Thanks Adam!

I just wanted to say a special thanks to my boyfriend/amateur food stylist, photographer, and sous chef, Adam Eisele. He has been very supportive and helpful to me during this project and has shown incredible patience when I become frustrated, difficult, territorial in the kitchen, etc.. Many of the photos on this blog are his handiwork. Thanks for all your support! xo

Adam made us some wonderful jerk chicken a few days ago. All I had to do was braise some mizuna (for recipe see bok choy) and make some coconut rice. For the coconut rice I simply substituted coconut milk for some of the water and cooked the rice according to the package directions. I think it was about 1/4 cup coconut milk and 1 and 3/4 cup water (2 cups liquid total) to one cup rice.

Lamb Dinner

I recently made dinner for a group of friends. The menu consisted of roasted lamb with mint pesto, turnip puree, and a salad using my CSA lettuces and peas.

For the lamb, I used a Barefoot Contessa recipe. First, in a food processor, I blended 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt, 3 cloves of garlic, and 2 tablespoons of fresh rosemary. I then added a half cup of dijon mustard and 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and blended. I slathered this mixture over the fatty side of my frenched racks of lamb and let them marinate for an hour.

In the meantime I made a mint pesto in the food processor. I pureed a cup and a half of mint, 3/4 cup basil, 1/4 cup tasted pine nuts, 2 tbsp. grated parmesan, salt and pepper. I added olive oil to the mixture as necessary to help it blend and then continued to add oil until I had achieved the consistency I wanted.

I then placed them in a roasting pan (ribs curving down) and roasted them at 450 degrees for 25 minutes exactly, allowing the meat to rest for 15 minutes, before slicing it into individual ribs.












Initially, I wasn't entirely sure what to do with my turnips, but a friend and fellow chef, Dana Birke, suggested making them into a puree. This turned out to be a wonderful idea and the turnips almost stole the show from the lamb!

I peeled and diced the turnips into medium sized chunks and placed them in a pot with enough whole milk to cover them. I added a few whole cloves of smashed garlic and half a bunch of fresh thyme (stems and all ) to the pot. I let the pot simmer until the turnips could easy be pierced with a knife (about 25 minutes). I then removed the garlic cloves and thyme stems and drained the turnips, reserving the cooking liquid in a bowl. I returned the turnips to the pot and added about a cup of the liquid back into the pot. I used my immersion blender (which seems to be making quite a few appearances on this blog) to puree the turnips and milk together, adding more cooking liquid as necessary. Last, of course, I seasoned the puree with salt and pepper.

I was planning on adding quite a bit of butter at this point, but I completely forgot and no one seemed to notice.








Lastly, I made a quick and simple vinaigrette with one part acid (dijon, lemon juice, and shallot in this case) to 2 parts olive oil (extra virgin) and dressed my gorgeous lettuces with it. I shelled my peas and added them raw to the salad (almost like sprinkles!)