#3 - A weekend in Umbria

Our February You Pick Two even took place last weekend and it was a great success.  We invited our good friends Meena and Chris, who brought two people we had not met before.  I chose a theme based around a vacation we took with Meena and Chris, and other friends, to Italy back in June 2010.  We rented a villa on the Tuscany/Umbria border for a week and took lots of day trips to small towns in the area, but mostly we hung out at the house and ate and drank fantastic Italian wines.  It was one of my favorite places I have ever been.  So with that in mind, I tried to challenge myself with some Umbrian dishes.  All but one of the recipes came from the Umbria section of Lidia Bastianich's cookbook called "Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy".  The book was a gift from a close friend of ours for my birthday one year and I have been dying to make some of the recipes.  It's organized by region and it served as the perfect inspiration for the meal.

I will post some of the photos of the food and recipes in the coming weeks.  And, I have to say, the meal lived up to my high expectations.  I absolutely love Italian food and these recipes showcased the ingredients so well.  Nigella once said that French cooking draws attention to the chef while Italian cooking draws attention to the food, and I think there's a lot of truth to that.  I also tried to incorporate the simplicity of Italian food and design in our table setting.  I was thrilled to showcase a footed bowl that I purchased in Montepulciano (which is technically in Tuscany) during our trip.  I bought it at this amazing store where you descended down into this former Etruscan tomb that had beautiful pottery everywhere.  Here is a photo of the store:

Our mystery guests were Tara McKelvey and David Brunnstrom.  Tara is a friend of Meena's and an extremely successful reporter and writer on a variety of international and security issues (not to mention a mother of three!).  Seriously, just google her name - it speaks for itself.  David is also a reporter for Reuters and lives in Washington, DC in the thriving 14th & U street corridor.  Needless to say, a lot of our conversation revolved around national and international events, politics, human rights, international security, and the Petraeus scandal (more on that below).  In a previous career, I came to DC for an internship at an arms control think-tank/non-profit and tried to pursue a career in international relations.  I gave up on that career and went back to school for environmental science, but I still enjoy meeting people in that field and talking about it.  Both Meena and Chris are part of the scene, Meena worked at the State Department and later the National Security Council, she is an expert on Afghanistan-Pakistan issues.  Chris works for the Center for Naval Analyses, speaks fluent Arabic, and has traveled the Middle East extensively.  Unfortunately, Kevin has little to no experience in this area and was not able to participate much in the dinner conversation, which was unfortunate.  The upside of that was that I got a lot of unexpected help in the kitchen when getting the food ready for service. :)

From left: Meena, David, Kevin, Chris, and Tara

One interesting story that we talked about was the Petraeus scandal.  We  live across the street from the house where Paula Broadwell holed herself up during the Petraeus scandal.  It's a huge, yellow mansion up on this hill that her brother owns.  Previous to that scandal breaking, there were lots of very posh events during the summer there, complete with bodyguards and lots of black sedans and SUVs.  Turns out interestingly enough, Tara had actually attended a couple of those events!  If only we had known what those parties were for at the time.  Washington is such a small town sometimes.  

Our next You Pick Two is tonight.

It's only been a few weeks since our last event, but due to scheduling, holidays, travel plans, etc. this weekend had to be it for the month of February.  I think it's going to be a great one - we have our good friends Meena and Chris coming tonight and they are bringing two guests we haven't met yet.

In memory of our trip to Italy with friends in June 2010, including Meena and Chris, I am cooking up an Umbrian themed dinner.  We rented a villa outside a little town called Castiglione del Lago, right on the Umbria/Tuscany border for about 7 days.  It was an unforgettable trip.  We need to get back to Europe next year for sure.  Ok, here is the menu - I will put a summary early next week about the food and guests.

MENU

A Weekend in Umbria

February 15, 2014

Cocktail

Zenzero frizzante

Ginger simple syrup, prosecco

Aperitivo

Crostini con Lenticchie

Umbrian lentils, olive oil, parmigiano reggiano

Primo

Strangozzi

Handmade pasta with tomato and bacon sauce

Secondo

Salsicce all’Uva

Italian pork sausages with grape reduction

Contorno

Bietola e spinaci

Sauteed chard and spinach with garlic and peperoncino

Dolce

Pane e Cioccolata al Cucchiaio

 Chocolate bread parfait

Digestivo

Arancello

Ospiti

Shamila Chaudhary e Christopher Steinitz

Tara McKelvey e David Brunnstrom

Roasted leg of lamb, Moroccan style

Roast boneless leg of lamb with ras el hanout, garlic, and herbs.

I watched Nigella make a version of this lamb many years ago and have always wanted to give it a shot.  It's a roasted leg of lamb (I used a boneless leg) rubbed with aromatics and a Moroccan spice mixture called ras el-hanout.  It's an earthy and beautiful spice blend of cardamom, cinnamon, clove, rose petals, coriander, cumin, chili peppers, fenugreek, and many more ingredients.  Literally translated, it means "head of the shop", so the combination can vary place to place. I ordered mine online.  The lamb came from Border Springs Farm in Virginia, they are known for their lamb and I was able to get it through Washington's Green Grocer - it's an affordable grocery delivery service where I get a lot of specialty cuts of meat and local, organic vegetables.

Borrowing from Nigella's original recipe, I tweaked it a bit to incorporate some fresh herbs and lots of garlic.  You roast it at a really high heat (450 degrees) for about 30 minutes, then bring them temperature down and let it cook slowly to keep the meat moist.  It frankly was the star of the dinner and a real treat.   Serve it with labneh (take a quart of whole milk organic yogurt, mix in a teaspoon of salt, and then strain overnight in cheesecloth over a bowl in the fridge) - it's sharpness contrasted perfectly with the earthy lamb.  For a weeknight meal, you could simply mix some greek yogurt with lemon juice, salt, and some chopped parsley.  Drizzle the top with extra virgin olive oil and you are good to go.  One final point, cook the lamb to medium rare or rare (internal temp of 135 degrees).  If it's overcooked, it could get tough.  Again, I used boneless here, it was a little more expensive - if you want to save some money use bone-in, but make sure to adjust the cooking time.

I use a bed of thickly sliced onions as my base for roasting the lamb.  The onions caramelize in the rendered fat and are quite amazing.  However, if you want you could slice up some yukon potatoes and put them as the base, much like Ina Garten does.

The lamb in its marinade, before being roasted.

Roasted Ras El Hanout Leg of Lamb
Ingredients
a 4-5 lb. boneless leg of lamb, netting removed
6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1-2 tablespoons of ras el hanout spice blend
3 tablespoons of fresh oregano, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, sliced into thick rounds
salt
pepper
kitchen twine

Directions
1. Chop the garlic and herbs and combine in a bowl with the ras el hanout, a couple tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, and a big pinch of salt.  Stir to combine.

2. Free the lamb from any netting or packaging it may have come in and unfurl it on a large cutting border.  If there are large pieces of fat or silverskin, trim them off and discard.  Put the lamb fat side down on the cutting board. Rub half the mixture on the inside, making sure to get some into various nooks and crannies.  Roll up the leg and tie the meat together with kitchen twine at regular intervals (I did mine about every 2-3 inches).  Place on a plate and rub the remaining marinade over the top of the lamb (fat side) now.  Grind fresh black pepper over the top as well. Cover with plastic wrap and let marinate in the fridge over night.

3. Remove the lamb about 30-40 minutes before you plan to put it in the oven.  Turn the oven on to 450 degrees.  Place the onion slices in a row down the middle of your roasting pan.  Place the lamb on top.  Once the oven is ready, put the pan in the oven and roast at the high temperature for at least 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes, turn the heat down to 375 degrees and pour in about 1 cup of water to the bottom of the roasting pan.  Continue to roast for about another hour or until the lamb registers 135 degrees (for rare) or 145 degrees (for medium) on a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the lamb.

4. Let cool on a cutting board for 15-20 minutes, then slice thinly and serve with the labneh.

Eggplant and artichoke salads

Preserved lemons

Almost the entirety of this month's You Pick Two was inspired by a prized cookbook in my collection, Claudia Roden's The New Middle Eastern Cookbook.  I am a research guy at heart so I very much enjoy diving into cookbooks that read as literature or travel guides, and this book is very much like that.  The two salads I am posting today are from the book, with slight adaptations.  Before I get to the recipes though, I wanted to share some general thoughts on Middle Eastern/North African food that I have developed through reading about and cooking these recipes.

One thing that stood out very clearly for me is where I spent my time in the grocery store when I shopped for the meal.  I would say that 75% of my time was spent in the vegetable area of the store.  The remaining 24% was spent at the meat counter and in the dairy section.  The final 1% was up the aisles, and that was for things like bread flour, olive oil, and honey.  You can see why the Mediterranean diet is so good for you, it calls for very little packaged food and lots of fruits and vegetables.  It was kind of eye opening for me.  Now, I am sure if you picked a menu slanted more towards meats, then you would add more time to the meat counter, but I think it would still be hard to add time to the aisles.

The other effect making this food had on me was, in a small way, I felt much closer to the culture of this part of the world.  I have grown up, in all honesty, with a fair amount of fear of the Middle East based on the decades of conflict I read about and watched on TV.  But somehow, reading Claudia's recipes and making these dishes gave me an understanding of their traditions and made me excited to one day visit the region. And this is one of the reasons I love cooking so much, it can teach you things about a culture in a more immediate way than reading.  Ok, on with the recipes.

I call them salads, but in reality they are just cold mezze.  The eggplant salad, a north African dish, was a huge hit of the meal, even the folks at the table who did not care for eggplant enjoyed it.  The artichoke salad is a Moroccan dish that packs lots of flavor, thanks in large part to the preserved lemons.  Making preserved lemons was very enjoyable, I followed this recipe to make them - it's kind of a shortcut method but it worked.  I also used frozen artichokes for the salad, but you could easily substitute fresh artichoke hearts when they are in season or available.

Sweet and spicy eggplant salad

[serve cold or at room temperature]
Ingredients
2 medium-large eggplants, sliced into 1/3-inch rounds (leave skins on)
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 inches fresh gingerroot, grated (I used my microplane)
1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cumin
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or large pinch of ground cayenne pepper)
5 tablespoons of honey
Juice of 1 lemon
2/3 cup of water
olive oil, for frying eggplant
salt

Directions
1.  If grilling the eggplant, do so making sure to brown or mark them - no need to cook them all the way through.  Or, heat a tablespoon of oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and brown the eggplant slices on each side.  I did it this way and it took two batches to brown all the eggplant slices, adding a tablespoon of oil for each batch.  Make sure to season each slice with a sprinkling of salt while it's browning in the pan.

2. Remove the grilled eggplant to a dish.  Turn the heat down to medium-low, add another tablespoon of olive oil and add the garlic, ginger, chili pepper, and cumin.  Saute for about 30 seconds, making sure not to burn the garlic.  Then add the honey, lemon juice, and water.  Stir to combine everything and to make sure the honey melts.  Once the sauce starts to simmer, turn the heat down to as low as it will go and add the sliced eggplant back to the pan.  Try to make sure each slice of eggplant is somewhat submerged in the sauce.  Add another 1/2 cup water if you need a little more sauce.

3. Cook the eggplant in the simmering sauce for about 10-15 minutes, or until the eggplant slices are very soft.  Pour the slices and sauce on to a platter, let it all cool, then refrigerate overnight or for several hours at least to give the flavors time to integrate.  

Artichoke salad with preserved lemons

[serve hot, room temperature, or cold]
Ingredients
3 cloves garlic, crushed and roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
Juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons of honey
the peels of 2 preserved lemons, cut into small strips
2 9-ounce packages of frozen artichokes, thawed
salt
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup water

1. Heat the oil in a saute pan that has a lid over medium-high heat for several minutes, add the chopped garlic and saute for about 10-15 seconds.  Take the pan off the heat and add the ginger, turmeric, lemon juice, honey, and preserved lemons.  Place back on the heat and stir to combine and heat through for a minute or so until the honey melts.

2. Add the artichokes to the pan.  Stir to mix with the other ingredients.  Add the water and a large pinch of salt.  Cover and reduce heat to low.  Cook over a low simmer for about 10 minutes, remove the lid and cook off any remaining liquid at the end.  Decant to a bowl and leave at room temperature or chill in the fridge overnight.