[Sca-cooks] Lamb dinner ideas wanted

[Nick Sasso]

Here's a go at a rustic style that could work well against the Lamb Roast (I
recommend also rubbing roast with salt, pepper, oregano and olive oil before
roasting).  My meal comes in at $1.91 added costs.  Simple elegance, and low
labor in general:

Potatoes (classic French thing I cannot remember name of) $0.66
	slice thin about 2 lb potatoes and hold in cold water heat heavy 10"
skillet; place 1 TBL olive oil in bottom, layer potatoes; each layer getting
a sprinkling of salt, 1TBL butter and light garlic; I also put a little dry
tarragon in each layer . . . just a little. Fry on stovetop until golden on
bottom, then into oven until tender through.  Serve inverted on plate so
golden side up.  Garnish with parsley and Romano gating. Will hold in warm
oven for a little while

Pan Roasted carrots, celery & onions with orange bechamella    0.75
	cut 1 lb carrots into quarters, same with 4 ounces pearl onions; 1 stalk
celery into sticks.  2 TBL olive oil in pan, and cook over medium heat to
brown on all sides; add onions and celery at logical times for their size
and density.  Bechamella is cream sauce with flour roux in the carrot pan,
plus milk and orange peels (steep peels in milk a little to infuse). . .
only need about 1 to 1.5 cups volume.  If you had some stock or soup base,
veloute would work really well here.  Serve with carrots and onions arranged
on plate, and nap sauce across (not cover, but lay band across).  Garnish
with orange peel and parley.

Sourdough Flat Breads:  0.20 (approx with 4 cups flour)
	Use sourdough starter to make enough dough for a 1.5 pound loaf.  divide
dough into 6 equal balls and stretch into 7" rounds and place on flat
skillet or griddle brushed with oil until spotty brown on bottom and starts
to bubble; flip and finish on bottom.  Put herbs into the bread just before
grilling to give flavors (rosemary leaves come to mind)

Dessert      $0.31
	Pear tarts: flour and butter paste/crust; roll 7" rounds of dough,
	arrange pear slices on crust, leaving a 1" or so border to fold up;
	dot with butter, sprinkle with TBL sugar, some cinnamon, clove, pinch salt.
	bake and serve warm.  Need probably 2 pears.


You could do a custard as dessert instead, and cost could come to $2.01 (put
pear slices in bottom of custard cups and pour rich egg yolk custard over (3
yolks, milk and sugar).

Simple foods to highlight a strong flavored and flamboyant roast.

niccolo difrancesco

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sca-cooks-bounces+franiccolo=mindspring.com at ansteorra.org
> [mailto:sca-cooks-bounces+franiccolo=mindspring.com at ansteorra.org]On
> Behalf Of Sharon Gordon
> Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2005 7:01 AM
> To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> Subject: [Sca-cooks] Lamb dinner ideas wanted
>
>
> I need to cook a dinner for four people.  I'd really
> appreciate the help of
> anyone who has any ideas.  I am very weak from having
> whatever's been going
> around over the holidays, and I'm still so exhausted that my
> usual ability
> to be creatively frugal seems to be missing at the moment.
> So I'm hoping
> for some help from all the kind and creative people here.  I
> have a day left
> to figure out what to make and 3/4 of a day to cook it.  (I
> don't think I'm
> well enough yet to make it through the next few days without
> at least one
> nap.)
>
>
> There is a boneless lamb roast and
> I can use $2.00 of other ingredients.  The lamb will have
> slits put in it
> and slivers of garlic and parsley in the slits.  (It has no
> bone. I could
> also cut off part before roasting and do something else with
> the unflavored
> part.) With what else I have to work with, how can I make
> this a festive
> dinner?  The lamb is getting cooked in an Italian style, and
> I'd like the
> rest of the meal to be sort of European too I think.
> Here's what I have to work with and the cost per unit:
> Potatoes  .20/lb
> Rice-white   .22/lb
> Flour-all purpose  .04/cup
> Carrots       .45/lb
> Sugar  .05/cup
> Large eggs .03/egg
> Milk   2.49 gallon
> Olive oil  .08/Tablespoon
> Butter  .06/Tablespoon
> Dry: White beans, chick peas, brown lentils, red lentils, red
> kidney beans
> .50/lb
> Tea: .01/bag
>
> I have most dry herbs and spices, salt, baking soda, baking
> powder, and
> sourdough starter.
> Frozen orange peels
> 4 pears from a gift fruit basket--ripe enough they should
> probably be served
> cooked
> 2 pounds romano cheese from a gift (but this is our supply
> for the year so I
> need to use it as accent rather than as food.)
>
> >From the garden or windowsill I have fresh:
> Onions (there are 14 ounces of vidalia type pearl size onions left)
> Onions spring size with leaves (I can pull some but this will
> reduce the
> 2006 onion yield)
> Garlic some dry and could pull fresh, but it's very small now
> and would
> reduce 2006 yield.
> Parsley, flat and curly
> Sage
> Giu-tsai (flat leaf asian garlic chive)
> Chives
> Basil
> Rosemary
> Celery
> A head of Pak choi (could take off individual leaves which is
> what I have
> done so far with this last one in the garden to make some asian soups)
> My beds of mixed greens, kale, and collards are under snow,
> but some would
> probably still be good.
>
> Sharon
> gordonse at one.net
>
>
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