Lamb ragout with farro and spring vegetables

Waiting at the counter at the grocery store,  saw the picture of a stew on the cover of a magazine,. Came home, googled and found it in bon appetit magazine. Unfamiliar flavors, especially that of dandelion greens. But we enjoyed it.
The method and the spices used aren't that different from other stews. The greens is what made the taste different, I think.

prep:

Christmas 2017

Countdown to Christmas 2017

When Christmas arrives, Europe, especially England, calls. I have written about my liking for those quaint  olde English pubs, castles, cottages and of course, food. This year wasn't too crazy, I made just a few.

The rock cake and sticky toffee pudding are favorites of kids over there, I hear. And of Harry Potter too! But I did not make a sticky toffee pudding. Instead, I made a gingerbread cake and the sticky sauce of the toffee cake., because I wanted to make gingerbread. I substituted golden syrup for the molasses in the gingerbread recipe, and for treacle in the sticky sauce one. In any case, it was delicious. When eaten warm, it was heavenly!

As usual, the Kerala style plum cake was made ahead. Christmas cookies are the usual ones, except this time, my decoration is kind of sloppy. Also, forgot the nose on the snowmen!

Linzer cookie

rock cakes

gingerbread

warm gingerbread with sticky sauce

Christmas cookies

Christmas eve 2017


Appetizers

lamb chops

latkes

Soup:

butternut squash soup with spiced cream as garnish

and bread

pain d'epi

Should have diluted that soup a tad bit, but by then, the roast and the accompaniments were calling for my attention, and so, just served it as it is. It was a meal in itself!

For the main course, this X'mas eve, I prepared a typical English roast. Roast beef, roasted potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, and gravy. Gave an American touch with the creamed spinach.

roast beef dinner

Desserts:

Kerala style plum cake, creme brulee

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the clink of the spoon  against the caramelized sugar on top, and the softness of the pudding inside! yum!


On Christmas day, a pared down Nazrani Christmas. For breakfast, Paalappam and lamb stew. Just our fish in spicy coconut sauce, fried fish, Beef cutlets, and a vegetable. Paalalppam looks a bit tattered! waiting and transferring didnt go well.

paalappam and lamb stew

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paalappam and stew - an earlier better pic

Nazrani beef varattiyathu with leftover roast beef

Lamb chops with watercress-grapefruit salad, potatoes Dauphinoise

I couldn't get noisettes of lamb that Betty neels mentions in her books, hence, lamb chops. :)




Lamb chops

Serves 3


Ingredients:

8 lamb rib  chops (or ask the butcher for  double cut lamb rib chop to get thicker chops)
3tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp butter
4  sprigs fresh thyme, crushed
1-2tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne (optional)
1/2 - 1 tsp ginger, grated
1 tsp garlic paste/crushed
salt

 Mix all the ingredients together in 2 tbsp olive oil  and marinate the lamb chops for an hour (or more).
Heat the rest of the olive oil plus  butter in a skillet. Add the chops. Brown on both sides.
Cover and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes on each side.
Remove cover and brown for a minute or less.
You may make a gravy from the drippings. Saute some onion in the drippings. Deglaze the pan by adding some red wine vinegar plus chicken/lamb stock and scraping the skillet. For thicker gravy, add a tablespoon of flour and cook thoroughly.
Serve lamb chops  with the salad below and potatoes Dauphinoise ( au gratin). Add a few  fried tomato slices, if you like.

Watercress and Pink Grapefruit Salad:

1 bunch fresh watercress trimmed
1/2 pink grapefruit, peeled and segmented
1 small bunch freshly chopped mint

Vinaigrette dressing:
1 tbsp olive oil
1tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2-1 tsp sugar

Method:

Make the dressing. Toss the trimmed and washed watercress and mint together with the dressing.Add  pink grapefruit pieces.

Potatoes Dauphinoise


Ingredients

5 Yukon gold potatoes

3 cloves of garlic

2-3 sprigs of thyme

3 0z Gruyere cheese, grated

1/2 pint whipping cream

1 tbsp unsalted butter


Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Serves: 3 - 4

Method

1.Preheat oven to 300°F.

2.Finely chop the garlic and thinly slice the potatoes (the skin can be left on or peeled off).

3.Put the cream, milk, garlic, rosemary and thyme in a saucepan. Season with salt & pepper, bring to the boil and then remove from the heat.

4.Rub the inside of a oven-proof dish with butter and place a layer of potato in the bottom of the dish. Lightly season the layer with salt & pepper, add cheese all over the potatoes,  and continue to layer and season until the dish is full. Then pour the milk mixture over the potatoes.

5.Put the dish into the oven for 40 minutes.

6.Check the potato is cooked by sticking a knife into the middle, the potato should be soft and offer no resistance.

7.Cut out portions and serve.

Source: http://www.reallynicerecipes.com/recipe/potato/dauphinoise which I modified.
I found the recipe for the salad here, but I have modified them :  http://www.heritagemeats.co.uk/heritagemeats/node/18