Friday Night, Rack of Lamb

This menu started with the "persille'" that was a component of the lamb. It just takes that one seed to get things started. I was thinking about what I saw Jacques Pepin do on his cooking shows and he did something called a "persillade" to finish off a lot of his dishes. It's taking fresh parsley and garlic and chopping them together and chopping finely, then sprinkling it over a finished dish; meats, eggs, vegetables, etc... So I looked it up in my favorite book "Food Lover's Companion" to see what it said about it and basically it said just what I said but also...a dish finished in this fashion is often described as a persille'. For example lamb persille' is a lamb dish topped with persillade mixed with breadcrumbs." So the seed started to grow and here's the menu.

Creamy Mushroom Bruchetta, Watercress and Goat Brie Salad

I have been on this kick lately with mushrooms, I am discovering that they are pretty good. I have always ordered dishes without them or pushed them aside, and I am still not sure of some like I really don't think I like the portobello, maybe I'll try them again some day. Again, the show "Follow That Food" was on mushrooms and Gordon really raved about a dish that was made in Europe somewhere, "Sauteed Mushrooms in a Hot Crusty Pita". So instead of the pita I thought that same mixture would be good on crusty bread and so that's what I did. I used Baby Bella and I used some European style butter that I found in the cheese department at Whole Foods, that butter costs a little more but it's really something delicious. You can get that recipe on fineliving.com and instead of pita I took Chibatta bread and sliced about 1/2 inch slices and toasted them under the broiler on both sides, salt, pepper and olive oil. Then just for fun I saw this goat's milk brie cheese at WF, never had it before so I gave it a go and it's a little funky but it was very nice in our opinion. Along with the mushroom bruchetta I served the cheese and some good looking watercress tossed in some homemade shallot and sherry vinaigrette. Delicious!!

I probably wouldn't have done the horseradish creme with this dish because it already had a lot going on but Tony had picked up some fresh horseradish a couple days before and I wanted to use it. I mixed sour cream, lemon juice, fresh horseradish, salt and pepper, honey... I think that was it, just keep tasting it until it's right. I seasoned then seared the rack of lamb in a skillet and removed it to a plate. I brushed mustard on top of the rack where I wanted the persille' topping to go. For the persille' I combined a couple cloves of garlic with a handful of fresh parsley and chopped it, then mixed in an equal amount of fresh bread crumbs (that I let sit out for about 3 hours to dry a bit) and just pressed this mixture over the rack on the top side. I covered it and put it in the refrigerator just because I wanted to get that step done so there is less to do later. Then when I was ready to roast it I allowed the lamb to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before putting it in a pre-heated 425 degree oven. I roasted it for about 30 minutes but for me I should have left it another 5 -8 minutes. Tony thought it was perfectly done but he usually orders things more rear and I am more medium-well.

For the roasted garlic mashed potatoes I just roasted the whole head of garlic in a 400 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes. I first cut the top off and drizzle olive oil, salt and pepper over the garlic then wrap it tightly in aluminum foil then into the oven. Make the mashed potatoes as you normally would and just squeeze all the garlic from the paper into the mix.

For the swiss chard I cooked off some bacon and removed it from the pan. Drain the extra oil off and add in the swiss chard stems that are cut into 1 inch pieces. cook for a few minutes and add the swiss chard leaves that are cut so it's easy to eat. Season with salt and pepper and add the bacon back in to warm though. I used thick cut bacon just to get a more meaty bite, and it was good but you don't need too much bacon maybe about 1/4 cup to a whole bunch of chard.

Cherries Jubilee aside a "Bruleed" Crepe Pie with Chocolate and Cherry Sauces

I saw a picture of a dessert where the crepes were stacked high and it looked like a cake with many layers. I remember trying this same idea along time ago, I don't remember if it was a success. I thought of the crepes I made about a month ago on Friday night the butter and sugar crepes, they were so good. So I thought I would do the same idea but stack them and the butter and sugar will kind of "glue" them together then I will cut a shape out of them and use the blow torch to "brule" the edges. Well the "brule" thing didn't work but the crepes were very good and I love how it looks. I found a jar of cherries at WF and I needed some kind of fruit to go with the crepe pie and I thought I would do Cherries Jubilee. It's cherries cooked with a little sugar and Kirsch (cherry flavored liquor), then you flambe' it and pour it over ice cream. I used Cherry Garcia ice cream. If you are going to have cherries you need some kind of chocolate so I made some chocolate ganache and to enhance the cherry flavor I got some cherry juice and reduced it to get a nice syrup for the plate. I was trying to made a decoration but it didn't work, I think the chocolate ganache was too thick, but it tasted really good!