Roasted Leg of Lamb with Fig-Port Wine Sauce

My family loves lamb! I won’t lie there are a lot of steps to this recipe but the end result is worth it! Have you ever had lamb that was on the “gamey” side? The trick is to remove the silvery connective tissue on a leg of lamb, trimming off some fat as well. Then brining the lamb in salt/sugar/garlic solution for a few hours. I then rub a herb paste over the roast and let marinade for a few more hours. To make sure the roast cooks evenly I wrap tightly with twine. I threw this on the traegar med- high heat for 40 min or so till medium rare.

First off:

Trim the roasts fat and silvery connective tissue off of the roast.

The Brine:

Take a large container and add 2 quarts of water, 1/4 cup salt, 8 mashed garlic cloves, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1 tsp of peppercorns.

CHECK this shot out. Doesn’t it look like some nasty weird Mad Scientists brew 😉

Igor’s Secret Kitchen Brew! lol 🙂

Put this in the fridge for at least a few hours.

The herb Paste:

Ok so basically this is similar to a pesto minus the nuts.

I had about 1 tbsp of rosemary, 2 tsp of thyme, 1/2 cup of parsley, 2 garlic cloves and EVOO

I mixed everything in the food processor and drizzled in my olive oil aprox 1/4 cup

This gets smeared all over the meat and chilled for a few more hours to marinade. I use kitchen twine to get it back into a roast form then I grilled this on my traegar for about 40 minutes till medium rare. If you are wanting to use a regular barbecue please cook this with indirect heat. A traegar grill is a wood pellet grill that works the same as a normal convection oven with the smokey benefits of a wood fire stove.

Serve with Fig-Port sauce

 

Fig-Port Wine Sauce

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 30min
• Difficulty: easy
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The Fig-Port wine Sauce:

Ingredients:

• 8 mission dried figs
• 2 cup of port
• 1  cup of chicken stock
• 1 cinnamon stick
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp of fresh thyme
• 2 tsp of fresh rosemary
• 2 tbsp of butter

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a saucepan and reduce liquids by half. Discard the cinnamon stick and place the sauce in a food processor. Puree the sauce till smooth then blend in the butter and serve with the lamb 🙂

Oven Roasted Meatballs

Homemade meatballs are indeed time-consuming, I won’t lie ……. BUT once you have eaten homemade meatballs  you just can’t possibly go back to store-bought!  I hate the messy greasy job of  frying them in the pan, so I eliminated that step by throwing them in the oven instead.  To get the softest meatballs I have used a ratio of 3:1 (3 eggs for 1 lb of ground beef) Also this is where you want to splurge on calories and get 80/20 ground beef. Of course the addition of milk and bread crumbs also adds to the texture.

I usually buy a huge package of ground beef from Costco 7 lbs or so and I make a huge batch and take the morning to cook them up and then I have many meals of meatballs that I freeze.  I love just eating them with a bit of marinara sauce and fresh cheese, meatball subs, spaghetti and meatballs, sweet and sour meatballs etc 🙂

• Servings: 15-20
• Time: 3hrs
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• 4 lbs of ground beef 80/20
• 12 large eggs
• 2 cups of milk
• 2 cups of panko bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup of fresh garlic chopped fine
• 1 1/2 cups of finely chopped onions
• 1/3 cup of parsley finely chopped
• 1/4 cup of basil finely chopped
• 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp of freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 tbsp of kosher salt

Directions:

Turn oven on to 375 . Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.  In this instance clean hands will be your best friend to really get it mixed up well.  I use a cookie size scooper for getting the perfect amount of the mixture every time.  Roll in a ball and place on a lined half sheet pan.  Cook for 20 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and enjoy 🙂

TIPS:

• If you have a food processor use it for all the chopped ingredients, it really goes soooooo much faster.
• I take tinfoil to line my half sheet pans and use pam spray so they don’t stick!
• A small ice-cream scooper really get the perfect amount of meatball mixture every time so they cook evenly
• Don’t overcook! If you want that soft melt in your mouth texture watch the clock! I actually under cook them a bit because once you take them out of the oven to rest the heat will still be cooking them as they sit! Also if  I am going to freeze them, well-done meatballs will give you a firmer texture when you go to rewarm them.

Homemade Potstickers!

I won’t lie these little suckers were a bit of work but absolutely yummy! Recently we have been loving the fantastic asian food in Southern California.  Thai, and Vietnamese are my fav!

Potsitckers

• Servings: 8
• Time: 2hrs
• Difficulty: moderate
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Potsticker Ingredients:

• 1 pound of ground turkey
• 1/2 napa cabbage shredded
• 4 green onions minced
• 1 large egg beaten
• 4 tsp of soy sauce
• 1 tsp fresh ginger
• 1 medium clove of garlic minced
• ground pepper to taste
• package of gyoza wrappers
• 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper
• 4 tsp of peanut or vegetable oil

Directions:

Salt your cabbage (I used 1/2 tsp or so) and place in a colander to wilt for 20 min. Try and squeeze as much liquid as you can out of it.  Then dump in a bowl with your turkey, onions, egg, soy, ginger, garlic, ground and cayenne pepper. Mix well and then pop in fridge for 30 minutes.

Then take your wrappers and start filling them. I used about a tablespoon, wet one edge with water, fold over and squeeze to seal.

Freeze them on a sheet pan before bagging them for the freezer so they don’t stick together 🙂

So what you are planning to eat now, set aside, and get your skillet out! Place 4 tsp of oil in your pan and heat. Working in batches place 5-6 in pan and brown well on one side.  Reduce the heat to low add 1/2 cup of water and cover the skillet in order to steam and cook the rest of the potsticker. This should take about 7 min all the water should be absorbed. Take the cover off and increase the heat back to medium high to recrisp the bottom.

Serve with the dipping sauce!

 

Dipping Sauce

• Servings: 8
• Time: 15min
• Difficulty: easy
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Dipping Sauce Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of soy sauce
• 2 tbsp of rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of sweet sherry
• 2 tbsp of water
• 1 scallion minced
• 1/4 tsp of toasted sesame oil (this stuff is super potent, make sure you don’t use more than this or it will overpower everything else)

Directions:

Yep you guessed it ….. mix it all together.  Serve with your potstickers.

 

 

 

Pico de Gallo

Fresh, simple and delicious!

There are such wonderful authentic Mexican restaurants here in Southern California.  I seem to always have tortillas on hand as a staple alongside my bread. My daughter likes cheese quesadillas  and the rest of us like beef and chicken fajitas, burritos, etc etc.

Pico de Gallo is basically an uncooked salsa, also known as Salsa Fresca.  Traditionally it is made with fresh tomatoes, onions and chillies.   Make this a few hours ahead of time to allow the flavors to blend.

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 20 min
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• 3 ripe tomatoes chopped small (sometimes I cheat and use  1 can of diced tomatoes well-drained)
• 1/3 of a medium size red onion finely minced
• 1 green onion finely minced
• 1 jalapeno pepper finely minced
• 1 clove of garlic finely minced
• a bunch of fresh cilantro chopped medium.
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• juice from one lime.

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together, cover, refrigerate and let sit for a few hours before serving to allow flavors to develop.

Beef Chili

The trick to get bright taste from this chili is to bloom your spices with your veggies from the beginning.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
• 2 Tb of chili powder
• 2 onions chopped
• 1 bell pepper chopped
• 2 tsp of cumin
• 1 tsp of smoked paprika
• 1 tsp of chipotle chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• salt to taste
• 1 (28 ounce ) can of tomato puree
• 1 (28 ounce) can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of vegetarian beans (I use bush’s it is in a tangy brown sugar sauce)
• 1 can of red kidney beans
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Directions:

Heat oil in a large dutch oven till hot then add your vegetables and spices. Cook until vegetables are softened. Stir in the garlic at the end for 1 minute.

Add your ground beef and cook the beef breaking up the chunks. Cook till beef is no longer pink.

Add your tomato puree, diced tomatoes and both beans. Bring to a simmer.

From here if I am not pressed for time I would transfer the mixture to a crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours. Otherwise I would put your covered dutch oven in a 325 degree oven for a few hours. Enjoy!

 

Beef Chili

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 2 1/2 hours(crockpot 6hrs)
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef
• 2 Tb of chili powder
• 2 onions chopped
• 1 bell pepper chopped
• 2 tsp of cumin
• 1 tsp of smoked paprika
• 1 tsp of chipotle chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• salt to taste
• 1 (28 ounce ) can of tomato puree
• 1 (28 ounce) can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of vegetarian beans (I use bush’s it is in a tangy brown sugar sauce)
• 1 can of red kidney beans
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Directions:

Heat oil in a large dutch oven till hot then add your vegetables and spices. Cook until vegetables are softened. Stir in the garlic at the end for 1 minute.

Add your ground beef and cook the beef breaking up the chunks. Cook till beef is no longer pink.

From here if I am not pressed for time I would transfer the mixture to a crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours. Otherwise I would put your covered dutch oven in a 325 degree oven for a few hours. Enjoy!