Lamb & Grits
Fooling Around
My local seafood shop -- hell, the only seafood shop -- told me they'd have fresh Louisiana crawfish (aka mud-bugs) this morning. I love those little crustaceans and I hadn't had any crawfish since I last attended the Crawdad Festival in Isleton, CA two years ago. If you ever get a chance to go, do so. It's also a biker gathering and it's a real hoot!
At any rate, I bought a couple of pounds of crawfish this afternoon that had been cooked late last night before being shipped up here. My plan is to make something Cajun with the crawfish tomorrow night because I'll have time to shell the crawfish and make a stock tomorrow afternoon. So I needed something for supper tonight.
The local grocery had some nice looking lamb sirloin steaks so I bought one. I also bought grits because I'd run out and I always like having them around. So why not fix grits to go with the lamb?
The lamb was pretty straight-forward. I marinated it in sherry and herbes de province for about 1.5 hours then brushed it with a Spanish olive oil and grilled it to rare. The sweetness of the sherry was excellent against the lamb. Highly recommended.
But the fun part was the grits.
First I made a thick batch and flavored it with ground black pepper (grits just love black pepper) and grated asiago. I poured the grits into a small, greased ramekin and chilled them to form a cake. Next, I peeled a half dozen crawfish and tossed the heads and shells into a small sauce pan with water. I simmered the stock for an hour then strained it, added some sherry (to complement the lamb), and a good dollop of tomato paste. Then reduced it by half.
I fried the grits cake in butter until nicely browned and while that was going on I dumped the sauce, the crayfish meat, and a chunk of butter in my small food processor and pureed it. This became the sauce for the grits. The sauce was incredibly rich -- not unlike a seafood version of red-eye gravy -- and was wonderful on the grits, which were a nice foil for the lamb.
Jeez I love eating.
My local seafood shop -- hell, the only seafood shop -- told me they'd have fresh Louisiana crawfish (aka mud-bugs) this morning. I love those little crustaceans and I hadn't had any crawfish since I last attended the Crawdad Festival in Isleton, CA two years ago. If you ever get a chance to go, do so. It's also a biker gathering and it's a real hoot!
At any rate, I bought a couple of pounds of crawfish this afternoon that had been cooked late last night before being shipped up here. My plan is to make something Cajun with the crawfish tomorrow night because I'll have time to shell the crawfish and make a stock tomorrow afternoon. So I needed something for supper tonight.
The local grocery had some nice looking lamb sirloin steaks so I bought one. I also bought grits because I'd run out and I always like having them around. So why not fix grits to go with the lamb?
The lamb was pretty straight-forward. I marinated it in sherry and herbes de province for about 1.5 hours then brushed it with a Spanish olive oil and grilled it to rare. The sweetness of the sherry was excellent against the lamb. Highly recommended.
But the fun part was the grits.
First I made a thick batch and flavored it with ground black pepper (grits just love black pepper) and grated asiago. I poured the grits into a small, greased ramekin and chilled them to form a cake. Next, I peeled a half dozen crawfish and tossed the heads and shells into a small sauce pan with water. I simmered the stock for an hour then strained it, added some sherry (to complement the lamb), and a good dollop of tomato paste. Then reduced it by half.
I fried the grits cake in butter until nicely browned and while that was going on I dumped the sauce, the crayfish meat, and a chunk of butter in my small food processor and pureed it. This became the sauce for the grits. The sauce was incredibly rich -- not unlike a seafood version of red-eye gravy -- and was wonderful on the grits, which were a nice foil for the lamb.
Jeez I love eating.
2 Comments:
Thanks for your comments on my posting on grits on eGullet. I'm glad there are people like you--creative with grits pairings--who inspire people like me to do something new. I'm looking forward to reading more by you!
Jennifer Brizzi
Jennifer,
> Thanks for your comments on my posting on grits on eGullet.
I've been on a grits and polenta kick lately and that crawfish sauce was the best thing I've come up with so far. Good stuff.
Kevin
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