Mango & Tomato: charleston

1/15/13

Lamb & Clams: Charleston Wine & Food Festival

You guys! This is the last recipe challenge in the Charleston Wine & Food Festival recipe contest!

For this challenge I received ground lamb from Border Springs Farm and clams from Rappahannock River Oysters.

I knew exactly what I was going to make!! Here's why: a few months ago, Cecilia and I visited the Union Market for the first time and ate at the Rappahannock Oysters Co.

While I had fresh oysters, more oysters and some bubbly, Cecilia tried a dish called lambs & clams. Not only did the dish look and smell great, but it also was delicious and was an amazing value for $14.

As far as I remember, the Rappahannock Oysters Co's Lambs & Clams had ground lamb in a spicy tomato sauce, white beans, clams, a bit of aioli on top and grilled slices of bread. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the recipe for the dish, but how hard could it be to recreate?

This past Sunday, when I was planning to make the dish, was a horrendously grey and misty day. I really tried to get my arse from the couch and go grocery shopping, but I just could not do it. So I had to improvise: instead of white beans I used chickpeas and instead of tomatoes I made a sauce from red peppers and chili in adobo. If I say so myself, I think my version of Lambs & Clams turned out pretty successful!

Lamb & Clams

Serves 4

Ingredients
2 red bell peppers
1 chili in adobo
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 large white onion, peeled and diced
1 pound ground lamb
salt
1 tablespoon aleppo pepper
15.5 ounce can chickpeas, drained
16 clams

to serve
arugula
slices of bread, grilled and rubbed with garlic
lemon wedges
chopped dill
mayonnaise thinned with a bit of lemon juice and mixed with chopped dill

Directions

1. Char the bell peppers directly on the gas. Once their skin is black all over, put the peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. After about ten minutes, remove the skin and discard the seeds and membranes.

2. In a food processor, puree the red bell peppers and the chili in adobo. Set aside.

3. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and add the diced onions. Saute for 10 minutes.

4. Add the ground lamb, salt and aleppo pepper and cook until the lamb is no longer pink.

5. Add the pepper/chili sauce and the chickpeas and simmer for 5 minutes.

6. Add the clams, cover and simmer until the clams have opened. Discard any of the clams that remained closed.

7. Serve the lamb on a bed of arugula and garnish with dill, a bit of lemony mayonnaise and grilled bread.

If you have leftover lamb and chickpea mixture, serve it the next day with pasta!

To check out what my competitors made, go visit their blogs {recipes will be posted on Wednesday}.

Peter @ A Cook Blog Lynda @ Taste Food Blog
David @ eat drink RI
Gwen @ Bunkycooks
Heather @ Farmgirl Gourmet
Cecilia @ One Vanilla Bean
Vivek @ Vivek’s Epicurean Adventure

12/11/12

Charleston Wine & Food Festival Recipe Contest: Lamb Tacos

It's time for round #3 of the recipe contest for the Charleston Wine & Food Festival. See my recipes for round 1 and 2 to catch up.

Guess what? I did not win either round, and I very highly doubt I'll win this round either, but I thank all of you for your support and votes. If that sounds a bit snarky, so be it. But you can still VOTE if you want ;)

I'm just going to make the food I want to eat and be grateful for the great products I get to work with (in this case it's lamb from Craig of Border Springs Farm).

The challenge was to make a dish with a lamb shoulder. Right away I decided to make Lamb Tacos. The recipe below explains how to roast a shoulder of lamb, but when it comes to toppings, I trust you can figure out on your own the amounts of each ingredient you want to use.

Lamb Tacos

Ingredients
4 large garlic cloves, microplaned
1 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon chipotle pepper
salt to taste
5 pound bone-in lamb shoulder
1 cup water

5 1/2" yellow corn tortillas
radishes, thinly sliced
pickled onions
avocado, sliced
feta, crumbled
cilantro, chopped
lime wedges

Directions

1. Combine the garlic, lemon juice, chipotle pepper and salt and rub all over the lamb shoulder. Cover and refrigerate over night.
2. Preheat the oven to 350. Add 1 cup of water to the bottom of a baking pan, put the lamb on top and cover with aluminum foil.
3. Roast the lamb for 3 hours. If you have more patience (and time), you could roast the lamb for an extra hour or 2.
4. Allow the lamb to cool and remove as much of the meat as you can.

5. Heat the tortillas: you can do this directly on the gas stove, on a skillet, in a microwave or in the oven.
6. Top the tortillas with pulled lamb and the rest of the toppings.

These were seriously restaurant quality tacos. I loved the combination of colors, textures and flavors. You get the crunchy radishes and pickled onions paired with the buttery avocado and tender lamb not to mention the salty firm feta. Feel free to use queso fresco instead of feta if you can find it at your grocery store.

If you like this recipe, please give me a VOTE.

With the rest of the lamb I ended up making Lamb & Potato Enchilada Casserole, which was awesome. I will publish a recipe for it next year. Y'all come back now!

11/4/12

Charleston Wine & Food Festival Recipe Contest: Oysters & Clams Recipes

Remember the Lamb & Butternut Squash Wonton Ravioli recipe I posted for the first part of the BB&T Charleston Wine and Food Lambs and Clams Original Recipe Contest?

It is time for Challenge #2!

For the second challenge, I received 25 Rappahannock River Oysters, 25 Olde Salt Middleneck Clams and a shucking knife.

Yes! I would have to shuck the oysters myself. I was TERRIFIED!

But I had little choice but to give shucking a try. I watched a few youtube videos, said a few prayers, and got to business.

I decided to serve most of the oysters raw with my own version of a mignonette sauce and to fry a few of the remaining oysters.

As far as the clams, I cooked them as I would mussels: white wine, shallots and a few extra ingredients. Add a baguette, and you have a great meal.

See, you get three recipes in one post! And a ton of photos.

Raw Oysters with Cucumber & Shallot Mignonette

Ingredients

Oysters, shucked

kosher salt

for the mignonette

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup champagne vinegar

1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

3 tablespoons finely chopped peeled and seeded cucumber

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot

Directions

1. Place the oysters in their shells on a bed of kosher salt. Be careful not to spill any of the oyster liquid.

2. In a small bowl combine all the ingredients for the mignonette and serve with the oysters.

Fried Oysters with Curry Yogurt Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

oysters, shucked and cut into bite size pieces
1 egg
flour seasoned with salt and pepper {I actually used a special mix meant for fried curds that I bought during my vacation in Madison}
canola oil for frying

for the dipping sauce
1/3 cup Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon curry powder
salt to taste
2 teaspoons lime juice
2 teaspoons chopped cilantro
{if you have leftovers of the sauce, use it as a dressing for potato salad or as a dipping sauce for crudites}

Directions

1. In a small bowl, whisk an egg. Add oysters and coat them with the whisked egg.
2. Add seasoned flour to a flat plate. Remove the oysters from the egg mixture and drench them with flour.
3. In a small saucepan, heat oil. You want the oil to be about 1/3" deep. Carefully add the drenched oysters and fry for 1-2 minutes on each side.
4. Remove the fried oysters from the oil and let them sit on a paper towel.

5. In a separate bowl, combine all the ingredients for the curry yogurt sauce and serve with the fried oysters.

Clams with Lemon Grass & Red Jalapenos

Ingredients

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 stalk lemon grass (bottom part only), halved and chopped

1 shallot, sliced

1/2-1 red jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped {if you can find a Thai chili pepper, use that!}

salt & pepper

3/4 cup white wine

25 clams

10 Thai basil leaves, chopped

1 baguette

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large bottomed shallow pan with a tight fitting lid.

2. Add lemongrass and saute for two minutes.

3. Add the shallots and jalapenos and saute for two more minutes.

4. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Add the wine and bring everything to a simmer and continue simmering for three minutes.

6. Add the clams to the wine sauce, cover with the lid and let clams cook until they have completely opened.

7. Garnish the clams with basil and serve in bowls with large chunks of a baguette.

In the next few days please also check out my competitors' recipes:

Peter @ A Cook Blog Lynda @ Taste Food Blog
David @ eat drink RI
Gwen @ Bunkycooks
Heather @ Farmgirl Gourmet
Cecilia @ One Vanilla Bean
Vivek @ Vivek’s Epicurean Adventure

I want to thank my friend Cindy and her daughter Laila for coming over and feasting on oysters and clams with me. Special thank you to Laila for taking recipe notes ;)

Have YOU ever cooked with oysters and or clams? What did you make?

PS I will add the link to voting once it's up.

10/9/12

What To Do With A Leg Of Lamb: Lamb & Butternut Squash Wonton Ravioli.

Is this another lamb post? Yes, yes it is! This past March I visited Charleston and absolutely LOVED it. When I was invited to participate in the BB&T Charleston Wine and Food Lambs and Clams Original Recipe Contest for a chance to win tickets to the Charleston Wine & Food Festival, how could I say no?

The recipe contest has four recipe challenges and your participation/voting is worth 25%!! So please do vote if you like this recipe.

The first challenge is brought to you by Craig of Border Springs Farm: bone-in leg of lamb. This is not the first time I've had the pleasure of working with the lamb from Craig's farm and I knew this would be quality product. I was correct.

After going back and forth about what to make, I decided to grind the lamb in my mini food processor and make ravioli using wonton wrappers. Special thank you to Sylvie for encouraging me to grind my lamb and to Anna for suggestions for how to bake these ravioli.

Since it is finally getting cooler, I thought I'd have a fall feel to my dish. Since butternut squash screams fall to me and thyme goes well the the butternut squash, I decided to add those two ingredients to the ravioli filling. A few extra flavors, and my recipe was ready to be made!

Lamb & Butternut Squash Wonton Ravioli
Makes about 30 ravioli

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup finely diced onion
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups finely diced butternut squash
20 ounces ground lamb (about 3 cups)
salt & pepper
10 thyme sprigs
about 60 wonton wrappers
1 egg
a bit of water
garnish: chili oil, shaved Parmesan cheese, halved red grapes, toasted pecans

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Heat a large skillet. Add oil and allow it to heat. Add the onion, garlic and butternut squash and saute for 5 minutes.
3. Add lamb, salt & pepper, thyme sprigs and saute until the lamb is no longer pink. Remove the thyme sprigs.
4. Allow the mixture to cool.

5. On a large surface lay out the wonton wrappers. Top half of the wonton wrappers with the lamb/butternut squash mixture and brush the outside edges with the egg wash (egg+water).
6. Top the lamb mixture with the other half of the wonton wrappers squeezing out as much of the air as possible and making sure to seal the edges of the wrappers very well.
7. Using a biscuit cutter, transform the square wonton ravioli into round ones.
8. Brush the wonton ravioli with the egg wash and bake on a parchment paper topped cookie sheet for fifteen minutes.

9. To serve, add the baked wonton ravioli to a plate, drizzle with the chili oil and top with shaved Parmesan, halved red grapes and toasted pecans.

Ta da!

The baked wonton ravioli were incredibly crispy (in the best way possible) outside, while the inside was still tender and not dry. You can actually eat these with your hands: I did!

If you want to make this dish a bit simpler, skip the wonton wrappers and simply mix the lamb and butternut squash mixture with cooked pasta and then add chili oil, Parmesan cheese, grapes and pecans.

Clearly, I was a fan of the dish ;)

Stay tuned for the other three challenges. They will involve more lamb, clams and oysters!!!

VOTE :)

Check out my competitors' recipes:

Peter @ A Cook Blog
Lynda @ Taste Food Blog {Thanks Lynda for the idea to list other competitors' blog pages!!}
David @ eat drink RI
Gwen @ Bunkycooks
Heather @ Farmgirl Gourmet
Cecilia @ One Vanilla Bean
Vivek @ Vivek’s Epicurean Adventure

4/7/12

Birthday Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting and Other Cooking Adventures in Charleston

Usually when I travel, it's all about eating out. When I went to Charleston last weekend, however, I stayed in my friend Melissa's gorgeous beach house and we got to cook a few meals. It was lovely because the kitchen was huge and beautiful.

Before we made any meals, Melissa baked me a birthday chocolate cake with chocolate frosting! Look at this beauty:

Afterwards, we made dinner: garlicky shrimp in a wine sauce based on Bobby Flay's {swoon!} recipe with Carolina rice and roasted vegetables (tomatoes and asparagus). Of course, there was also wine and then a slice of chocolate cake for dessert!

Here are just a few photos of the pretty dining room: quite a change of pace since I usually eat my dinner on a couch with my plate on my lap. Melissa even made me turn the TV off during dinner. The nerve ;)

Another dinner we made was a big salad with chickpeas, red peppers, tomatoes and olives with a simple splash of olive oil and vinegar. To go with the salad we roasted potatoes and red onions and warmed up a French baguette in the oven. Simple, satisfying and pretty healthy, which is a good thing because there was still some chocolate cake to enjoy :)

Do you cook when you are vacationing?

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