American Lamb Pro-Am at the Royal Sonesta

Last month I participated in the recipe development and voting stages of the American Lamb Pro-Am. I didn’t make it onto the live event portion of the contest, but it was a great experience that reminded me how much I love creating new recipes. Plus, the super friendly folks over at Boston Chefs invited me to join in festivities this past Sunday, which meant fantastic lamb tasting, voting, and drink sampling!

Four bloggers from Boston, one from Providence, and one from Portland were each paired with a seriously big-deal chef from their corresponding cities. Which meant there was a little celebrity-status-chef-meeting thrown in between tasty bites. As in Tiffani Faison was chatting with me as she plated Sam Tackeff’s Lamb Mechoui & Moroccan Marinated Carrots (!!!).

I sampled all of the dishes created for the contest, plus ArtBar Chef Brian Dandro’s Lamb Rillettes & Lamb Bacon and Quail Eggs, which weren’t part of the contest, but was the host’s dish, as we were at the Royal Sonesta for the event. The Lamb Rillettes were one of my favorite flavors of the afternoon, which makes me want to finally get over to ArtBar now!

I was very impressed with the variety of dishes – deciding who to give my one vote to was a challenge! Of course some stood out more than others, but every chef put a creative twist on the blogger’s original recipe. Here are the delicious creations:

Lamb & Feta Meatballs – recipe by Jacki and Meesh from Just Add Cheese, with Chef Louis DiBiccari of Tavern Road (which, by the way, is where we had our lamb pick-up party – another must-check-out spot). I enjoyed the sauce with this dish quite a bit.

Lamb Meatball Multigrain Flatbread – by Taryn of Sweetly Serendipity with Chef Dante de Magistris of dante. The red sauce reminded me of the harisa that’s served with rice pilaf at The Middle East and the flatbread was a nice twist.

Green Goddess Lamb Kebabs – by Pam of Cave Cibum with Chef Michael Scelfo of Russell House (one of my favorite restaurants in Boston) and soon-to-open Alden & Harlow. This was probably the most drastic departure from the original recipe in the contest. As expected from Chef Scelfo, this was deliciously complex. The lamb was more like a terrine and dehydrated chickpeas, pickled onions (I think?), and light sauce were great together. Also my favorite plating of the day.

Braised Leg of Lamb Tacos in Dr. Pepper Adobo Sauce with Medjool Dates – from Nick and Monica of Front Row Eats with Chef Champe Speidel of Persimmon. The lamb had a much stronger meaty flavor than other dishes at the event, which was interesting, and having a taco added some nice variety.

Indonesian Lamb Rendang – recipe by Malcolm and Jillian of From Away with Chef Mitch Gerow of East Ender. This dish was very complex and most like a meal compared to the other entries. It was also super spicy, so having a beer pairing from Rising Tide was perfect. I never drink IPAs because they’re usually too bitter for my tastes, but their Zephyr Indian Pale Ale is up there with the only other IPA I’ll drink, Dogfish Dead’s 90 Minute IPA.

 

Lamb Mechoui & Moroccan Marinated Carrots – recipe from Sam at The Second Lunch with Chef Tiffani Faison of Sweet Cheeks. I saved my favorite for last. This is the dish I voted for and this was also the dish that won! I couldn’t get enough of it – the lamb was cooked perfectly, the carrot was full of flavor, and the granola on the bottom was the perfect texture addition.

Sam and Tiffani with their lamb trophies. Congrats!

Thanks to BostonChefs.com and the American Lamb Board for inviting me to be part of this fun contest. I received a complimentary ticket from BostonChefs to attend the live judging event.

SSL: April 6

Hope you’re having a great weekend! This morning we continued our tradition of heading over to Swiss Bakers for the weekend breakfast. Their brunch offerings just keep getting better every week – today was eggs, bacon, roesti, fruit salad, cheese, muesli, choice of bread or a chocolate berliner, and orange juice. I was craving the muesli so I went with an order of that and we shared the brunch plate.

Then we spent much of today buying house plants and re-potting plants that I’ve had for a while (and kept alive for years, I can’t quite believe it myself). I’ve also been planning a recipe using lamb because…

I was invited to participate in the Second Annual American Lamb Pro-Am! Check out the amazing bloggers and chefs who competed last year and you’ll understand why I’m incredibly excited AND nervous. I’ll have a recipe up next week and then the voting starts from there.

Cold Soba Noodles & beautiful pictures from Japan from 101 Cookbooks.

You might know I love anything pickled. Here’s a great history and recipe for pickled asparagus: Quick Asparagus Pickles from art & lemons.

Enjoy the sunshine!

Panera Sandwich Showdown and Giveaway!

When I was younger I would meet my friends at the local Panera. We weren’t having a business meeting or talking about the future, we were just hanging out. I was a vegetarian back then, so I ordered the only non-meat sandwich, which was on ciabatta (that was the first time I ever tried ciabatta and I loved it). So now when I go back, my order is a combination of past and present.

This is what I order: a Mediterranean Veggie sandwich, which comes with Peppadew peppers, feta cheese, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and cilantro Jalapeño hummus on tomato basil bread. But I order it on ciabatta and with extra Peppadew peppers because they are a-maz-ing.

What if you could make your own sandwich, though? Every ingredient you want, nothing you don’t?

Panera has a new contest called the Sandwich Showdown now through October 6. You make your own sandwich, give it a story, and hope to win $10,000 cash, $500 worth of Panera gift cards, free Panera Bread bagels for a year and…you’ll get to see your original recipe in actual Panera locations! I made one and it was fun to be creative without the messy kitchen clean-up afterward.

This contest has ended. Thank you for entering!

But it doesn’t stop there. Once you enter the contest following the link above, come back and comment below to enter a $25 gift card giveaway to Panera (one entry).

For an additional entry, tweet the following and comment that you did, including your Twitter handle: Enter me in the @panerabread gift card giveaway @EatingPlaces! http://wp.me/pJQlc-Bk

Comment below (with up to two entries) by Wednesday, October 3 at 11:59pm EST.

I’ll choose the winner using random.org on Thursday, October 4 and the winner will be notified via email. The winner will have 48 hours to reply – if there is no response, I will choose another entry. The gift card will be sent from a local PR agency. Good luck!

Panera compensated me with a $25 gift card in exchange for this post. Opinions are my own and I do order the Mediterranean Veggie every time I go to Panera.

Spicy Chocolate Pots De Creme

Chocolate and spice. You know the combination. You’ve also heard the term ‘Mexican Chocolate’ assigned to everything that remotely fits this profile. I will not do that to this recipe!

Chocolate has a fascinating history. I like to remember that the European chocolate we think of, the kind with sugar and milk, is very different from the original – a cacao beverage that was bitter and not sweet at all. The recipe below is far from bitter, but it is very rich and made with dark chocolate.

I created this spicy chocolate pots de creme for Marx Foods’ Fire on Ice Chile Recipe Contest. Marx Foods carries a huge variety of artisan and hard-to-find food products including mushrooms, cheese, pasta, meat, seafood and pantry items. The Fire on Ice contest challenges bloggers to make a cold recipes featuring their dried chilies. Of every option out there I, of course, wanted to use chocolate.

Renee from Eat.Live.Blog shared the contest with me a few weeks ago and, upon receiving my little box of dried chilies, I was very excited to start experimenting!

The following recipe is a no-bake pots de creme (meaning pot of custard or creme) inspired by this recipe in Sacramento Magazine from Jan 2010. Perfect for these heatwaves we’ve all been enjoying in Boston. It’s easy if you prep everything ahead of time and the recipe is very forgiving, as you strain the mixture after heating the milk.

For my first trial I used habaneros and the result was a painfully spicy chocolate pots de creme (the habaneros hid any taste of chocolate). As in need-a-few-glasses-of-water hot. In the second I tried ancho chilies and, you guessed it, much more mild, but with a nice heat that built as I ate the dessert. The final result is a good mid-level heat to go with this decadently thick version of pots de creme. As with all milk infusions, feel free to increase intensity based on your preferences.

Spicy Chocolate Pots De Creme

40 minutes to make, plus chilling in fridge overnight

Makes 8 small servings

• 6 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 large ancho chilies (follow these instructions from Marx Foods to reconstitute dried chilies)
• 2 cups half and half (or heavy cream if you’d like)
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup (or 7 oz) of bittersweet chocolate
• whipped cream (optional)

Whisk eggs and 1/4 cup of sugar in small bowl.

In saucepan over medium heat, stir together and then heat half and half, remaining sugar, reconstituted chilies, and vanilla until it comes to a simmer. This will infuse the milk with chilies. Slowly add half of milk mixture to bowl with egg and sugar, stirring to combine.

Pour everything (including the chilies) back into the saucepan over low heat, whisking together until the combination is thick, but not boiling.

Put chocolate in large bowl. Strain custard mixture over chocolate, mashing up chilies as you strain, and stir until combined. Pour into small bowls and chill overnight.

Top with homemade whipped cream (whip heavy/whipping cream, powdered sugar, and dash of vanilla until thick) and enjoy this spicy chocolate treat!

Marx Foods provided the chilies to me, free of charge, for this recipe as part of their Fire on Ice competition. The recipe and opinions are my own.