dynagirl

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, vol. 1

Gigot à la Moutarde, pp. 335
Herb-Mustard Coated Roast Lamb
Crêpes de Pomme de Terre, pp. 521-22
Grated Potato Pancakes
Choux de Bruxelles Étuveés à la Crème, pp. 452
Creamed Brussells Sprouts

This lamb is super-simple, given it’s lush complexity of flavor. Whisk up some Dijon mustard, soy sauce, garlic and olive oil, slather it on the leg and shove it in the oven. That’s it. Well, ok, while the roast is resting you throw a cup of stock into the roasting pan, deglaze and boil it down a bit, and maybe throw in some butter to finish the sauce. TA-DA. It was wonderful, and the easiness made up for the potato pancakes. Those were a little more complex, with grated potatoes that have been squeezed dry, mixed with cheese and cream (and maybe cream cheese?) and sauteéd mushrooms and, er… some spices. I made them last week, so details are a little hazy. Sauté them up one-by-one in gobs and gobs of oil and butter. These were totally worth it, though, as this absolutely transforms the idea of a potato pancake — and wonderful to use as a bed for an egg dish, or like I did here, with slabs of delicious lamb.

Once again, I have to feel sorry for the Brussells sprout: the most misunderstood vegetable of the plant world. People really have to stop overcooking the poor things–you’d taste like a stale fart, too, if you’d been that mistreated! These were lightly blanched, then braised ten minutes in a little two tablespoons of butter, at which point a cup of boiling cream was added to the braise and cooked for an additional ten minutes. I was really sad that I hadn’t bought more sprouts, and we only got four each.