Kitchen lamb-ada

MILLIE: Karla and I are habitual lamb eaters. The same goes for the rest of my family. We adore it in any cut or form, whether as leg, rack or chop and cooked in any manner: grilled, roasted, braised or even hotpot style. My Dad enjoyed it so much with a bit of mint sauce or mint jelly that when we would frequent restaurants that served a particular lamb dish he liked but did not serve mint jelly, he would always make sure we brought a bottle along. Every time we eat fancy, I’d choose a lamb dish over sea bass or Angus beef anytime. I just love it! My favorite lamb dishes are grilled lamb chops, braised lamb shank with an exquisite red wine sauce, and lamb curry — ooh la la! I still remember the very first time I tasted lamb was when I was 18 years old, at the Chateau d’Ouchy in Lausanne, Switzerland. It had a very distinct flavor; so different from the regular red meat I was used to.

In cooking class, I took a special interest in lamb dishes and got hooked. The simplest recipe I learned that one may even try at home is a piece of boneless lamb leg, rubbed and cooked with lots of fresh garlic, simply seasoned with ground pepper and salt and oven-roasted. The sauce would be made from drippings cooked with fresh mint leaves in garlic and olive oil.

Another favorite and easy recipe is braised lamb cooked with sprigs of rosemary and thyme, bay leaf and whole cloves of peeled garlic. Add this to a mirepoix of diced onions, carrots and celery cooked in about half a cup of vegetable or olive oil. To braise, add a tablespoon of tomato paste, a cup of dry white wine, two to three cups of chicken stock and a handful of chopped parsley. Squeeze in the zest of half a lemon for that extra zing! Braise the meat until tender and the sauce is thick enough to pour over a rich risotto, buttered noodles or some boiled potatoes.

Lamb is actually meat from young sheep, is considered lean and said to be healthy.

Last week, Karla and I met Italian chef Danny Russo, who was in Manila for the World Food Expo upon the invitation of Meat and Livestock Australia to promote lamb cooking with Australian lamb. Chef Russo demonstrated ways to prepare lamb dishes and even shared practical tips and recipes for professionals, students and cooking enthusiasts. MLA gave us some lamb samples and we cooked it osso buco-style for our regular Sunday dinner at home and it was great!

Genie of the lamb: Chef Danny Russo was in Manila to promote home cooking with lamb under the sponsorship of Meat and Livestock of Australia.

 KARLA: Last June 12, I was given the opportunity to join my first ever cooking competition. It was held at the Legazpi Sunday Market and entitled “Adobolympics 2011.” Our main objectives were to prepare two dishes: one using a secret ingredient, which they later divulged to be lamb, and the other, any specialty of choice. My uncle, Raymund Reyes, who religiously wakes up early in the morning every Sunday to sell his Beer Can Chicken at the Legazpi Market, signed up for the competition not realizing that he would be out of the country with his family. His persistence on the matter convinced me help him out and be his representative, or I’d never hear the end of it. Haha! Our team consisted of Edmund, Tito Raymund’s helper at his Sky Ray BBQ and Grill at the Legazpi Market every Sunday, and Rea Ferrer, my chef from Go Gourmet by The Plaza on the fourth floor of Rustan’s Makati. Tito Ray assigned us to make a side dish to go with his Beer Can Chicken plus an original creation. Since it was my first competition, I honestly did not know where to begin. Rea and I had several brainstorming sessions but ended up chatting and waiting until the last minute. We did two trials for our dishes. First was when we experimented with different dishes to finalize one product, and the second to time-trial everything to make it fit within the given time frame. We settled on Ski Ray’s Beer Can Chicken with adobo risotto with garlic flakes and adobo breaded lamb with adobo mayo sauce and a simple garlic mashed potato.

On the competition day, we were provided with sponsored Datu Puti items to use for our adobo and Lamb from Meat and Livestock Australia. Despite the outdoor conditions and space constraints, everything was going perfectly well in terms of our preparations and timing. Yes, I had a schedule prepared, with approximate durations on how much time we should spend preparing a certain item. But at around the last hour of the competition, everything started to go wrong. I’m not sure if it also had to do with the constant rounds of the judges and their intense questions that were so nerve-wracking, or if it was pure bad luck. Our stove was acting up and would take forever to turn on, plus the fact that sudden gusts of wind would knock out the fire on the stove, especially since we were using low heat to cook the adobo. This probably happened three times without me noticing immediately. So I had no choice but to crank up the knob to catch up, and naturally, we probably got deductions for using medium heat on our adobo. Finally, when we were all done, we were just about to garnish our plate when our veggies for garnish fell on the ground! Panic! After five seconds of shock, Rea and I realized there was no way we were going to be able to make another batch of our creamed kangkong in a tomato cup as sidings for the adobo breaded lamb. Thankfully, we had extra grilled vegetable skewers and used it as sidings for both the chicken and the lamb.

Facing the judges was the scariest feeling ever. It was obvious that they were interested in just the food because no matter how much I smiled at them while I was presenting, they were all just looking at our plates, taking a bite or jotting down stuff. Haha! Well, although we didn’t win a formal prize, we placed third out of 12 teams, which is pretty great considering everything that happened that morning, and that it was my first competition.

Adobo Mayo

Ingredients:

1 pc. chicken breast

1 cup soy sauce

1 cup vinegar

3 cups water

3 pcs. minced garlic

6 pcs. peppercorn

Our Sunday dinner: Braised Australian lamb osso buco-style

2 pcs. bay leaves

2 cups mayonnaise

2 tbsps. oil

Procedure:

In a medium saucepan heat 2 tbsps. of oil then sauté garlic.

Add the chicken to the pan. Then add the water, soy sauce, vinegar, peppercorns and bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or when meat is tender. Remove the chicken from the sauce.

In a medium bowl, combine 1cup adobo sauce and 2 cups mayonnaise, mix until well-blended.

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Send e-mail to milliereyes.foodforthought@gmail.com and karla@swizzlemobilebar.com. Find us on Facebook and read articles you might have missed: Food for Thought by Millie and Karla Reyes.