Shank You Very Much!

So I'm rereading the Harry Potters again and in light of our recent CCCCOLD weather I have been wanting some of Hogwart's 'warming soups and stews.' What's more British than lamb? Well probably lots. But this was extra good on a cold, wet Mississippi night.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of OLIVE OIL. When hot, put in 2 lamb shanks. Brown on all sides. In fact, brown more than you think. Pull shanks out and add 1 sliced ONION and 1 cup of sliced MUSHROOMS. Brown until nearly caramelized. Add 1 large can of DICED TOMATO. de-glaze the pan with tomato's juice. Add 3 cans of beef broth. Add ROSEMARY, GARLIC, SALT PEPPER, SEASON'TUP. add lamb shanks back into the stew. Allow to stew for as long as you can. I stewed for 3 hours. Remove the shanks and pull the meat and add back into stew. I served over red skin mashed potatoes.

Alright, this is pretty reminiscent of osso bucco. We had some amazing veal osso bucco back at Christmas that was prepared by my super cool neice, Meghan. Meg cooked dinner for the Scotts after her mom was in a car accident...at her mother's insistence. This recipe was something off the top of my head, but after eating and thinking I was sooo original I remembered Meghan's yummy veal osso buco. So much for originality. Oh yeah and this was mostly braised lamb in espagnole sauce. So much for originality! I'm pretty sure this would work with ox tails too. I may try that next time.

Trout Stack from Beeve

He cooks a mean hog...but this is one of my new favorites. Here's Beeve's Trout Stack. He left out that this can be served on toasted french bread for a very involved but delish bruschetta. PS I love some of Brian's words. He's so cool:


This is a very involved deal, but it is worth it.


Trout stack

For the casserole:

2 fairly large onions
1 green bell diced
1 red bell diced
10 - 12 speckled trout fillets (if you don't have this, try catfish or
whatever, but it must be a white fish).
Flour
Seas'n up
Butter
Olive oil
Italian bread crumbs
Dill
4 way cheese (or whatever)
Heavy cream (or 1/2 and 1/2).

Julienne the onions and start these at a slow sauté with butter and
olive oil. You want these to be very caramelized (not onion soup
caramelized, but fairly dark). About 10 minutes before it looks like the
onions are going to be done, add the diced green peppers. When these get
soft, turn the pan off and add the red bell peppers (you want these to
stay crunchy). Stir this around and set off to the side to cool.

Dry the trout fillets very well. Sprinkle these with Seas'n up. Salt
and pepper your flour. Dredge the trout fillets in the flour and brown
in butter and olive oil. DO NOT COOK ALL THE WAY, just get them
brown. When you've browned all of the fillets, assemble your casserole.

Get a small but deep casserole dish. You want something that looks
like it will hold the fillets if you stack them at least 2 deep.
Put enough fillets in the bottom of the casserole to cover it up.
Sprinkle with dill.
Cover with onion/bell pepper mixture.
Cover with 4 cheese.
Cover with bread crumbs.
Repeat.
Pour enough cream in until it looks like there is about 1 inch in the
bottom. (Or until it looks like enough, I don't know).
Put in a 350 oven covered for 20 minutes. Uncover and cook another 10
(or broil for 5, whatever). After this, take it out and let it cool
for at least 10 minutes. This keeps it from getting runny.

This is really good over cracker crusted eggplant (my favorite) or
fried green tomatoes (your Daddy's favorite).

Eggplant.

Choose a good round, long eggplant. Cut into 3/4 " to 1" slices on a
90 degree (Like a tomato. You want round pieces). Kosher and cracked
black on both sides.

Take a sleeve or 2 of Ritz crackers and beat the hell out of them (or
if you want to be fancy, use a food processor).

Set up a 3 compartment breading station with:

Flour (the same stuff you used on the fish). 1st
Egg wash. 2nd
The previously beaten the hell out of Ritz crackers. 3rd.

Fry in olive oil and butter. DO NOT use the same stuff you used on the
fish, it will turn too dark.

To assemble:

Set one or two eggplant rounds on a plate, depends on how hungry you
are.
Spatula out a portion of trout stack and set it on the eggplant (Kind
of like you do for lasagna, you want it to stay in layers. That is why
you let it cool).


Eat it. With a salad. And French bread. And a Daddy pop. Or a glass
of Chardonnay.


If you don't have eggplant or a green tomato, try a car bumper. It's
almost just as good.

Not my daddy's pork

I just got back from NYC. There is something about the city that just makes me feel alive and well. I had dinner at my favorite place, Minetta Tavern, and I got my favorite lamb. I saw their veal and wished I'd made that my choice. So I decided to bastarize it for dinner tonight. Of course there's no veal in Yazoo City, in fact, I didn't find any in the regular grocery in Jackson. My version:

PORK LOIN CHOPS pounded until fairly flat. Dip into and EGG WASH and dredge in seasoned FLOUR. Pan fry in 3 tbsp OLIVE OIL. Put into a warm oven. Chop 1 cup of FLAT ITALIAN PARSLEY and 1 small TOMATO. Add 2 tbsp of OLIVE OIL (I used citron olive oil), 1/4 cup LEMON JUICE, salt and pepper. Spoon on top of PORK CHOPS.


I paired this with:

Cooked PASTA. I used the fresh linguini. Melt 1 cup BUTTER. Let the butter cook until it starts to turn brown. Add fresh SAGE LEAVES, salt and pepper. Stir to keep butter from burning. Add the pasta and toss.

I've got to tell you....this was awesome. Try it. it took less than 20 minutes and I'm proud!