Braised Lamb Shoulder Chops

Around 2am in the morning, I was in the middle of watching an Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations marathon when the scene in Naples (season 7, episode 11) transitioned from a marching band to the sound of "... slow simmering of meat in red sauce." It was like music to my ears. I wanted to eat some of the pasta tossed with the ragù and braised meats.

The next day, I found a package of lamb shoulder chops in the fridge. Mom told me that I was making dinner that night. After researching on Google for ideas, I began to get frustrated because nothing appealed to me. My mind kept wandering back to the clip of the ragù though. Done. That's what I'll try to make. I knew I wanted to slow cook the lamb and serve it separately from the pasta.


I began with dicing up onions, carrots, and garlic for the sauce. Then the lamb chops were seared with a little flour and vegetable oil. They were set aside while the sauce/braising liquid was made. Onions, and carrots were sautéed first, then the garlic was added in with some broth. A can of plain tomato sauce was poured into the pan. The sauce simmered on the stove top for a few minutes. Then the sauce and seared lamb chops were layered in a baking pan. It was put into the toaster oven at about 360F for about 3½ hours.


Richard had actually made a loaf of bread in the new bread maker. Not sure what happened with the giant air bubble at the top.




The bread was airy and moist. A little too moist though. But that didn't stop all of us from eating half of the loaf of bread before starting dinner. I guess it was the complimentary bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar you get at some restaurants.


I asked Richard to make a bean salad. Unfortunately the yellow beans, despite being rinsed a few times,  still tasted strongly of the can. It ruined the, otherwise good, bean salad.




Just like they did in the Naples episode, the pieces of braised meat was plated up and set aside. Most of the oil floating on top of the sauce was scooped out. The penne pasta finished cooking in the remaining sauce. At this point, I was getting excited at how dinner turned out.


Here was Mom's dinner plate with cognac to drink.


The lamb meat was really tender. Some of the cartilage was still a bit crunchy though. I really should've baked the lamb longer. The pasta tasted great in the sauce. It tasted even better the next day when I took it to work for lunch.


One plate of food was good for dinner. I needed a bonus round though. Just a couple extra bites.

The braised lamb shoulder chops turned out quite well. If there are tough cuts of meat on sale at the grocery stores, whether it's more lamb shoulder or even beef, I'll try to make this again cause it was a big hit with the family.


Future Tweaks:

• Cook the lamb shoulder chops for longer (over 5 hours)
• Add more tomato sauce
• Carefully go through the sauce to get rid of shards of bones
• Season the pasta more aggressively once the sauce is mixed in
• Make more bread
• Make a double batch for more leftovers

Guest Post: It's More Fun in the Philippines

Hi everyone, this is Ritchie (Richard as the sisters call me)! You may have seen my name pop up now and again as I have the rare flash of brilliance in my experimental cooking - just enough that it impresses both Lucy and Christine (granted I find it hard to cook visually appealing food).

Recently I've started an internship in the Philippines where I will be living in Manila for the next year and a half. I hope to share with you all some of my culinary experiences as me and my tongue become more adventurous (some of the things I've eaten already are pretty radically-tasting - even for a guy who's known for loving stinky foods). Here's a sample of things to come!

Manila Polo Club

Since I'm a business development consultant, I get to meet many clients in pretty fancy places. This one particular occasion I was invited to the Manila Polo Club. Classy place, filled with classy people. The walls were lined with hand-written charts of the Polo clubs most decorated players and horses.

And of course these classy people need to be fed with classy food. What we ordered was three different types of pizza: margherita, vegetarian, and hawaiian. You can see the picture of the pizza above. As you can see, it's quite flat and tasted the same. The dough obviously didn't rise enough or had enough yeast and was quite dense. Not to mention the fact that it was overcooked that I couldn't even cut through with a fork and knife. Overall, the pizza was really mediocre.

But the saving grace was the fantastic salad. OMG. I had never had watercress in a salad before but it is the single most amazing-life-changing salad I have ever had. The dressing was akin to the mandarin orange dressing we buy from Loblaws - slightly sweet and just a tad acid. Along with romaine lettuce there was walnuts and craisins. So refreshing and delicious.

Then there was this bad boy. Grape juice. ACTUAL grape juice. You can see the skins in the glass. It was so refreshing.

Pampanga

A few weekends ago our friend invited us to her hometown out in the province of Pampanga to celebrate her fathers birthday. I'll have to tell you - living right downtown in a huge metropolitan city means that most of the food I eat comes from convenience stores and fast food joints - microwaved and deepfried "deliciousness". Which really bugged me since I had quite high expectations coming to South East Asia. So when I expressed this disappointment to my friend, she immediately scolded me. "Don't you dare say that in front of me," she screamed. "Come eat my dad's food and then talk to me."

ZOOM! Off to Pampanga we went. Getting there was quite easy - we took the MRT (main metro system) to Taft station and then transferred to the LRT (light rail system) all the way to Doroteo Jose station where we caught a bus straight to San Fernando. 

Once we arrived we were greeted by my friend's uncles who transported us from the main city to her village.

Sitting in these bad boys felt pretty amazing since your butt is literally a few inches off the road. We arrived maybe around 5 or 6 in the afternoon so it was still light out. The food wasn't ready yet so all her cousins decided to take us on a tour of the village area.

We got to cross this fancy feat of human engineering. When the concrete bridge collapsed during a flood, the villagers built a makeshift bridge from bamboo. The bamboo bridge has been there ever since and no one feels the need to build a concrete one. Pretty sturdy but jumping is still not advised.

Past the bridge a bit we met up with my friend's great aunt. This was my first taste of the Philippine life as she brought us fresh green mangos that she grew.

Our mom would always buy green mangos in these vacuum-sealed bags and would love snacking on these sour bad boys. Now I understand why. The tartness that just makes your cheeks squeeze together is just so pleasant, and dipping it in fish sauce with salt really made it taste like home.

Oh and these guys. Fresh guava from the trees. They taste nothing like the super sugary guava candies that our mom loves to eat. You eat them like apples, skin and seeds together and the seeds are quite crunchy but I'm told that's where all the nutritious stuff is. It has a very mild sweetness with a creamy texture.

When we got back to the house, a feast was set out for us. Oh the food was amazing and it's really hard for me to describe what it tastes like because I've never had anything like it before.

First up was pork minudo. Stewed pork and potatoes and carrots. The sauce had many spices flavoring it but was quite mild (similar to the stewed meat dishes we Chinese make). Juicy hunks of pork and vegetables. YUM!

Some Filipino-style fried chicken. Juicy, crispy - filipinos really know how to do fried chicken.

Kalderetang manok. Another stewed dish made from tomatoes, chicken, and a bunch more mild spices. The meat fell right off the bone and the sauce went so well with rice.

And this stuff. Palabok. Let me tell you - here in the Philippines they are OBSESSED with pancit (read: noodles). They have a huge eating culture and actually take time in the afternoon to have merienda (mary-enda: read afternoon snack). This is one of the many common meriendas to have. The noodles for palabok are a little smaller than udon and the texture is quite strange - as you bite into them they kind of snap. So they don't really turn to mush while you're eating it like the noodles I'm used to eating. It definitely took a while for me to get used to it. I'm not sure what the sauce is made from but it has shredded chicken throughout and deep-fried garlic and sliced eggs sprinkled all on top. It wasn't my favourite dish for sure but it was still quite tasty.

Walking around in the country side really made me homesick. It was time I was able to completely disconnect from work and the busy concrete jungle of Manila and was able to take in my situation. The country air and food cleansed my spirit and rejuvenated my energy. I can't wait to return again!

Weekend at Mont Tremblant

This past weekend, we brought our Aussie relatives up to Mont Tremblant. We rented a chalet and did some sightseeing. As soon as we got back to the chalet, people were either grazing or making food - sometimes both. Let me just say that the photos cover most of what we ate.




On the first full day we were there, we went up to the Mont Tremblant Village and walked around a bit. The weather was -20 Celcius with blue skies. We didn't stay there long at all. After a brief BeaverTails break (the Kilaloe Sunrise is pictured on the bottom left; cinnamon, sugar, lemon juice), some of us went tubing while everyone else went back to the chalet.






That night, we had a spectacular prime rib dinner with a few sides: mashed potatoes with mint, side salad, heart of palm salad, and gravy. There was also Japanese-marinated chicken (soy sauce, palm sugar, ginger, and garlic) for those who didn't like beef.


There wasn't anything for dessert that night, unless you count the southeast asian fruit punch that JN made. We used some canned jackfruit, rambutan and some of the liquid, longan, pineapples, lychee jelly, and fresh strawberries with Sprite, tropical fruit juice, and Grey Goose.


On the following morning, we breakfasted on bacon, breakfast sausages, bagels, rice, toast, coffee, hot chocolate, and/or tea. Then we snacked on some boxed white cake with fresh blueberries.




Before we had lunch, there was a fruit platter of guava, papaya, strawberries, and asian pears. Containers of hummus and baba ganoush were opened along with a few bags of chips.




Lunch consisted of marinated ox tongue, which Uncle TS prepared and marinated the previous night. It was served with a nuoc cham-like sauce: fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, garlic, cilantro, green onions, and chili peppers.



Both the ox tongue and dipping sauce were addictive. Delish!




Mom, Lucy, Jimmy, and Richard arrived with some homemade bo kho for lunch as well.

We (Lucy, Jimmy, Richard, and I) left the chalet before everyone else ate a lobster dinner. We arrived in Ottawa just after 9:30pm. I was so exhausted that I don't remember getting into bed. There was just so much food!

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone!

I want to try something a bit different this year. I'll try to do some live blogging as we're (Lucy, Richard, and I) putting together our Christmas eve feast. The approximate time will be noted in brackets using 24-hour clock. I'll stop once I run out of counter space and/or when our family arrives. Follow me on twitter: @teafortwo_c

Homemade Banh Sung

Banh sung is like the unknown cousin of bún cha gio. Just like bún cha gio, the dish includes: vermicelli noodles, nuoc cham, a variety of herbs and veggies, spring rolls, and another type of protein. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the noodles are thicker in banh sung and bouncier than the noodles in bun cha gio. There's also an additional coconut milk-based condiment. I asked VN and she didn't know what I was talking about. My parents then informed me that the dish, in fact, is from Cambodia.


The dish started early in the afternoon with making spring rolls. Shredded cabbage, carrots, diced onions, oyster sauce, sugar, and a bit of sesame oil were quickly stir-fried together. Once the flavours were right, we left the pan off the heat to cool off.


While we waited for the filling to cool, a package of vermicelli were cooked and drained. The vermicelli noodles were tossed with a bit of vegetable oil to prevent sticking.

The coconut milk-based condiment sauce was made by frying some sliced green onions in vegetable oil, coconut milk, salt until aromatic. The sauce was slightly thickened with a cornstarch slurry.


We took out some frozen spring roll wrappers/skins to defrost. This brand is not bad at all. Mom and I sat down to roll the spring rolls once the filling cooled off.


Half of the container of wrapped spring rolls were deep-fried until blonde. They were popped into the freezer for future meals after they drained and cooled down. The other half were fried until golden.




Mom also marinated some pork earlier. Her marinade is closer to the Vietnamese sweet-ish marinade with fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar (Mom used homemade simple syrup), and a bit of oyster sauce. The pork chops were cooked on the barbeque outside. The pork chops were so fragrant! I feel bad for our neighbours.


We ran around the house grabbing some of our homegrown herbs: stinky fish herbs, thai basil, and Vietnamese coriander.


The only thing we had to do was put our own bowls together; vermicelli, herbs, shredded carrots, slivers of cucumbers, crushed peanuts, fresh herbs, slices of pork, nuoc cham, coconut milk sauce, and spring rolls. Did I miss anything?


Beauty!

Koreana in Chinatown and a Rant

Nobody felt like cooking on a Friday night late last month, so we (Mom, Richard, Andrew, and myself) had dinner at Koreana in Chinatown. I had previously heard of good things from the family.

The first time I ate there was on Canada Day, where VN and I had the stir-fried kimchi with tofu and jja jang myun (Korean version of the Chinese black bean noodles), along with the banchan. I was surprised at how large the serving of jja jang myun was. The flavour of the black bean sauce was too plain for my tastes. Everything tasted the same to me after two bites. If it weren’t for the slivers of cucumbers, I wouldn’t have been able to stomach more than a few bites. I’m not sure how legit their version is, but I do know that I’m not a fan. VN’s stir-fry was better, though I found there to be too much sesame oil.

When our family arrived for dinner on the Friday night, a table had just left so we didn’t have to wait very long at all. We spent quite a bit of time deciding what to get. Mom doesn’t like Korean food much, but came because she told Andrew to pick where to go for dinner. Lesson learned? lol

After we gave the waitress our order, she brought us some complimentary bowls of miso soup. Once we were finished, she set down the banchan of pickled bean sprouts, daikon radish, potatoes in a sweet gloopy sauce, kimchi, and seasoned seaweed. I typically love the sweet potatoes at Korean restaurants but the sweet gloopy sauce ruined it for me. It didn’t taste homemade.

To start off the meal, we got an order of haemul paejon aka seafood pancake. Mom was disappointed because the pancake wasn’t crunchy and crisp. I had to remind her that Korean pancakes are chewy like this and not flaky like the Chinese version. Unlike the loaded seafood pancake at Nak Won (in Toronto), there wasn’t a lot of seafood in the pancakes we received.

Our main dishes began arriving not long after we began with the seafood pancakes. The mul naeng myun (aka cold noodle soup) arrived in the familiar stainless steel bowl as the jja jang myun I had previously. I knew that the soup was supposed to be seasoned with vinegar and mustard, but the cold soup just tasted like the pickling liquid of the daikon and carrots. I thought the soup was supposed to be a cold beef broth with just a bit of vinegar. I didn’t get any mustard, though I could’ve just asked for some. Mustard wouldn’t have made it anymore tasty.

Richard wanted to order the sukiyaki, but since Mom wanted that, he went with the unagidon aka BBQ eel over rice. He looked like he enjoyed it since he ate it quietly.

Andrew was craving the stir-fried kimchi with tofu. I’m pretty sure it was the same dish as VN’s, but the flavours were well balanced this time. There were pieces of pork, kimchi, green onions and tofu. This was a favourite at our table.

The other favourite was the sukiyaki that Mom got. The beefy soup was sugary. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be like that, but it was strangely addictive. We all kept taking bites of Andrew’s stir-fry and then sips of the sukiyaki.

Though Koreana isn’t the best Korean restaurant in Ottawa, we’ll still come back for their stir-fry of kimchi, tofu, and pork.

On a somewhat related note, I need to vent about the people who review restaurants (small restaurants specifically) and complain about horrible service. I usually check sites like Urbanspoon to see what other people think about restaurants, but I mostly read up on what certain food bloggers think. There are always people who comment more about the service than the food. I want to know how good the food is, not the service. My blood pressure slowly rises whenever I see those comments.