BaltimOregon

Cumin lamb, braised bok choy with tofu skin and Guandong-style boneless duck at Peter Chang's China Grill.

I just got a disturbing annual report from WordPress that says I’ve managed to blog all of seven times in the past year. Here’s my 8th attempt at a post, staring down the midnight, here comes ominous Mayan 2012 deadline. 2011, with a turbulent pregnancy, new motherhood and a slow computer clogged with my huge, disorganized audio, photo and video files, somehow got away from me. I commit to do better in 2012. I’ll make baby Theo‘s afternoon naps my new blogging time.

The new year finds us visiting family in Charlottesville, home of the celebrated Peter Chang’s China Grill. The “disappearing chef” himself appears to be staying put in Thomas Jefferson’s university town, where he’s had a continuous run at the former Wild Greens cafe space in the former Barracks Road Shopping Center since March. (Speaking of C’ville restaurant news, did you hear The Tavern, an institution with a questionable food safety record, has closed? I say good riddance.)

Chang’s is known for authenic, hot and numbing Sichuan fare. We’ve eaten there twice and particularly loved his eggplant dishes, spicy dan dan noodles and fragrant, Uighur-inspired cumin lamb. Dining at the restaurant this trip, we had eggplant deliciously dry-fried with no residual grease, like crisp French fries. The numbing Sichuan peppercorns atop make it too hot for some. We had our favorite tender cumin lamb. And I wanted to try a duck dish. The smoked duck at the neighboring table was temptingly served Beijing kaoya-style, but with fluffly baozi-style buns (think David Chang’s unctuous pork belly buns) instead of bland pancakes. But the neighbors said to order sweet Guandong duck instead so we did. It had a pleasant, if unspectacular, sweet-and-sour sauce. The rectangles of fried duck were boneless, which made for smoother eating. And we started with Shanghai-style scallion pancakes, a nostalgic taste of China for me. Except they were unusually puffed up like Indian pooris. I once made Eileen Yin-Fei Lo’s pancake recipe, with lard, but my technique needs perfecting. Here’s to making more Chinese scallion pancakes in the new year, as I post this just as the clock strikes midnight!

Scallion pancakes puffed up like poori at Peter Chang's.

Lamb Ragu

Already defrosting-ground lamb, bought on a whim from Afton Field Farm at rainy closing time at the Saturday market, inspired this simple, stick-to-your-ribs meal. Beef, pork, or even rabbit, yes, but you might not think to put lamb in your meat sauce. But it’s delicious, albeit with that slightly gamey, lanloiny, earthy lamb flavor. We had Mark Bittman’s vote of confidence in this endeavor. We used leek instead of onion, added garlic and fresh oregano to the mix and used milk because we didn’t have cream on hand. Pecorino Romano would have been nice–keep the lamb in the sheep’s milk of its mother, or something–but our Parmigiano-Reggiano had to do. Dan loved it. Meat and tomatoes, over pasta. Nothing makes that boy happier. And after a rain-soaked day, it was just what I needed.

Paints and raincoat soaked through.

Will it ever be dry and sunny again?

Getting intimate with the rack.

Dan’s uncle and aunt, our yenta (not in the busybody sense), came all the way from New York to visit, so I wanted to make a special meal.

Eggplant Parmesan? Fresh fish? But then I stumbled upon new Bon Appetit recipe for Lamb Chops with Fresh Herbs and Roasted Figs. That’s what I would make. But calling these lamb chops is a bit misleading. It’s rack of lamb cut into chops. Not the most recession-friendly recipe. But luckily I found an affordable local source of lamb just down the road. I even biked to their store to procure it. Nice rack. Had to crack a little joke as I took the 3-lbs. of meat (and mostly rib bones) from the freezer.

Blushing beauties: Kadota figs.

The hardest part of the recipe was timing the cooking of the lamb right and carving the chops. All you do is rub the rack with herbs and garlic, add some salt and pepper, brown, roast then roast the succulent halved Kadota figs in the lamb fat. I especially love such plain-looking green figs with their resplendent blush interiors. In Siddhartha, when Herman Hesse compares “her mouth to a fig split in two“: that’s a description that’s stayed with me. Don’t you just love Google Books?

To whet our appetites, we noshed on local cheeses (including the end of an addictive Rogue Creamery Rosemary Cheddar) with hazelnut sourdough bread from the farmers’ market. They sampled my pickles; the kosher dills were a hit, maybe even better than Ben’s? What better compliment could a girl get. The asparagus and okra pickles didn’t go over as well.

Rounding out the meal was Julia’s always reliable, amenable whole grain salad. I threw blanched green beans from our garden and roasted local Italian peppers into it. I recommend making it with Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains Blend (Israeli couscous, orzo, split garbanzo beans and red quinoa). I think that’s the Trader Joe’s item I most miss. I always pick some up when I’m in Portland. It’s supposed to be coming to Corvallis. Of course, they’ll probably discontinue carrying this product by then.

The meal.

Julia's whole grains.

Navarin D'Agneau Printanier

Ivy Manning‘s fabulous farmers-market friendly recipes keep tempting me! This French stew adapted from Chef Pascal Sauton of Portland’s Carafe (which I have yet to try) also called for several ingredients we needed to get rid of: frozen lamb stew meat, beef broth, and we already had the tomato paste, the white wine and the herbs on hand.

Granted it’s not spring anymore, but baby carrots and cute little baby turnips (I used both white and pink ones) are still in season at the market. Had to go non-local with the white pearl onions –something I’ve never purchased before — but they were sweet when caramelized in brown butter. And of course, this tangy stew tasted even better the second day.

We had ground lamb in the freezer from Bald Hill Farm just down the road. So I recreated the sesame-crusted meatballs we feasted on last week. Take a pound of ground lamb, chop lots of mint, parsley, dried figs and green garlic, beat in an egg and grate in orange zest. Serve with a minted yogurt sauce. Here’s a version of the recipe from Gourmet Magazine here. They were aromatic, crunchy yet moist on the inside. But Dan still prefers his lambs in stews or more saucy, curry-like creations.

Lamb meatballs, jambalaya and portabello mushrooms/soba noodle sautee

Wondering what to do with that ball of ground lamb in your freezer? I had almost forgotten about sweet, Morrocan-inspired lamb meatballs. At a potluck tonight, our host served white and black sesame seed-coated ones with chopped figs, nutmeg and fresh mint in the mix, served with a yogurt sauce. They were more subtle than the citrusy prune ones I made last fall. You always learn new kitchen tricks at a shared meal.

The home in Southtown Corvallis also has a chicken coop and numerous well-crafted raised beds of vegetables. They’ve staked their early-planted tomatoes with plastic hoops so they can cover the vulnerable nightshades to keep them warm on these still chilly nights. I’ve just been leaving my tomato starts out on the deck. Hopefully they survive.

Perhaps finding a $5 Weber grill at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and all this splendid spring weather, inspired me to make shish kebab. Plus we had wanted to try locally-raised, grass-fed Cattail Creek Lamb, which is abundant, but expensive in these parts. When the quality of the meat is this good, a simple marinade is all you need. I used this simple Lamb Shish Kebab recipe reprinted on Culinate, from the Perfect Pairings cookbook by Evan Goldstein. Fresh thyme and oregano brought out the smokey, earthy flavor of the tender meat. And broiled it. I didn’t have charcoal and didn’t feel like bothering to clean the rusty old grill.

We picked up a frozen pound of ground lamb last minute at the Saturday market. The folks at the Bald Hill Farm stand recommended sauteeing it with quinoa.

But I needed more inspiration. So I turned to this Lamb and Prune Meatball recipe reprinted on the Culinate website. Better yet, I had all the ingredients (the lamb, prunes, shallots and allspice) already waiting at home.

How do you cook with ground lamb, if you do? The Bald Hill meat seems reasonable at $4.80 a pound, from lambs grazed in local pastures, yielding a rich taste that is so much more luscious than ground beef.

Now I plan to serve these meatballs by toothpick at our housewarming party Sunday.