Shepherd's Pie

Why have I never made Shepherd's Pie before? I wonder because I made it for dinner on Friday--a cold, rainy Spring evening--and now I want to eat it every day. 

Disclaimer: I actually only made this to impress my dead sexy Scottish boyfriend. I think it worked. *fingers crossed*

According to Cook's Info, "Shepherd's Pie probably originated in Scotland and in the north of England. Originally, it was made from chunks of meat, probably leftover from a roast. [...] The dish as we know it, though, couldn't have originated before potatoes became generally accepted in the UK, which wasn't until the end of the 1700s. Before that, the dish--or a very similar one--was made in Scotland but topped with a pastry crust instead of mashed potato. The name [Shepherd's Pie] appeared in the 1870s." 

This dish is called Shepherd's Pie when it's made with lamb, Cottage Pie when it's made with beef. But with ground lamb readily available in most major supermarkets and farmers markets these days, why wouldn't you use lamb? 

Besides, it's just so Eastery and Springy. A perfect dinner for those chilly April nights. 

Shepherd's Pie

slightly adapted from Alton Brown

Braised Lamb Shoulder Chops

For a couple years now, pork has been in its heyday. Pork belly is the in vogue menu item, and bacon nearly has a cult following. However, on its November list of the Top 10 Food Trends for 2010, Epicurious.com predicted that lamb would trump pork as everyone’s favorite meat.

A month earlier, the food blog Eat Me Daily declared lamb “the new hotness," and Saveur magazine’s October cover announced that “lamb rules.”

Saveur asserted that while home cooks have shied away from preparing and serving lamb in the past, “that is starting to change […] as tastes become worldlier and good-quality lamb is increasingly available at butcher shops and supermarkets.” 

Lambstravaganza

Yesterday, I spent 8 hours at Prairie Grass Farm in New Florence, Missouri, for Slow Food St. Louis's annual Lambstravaganza event, an 8-course meal prepared by the city's top chefs and featuring the farm's own lamb.

According to FairShares.org: Prairie Grass Farm is a third generation, small family owned farm that produces grass fed lamb and free-range eggs in New Florence, Missouri. The Hillebrands, husband and wife, raise nearly 700 lambs a year on their 520-acre farm. They sell an array of lamb products, including summer sausage, lamb kabobs, racks, and stew meat. During the summer season they also offer blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and tomatoes. David Hillebrand grew up on this farm, which has been in the family for three generations. As a kid, his parents focused mostly on row crops, though they kept some livestock, and often while the others left home each morning to tend the field crops, David stayed behind to take care of the chickens. His interest in raising sheep came from his grandfather, who was the first in his family to raise lamb. Prairie Grass Farm's grass fed lambs and free-range eggs are served up in some of the area's finest restaurants.

Dave Hillebrand gives us a tour of his farm.

Some of their lambs with one of the ferocious guard dogs.

They keep over 600 free-range chickens.

I've bought eggs and lamb from PGF at the farmers market before, and it was so awesome to see where that food came from and to meet the people who tend the animals...including the Hillebrand girls who are in charge of the goats.

Baby goats like this one were born on Saturday.
(photo from BabyGoatFarm.com)

Dinner was wonderful. I thought I would be sick of lamb after 7 lamb dishes, but each was unique and I didn't feel too lambed out at the end...though I was full!

My favorites were the potted lamb (similar to a rillette), the vindaloo braised shanks & mango lassi (I can't wait to make a lassi at home now!), and the tongue faggotini (a stuffed pasta served in a delicious broth).

Tables were set up in an old barn, and I was relieved we weren't sitting out in the sun all afternoon! (Yes, those are flowers potted in a blender on our table!)

First course: Potted lamb with a salad of pickled spring veggies (radish, carrot, squash) & egg. Prepared by Margaret Kelly & Dave Owens of Bissinger's Chocolatier.



Second course: Vindaloo braised lamb shanks & toasted naan with pepita coriander pesto & a shot of mango lassi.
Prepared by Andy White of Schlafly's Tap Room.


Third course: Grilled leg of lamb with homemade feta (using the farm's goat milk), crispy mint gremolata, & shaved radish salad.
Prepared by Josh Galliano of Monarch.


Fourth course: Chermoula spiced smoked lamb with harissa & saffron aioli.
Prepared by Timothy Grandinetti & Ray "Dr. BBQ" Lampe.


Fifth course: Lamb's tongue faggotini.
Prepared by Gerard Craft of Niche.


Sixth course: Rack of Lamb with orzo & asparagus.
Prepared by Lou Rook of Annie Gunn's.

Seventh course: Lamb loin & sweetbreads with beet risotto.
Prepared by Kevin Nashan of Sidney Street Cafe.

Eighth course: Pistachio cream puff with local strawberries, homemade jam & local honey.
Prepared by Christy Augustin of Sydney Street Cafe.

After dinner, I stuck around talking & drinking wine (and homemade limoncello) with a few friends and the Hillebrand family. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day. I can't wait to go again next year!

In the meantime, I am going to (finally) become a Slow Food member and I'm going to continue supporting local farmers by buying meat & produce at the farmers markets. It really is amazing to see where our food comes from and to know that a family is behind that food...that they live and work the farm as they had been for generations.

Lamb Minestrone

We've only had 1 week of classes after Christmas break and already we've been off for three snow days. Well, two of them--last Thursday & Friday--were "cold days," the weather being too blustery to have school. With yesterday being a holiday, I've had the last five days off.

Remind me to stop complaining about my job.

You would think that with all those days off, there'd be a flurry of activity in my kitchen. Not so. I brewery hopped in St. Louis on Thursday, grocery shopped & errand ran on Friday, baked a cheesecake then made another batch of ravioli with Jerad's family for his birthday on Saturday, had a impromptu day of slot-machining & drinking with Sarah on Sunday, and enjoyed a lazy day at home on Sunday...watching movies in front of the fire, reading, baking bread, and making soup.

Lamb Minestrone

adapted from Tyler's Ultimate

Ingredients:

10 cups chicken stock

11 cloves garlic
1/2 pound small rigatoni
Extra-virgin olive oil
8 fresh sage leaves
1 sprig fresh rosemary, needles only
1 sprig fresh thyme, leaves only
1 pound ground lamb
2 medium carrots, roughly chopped
2 celery ribs, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 (28-ounce) can crushed plum tomatoes
1 bay leaf

1 sprig fresh thyme

juice of 1 lemon2 (28-ounce) cans cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 bunch fresh parsley leaves, finely minced
Coarsely ground black pepper

Kosher salt

Directions:

• Combine the stock and 8 cloves of smashed garlic in a big saucepan and simmer for about 15 minutes to give the stock a nice, garlicky taste; strain out the garlic. Keep warm.
• Bring a pot of salted water to boil for the rigatoni. Boil the pasta for about 6 minutes; it will be undercooked. Drain & set aside.
• Pour 1/4 cup olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the sage & rosemary and warm the oil over medium heat to infuse it with the flavor of the herbs, 3 to 4 minutes.
• Add carrots, celery, onion, & 3 cloves of minced garlic and cook until soft but not browned. Transfer to a bowl.
• Cook the lamb in the pan (add more oil if needed), breaking up the meat with the side of a big spoon until well browned.
• To the pan with the sausage stir in the crushed tomatoes, bay leaf, thyme, lemon, cannelloni beans, black pepper, salt, and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes stirring occasionally.
• Stir the pasta into the simmering soup. Cook for a few minutes until pasta is done.
• Add the parsley and taste for seasoning. Discard the bay leaf before serving.

Tower Grove Farmers' Market

This morning was my first time at the Tower Grove Farmers' Market, and I loved it! There are only a dozen or so vendors, but they are all local.

I bought beets, radishes, and strawberries...



Oh, the strawberries. They are absolutely gorgeous...small and bright red. So fragrant and sweet. I'll probably just eat them all as they are.

...pencil-thin asparagus and basil...



The weather around here has just sucked for basil, too much rain. It's all turned yellow. This is hydroponic grown in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, at ShowMe Fresh Farm.

...lamb patties and garlic scapes...



Not quite sure what I'm going to do with the scapes, but they look very similar to the wild onions I picked in my front yard a few weeks ago. Are these the same things?

...goat's milk feta cheese and salsicca fiama.



Ok, this spicy Italian sausage is the whole reason I got up at 6:30 this morning to make it to the market when they opened. I was hoping that Mark Sanfilippo would have some salami at his new stand called Salume Beddu. However, he only had Italian sausage. That's okay; I'm sure these handmade sausages are fabulous. Plus, I got on his mailing list, and I'll be sure to head over there when the coppas and other cured meats are ready.

Lamb Chops & Minted Sweet Pea Puree

For the past week, I've talked up this project with friends, co-workers, students, and random customers at the winery. Everyone seems excited. People want to come over for dinner. I've been invited to cook at other people's homes; they even offered to buy the food for me to cook.

I'm like a pseudo-celebrity chef.

Sweet.

So, for my next recipe-I've-never-made, I chose to grill up some lamb chops. I love eating lamb, even if that makes me some kind of baby animal hater. Honestly, I don't really care that it's the meat of fluffy baby sheep. It tastes good, damn it.

Besides, I have this sadistic streak when it comes to lamb. Let me digress: Every Easter, my Grandma Green used to make a lamb cake. It was a white cake, baked in a lamb shaped pan, then set upright on a platter, covered in shredded coconut, and decorated with jellybeans. It looked a little like this
only without the creepy eyes and mouth.

So, I actually hated that lamb cake. I don't know why, exactly. But I always used to cut off the head and eat it, not because I liked white cake with coconut, but just out of spite. And Grandma, God bless her, made that cake every year...just for me. I must have eaten that head with such gusto. When she moved out of her house into a retirement community, she passed along that lamb cake pan to my mother, so that my mom could continue to make the cake for her favorite granddaughter. I have no idea where that pan is now.

Anyway...if there is lamb (meat, not cake) on the menu when I go out to eat, I will typically order it. In fact, my favorite lamb dish is the grilled lamb skewers with cucumber sauce at Modesto in St. Louis. Lamb is the only meat that I want to naw and suck off the bones. So, I was mildly disappointed that I could only find lamb loin chops without the long bone sticking out. Nevertheless, it was lamb and I was excited about cooking up a very springish dish.

To start, I made a paste out of pressed garlic, chopped rosemary, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I smeared this over the chops and let it sit at room temperature for about a half hour. Then, I seared them in a hot pan for about 4 minutes a side. While they rested, I pureed the peas (a bag of frozen sweet peas that I sauteed in olive oil and garlic until they thawed and warmed) in the food processor with a couple tablespoons of melted butter, a couple tablespoons of half & half, and a few sprigs of fresh mint. I returned the bright green stuff to the pan to warm, added some salt and pepper, then topped with shredded parmesan cheese.

The chops, I must say, were delicious. The garlic/rosemary paste made a tasty crust on the meat, which was cooked medium--very red, juicy, and tender. (When I make this again, I will use more of that paste.) It wasn't as...well...lamby tasting as I expected. In fact, for the price, I think I prefer lamb to beef (I paid about $14 for four good-sized chops). And the pea puree was a nice, slightly minty, compliment to the lamb--even if they did remind me a bit of baby food.

By the way, I plan to eat the leftover puree for breakfast tomorrow...heat it up, mix it with some crumbled bacon, and top it with a poached egg.

***

I finished reading Julie & Julie, the book that inspired my cooking project, yesterday and now I've started reading the blog she kept while cooking her way through MtaoFC. In particular, I really like how she talks about eating animals--how she discusses having to cook live lobsters, once even having to cut up a live lobster before cooking it, how she describes extracting marrow from beef bones (eating the center of the center, the essence of life), and how much she likes cooking and eating liver.

So, I decided that part of my project has to include cooking and eating something that I have actually killed myself. I've never done that before. I think I need to do that, at least once, in my life. But, I am not a hunter; I've never even shot a gun before. And, I am not ready to actually shoot something and eat it, so I have to start small...like buying live mussels or a lobster or something to cook.

This should be interesting........