially a weed, and sorrel, which is poisonous in large quantities. But nothing screamed "COOK ME" so I was looking forward to what was in the big brown basket sitting on the counter. It could have been anything. And I was hoping to get a nice fat, blood pressure rising challenge. So when I opened it up and looked at the ingredients I was perplexed.

OK I'll admit, it wasn't perplexion that held me, I was stumped. Literally stumped to the bottom of my brain. Strawberries, Quinoa, Beer, an Lamb Steaks.  I sat in front of the basket and stared at it for a bit, willing my brain to come up with some sort of plan while The Husband stood anxiously next to me waiting to hear if I was about to send him to the supermarket. An idea would begin to form... then it would drift, another one would simmer up and then fizzel. Five minutes in The Husband suggested I try the beer and see if that lead to any inspiration. The beer had this sweet, grainy flavor to it. Certainly unique. Definitely drinkable. But inspiring..... meh.

I figured I could go the easy route, grill the steaks, make a sauce with the strawberries and beer and then cook the quinoa, but it seemed so boring. So unoriginal, and honestly I wasn't sure about the flavors. I'ld say the whole process took about 15 minutes of sitting and thinking. Finally an idea took hold. I wasn't totally convinced it was going to work, but I sent The Husband out for some goat cheese anyway.

First thing I did was throw pine nuts in a pan to toast and clean the Mega Basil. Once the house was filled with the nutty smell of pine nuts I put both into a food processor and processed until well broken down. When the Husband Returned with the goat cheese I tossed that in to make a creamy cheesey basialy filling.

Next I approached the lamb steaks. They seemed to have this large fat or tissue cap on them and it took both my own and The Husband's skills and attempts to slice that thing off. Not nearly as easy as the bacon from last week I will tell you that much. In retribution, I took a fry pan and pounded the heck out of the lamb steaks. Then I put about a third of the cheese mixture in a decent layer over each of the steaks and trussed them up using a method that is easier to show then explain so if you are interested click the link HERE, it will be far more instructive.

Once everything was thoroughly tied up (with a few extra toothpicks where things weren't quite holding together). I took my knife and cut small slits into the meat, stuffing them with slivers of the Elephant Garlic from the box. Then, with no knowledge of how long it would take the meat to cook, I set it aside until I dealt with the rest of the Basket Ingredients.

I have cooked with Quinoa, in the past. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it is a grain. It is high in fiber and a complete protein. Great for vegetarians, but tolerable in flavor and texture for those of us with a more meaty persuasion. It is cooked on the stove top like rice in a 2:1 water:grain ratio. I had no idea how it would react to cooking it in the beer, so I upped my ratio a bit to count for the higher rate of evaporation in the alcohol, threw in some cloves of garlic and checked on it every 8 minutes or so until most of the beer had been absorbed or boiled off. Sampling told me the texture was done.

Content that the quinoa was ready I chopped up the strawberries for sweetness, the grape tomatoes And a bunch of the Purslane leaves, which have a slight lemony flavor and a bit of crispness to them. Tossed it all with the quinoa and a good bit of fresh olive oil, ground pepper and salt. Finally, glancing around I spied the Elephant Garlic Flower and thought I would use that too.

I took the big purple flower in my hand and gave it a quick wash. The flour is actually made up of several little flowers. I thought I would just cut them away and toss them in with the quinoa. So with the confidence of Fabio on a novel shoot I took my first slice and promptly started to cry from the garlic fumes which escaped the flower. OH DEAR LORD were those strong. Stronger then any onion I have ever cut into. Tears were instantaneous. And then they were gone. The flowers had a strong garlic flavor. I dared not add more then half the bloom.

The flavors were well balanced and I could definitely taste the beer. Overall I was pleased with what I made.

The final step was to cook off the Lamb. I set the toaster oven to 425 and put a heavy baking dish inside to warm up. When the oven was preheated I skewered the smaller of the lambs with a insta read thermometer that has a temperature alarm on it. Seasoned with salt and pepper, put the meat in the dish to a delightful sizzle. Set the alarm for 135 and sat down for some TV time with The Husband.

about a half hour later The Husband suggested I take a look at the temperature. Of course I thought the alarm was going to go off and I would know when it hit the appropriate temperature so I wasn't worried. Of course to my dismay the temperature read at 155 and hadn't given me a peep. Never trust your tools. My meat was over done, there was nothing left to do but rest, slice, and plate.

At least it tasted good. Had it been cooked to the right temperature and not over done it would have been delicious. I had a few pieces that were quite delectable and juicy, more towards the center of the rolls. But such is life. At least the quinoa was something special.

Judge's Corner

This week’s dish was Goat cheese pesto stuffed lamb with beer infused summer quinoa salad.

The plating was nice for this dish. I thought the cross section of the lamb medallions was the way to go. The quinoa salad looked good with its variety of colors which brought the intended spring feeling.

           

The taste of the goat cheese pesto filling married well with the lamb. The only problem was that the lamb was sadly overcooked and had dried out. In addition despite attempting to remove all the silver skin my pieces still had a fair amount of gristle which resulted in some inedible pieces. The quinoa salad was very good. the strawberries and cherry tomatoes really popped with flavor bringing the spring to the salad.

All the basket ingredients were highlighted nicely in the dish. The quinoa really took the beer flavor on to enhance the base of the salad, which played well with the strawberries. The filling of the lamb was delicious with it even though it was overdone.

As always I look forward to another week and providing another challenge.

The Recipes

For the Lamb:

• 2 boneless, leg of Lamb Steaks, trimmed and pounded to about 3/4 inch thickness
• 2 Cups Mega Basil (or regular basil)
• 1/3 cup pine nuts (toasted)
• 4 oz goat cheese
• 2-3 large cloves of garlic cut into slivers
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 Fahrenheit.  Place planned roasting pan into the oven during the preheat
2. Puree the basil, pine nuts and goat cheese in a food processor until smooth. 
3. Spread 1/3 of the puree onto each of the lamb steaks
4. Roll into a roulade and tie off appropriately with twine
5. With a sharp knife, Make 10-12 1/2inch slices in each roast. stuff each slice with a garlic sliver.
6. Cover rolls with a little bit of oil, salt and pepper. Place into the preheated pan and let cook until internal temperature reads 130-135 degrees. Remove from oven and allow to rest. Internal temperature should rise to 145.
7. Slice into rounds and serve.

For the Quinoa:

• 1/2 Cup Chopped grape tomatoes, 
• 1/2 cup chopped strawberries, 
• 1/3 cup chopped Purslane
• 1/4 cup chopped elephant garlic flower
• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 and 1/4 cups beer. 
• 2 tbsp good extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste. 

1. Place quinoa and beer into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Boil the beer has boiled off leaving the quinoa tender. 
2. Combine with the remaining ingredients and serve hot, cold or at room temperature.