The Unexpected Guest
Slippery Fish rum drink
Salmon Spread served with Sugar Snap Pees and Blue Corn Chips
Roasted Rack of Lamb in a port glaze reduction
Roasted Asparagus
Potato Gallette
Lemon Blueberry Tart
Slippery Fish for 4 drinks
8 oz of Dark Rum
8 oz Ginger Beer
1 oz fresh limejuice
4 oz of
Lime Wedges
For the slippery fish, mix all together in a pitcher and pour over ice in glasses and garnish with limes.
Salmon Spread
4oz cream cheese
4oz sour cream
4oz smoked salmon
¼ cup – ½ cup chopped fresh dill (use more or less for
your taste)
2-3 tbsp pure horseradish
Pinch of Kosher Salt
Fresh black pepper
1-2 tbsp olive oil
For the spread, combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. You can use more or less of the ingredients listed in this recipe to suit your own taste. In fact next time I would like to try it with even more salmon.
Oven Roasted Rack of Lamb
1lb about 8 chops
3 tbsp Thyme
3 tbsp Parsley
4 cloves garlic
Salt & Pepper and Olive Oil
Port Glaze
1 cup port wine
1- 1/2 cups chicken or veal stock
For the Glaze, place the port wine in a small sauce pan and reduce on medium high to about 1 tbsp. Watch carefully towards the end. After reduction of port add 1 ½ cups stock and reduce by a little more than half – until you have about a ½ cup of liquid. You can pull off stove and reheat prior to serving. If you reduced too far and consistency is syrupy just add a few more tablespoons of stock.
For the Lamb, preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Mix herbs and olive oil together. Spread herbs on both sides of the rack – set aside on a plate for about 30 minutes.
Heat a large cast iron skillet on high. Add a little olive oil and heat until you see a little smoke rising – the pan will be very hot. Sear each side of the rack until golden brown – about 2 1/2 minutes per side. Take off heat and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
Roasted Asparagus
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil
For the Asparagus, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Rinse off asparagus. Trim with a vegetable peeler. The easiest peeler has just a single wire across the top. Like a sling shot – but tighter. Peel off outer layer of asparagus. Place asparagus in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Coat with olive oil on both sides. Salt & Pepper both sides and place in oven for 30 –45 minutes until desired tenderness.
Potato Gallette
5-6 large russet potatoes washed and unpeeled
1/2 stick of melted unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 large cloves of garlic, chopped fine
2 tbsp chopped, fresh thyme
Generous amount of kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tbs. of chopper parsley or chives for garnish
8-inch shallow bottom pan (you can even use an oven safe
frying pan)
For Gallete, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice unpeeled potatoes paper thin on a mandolin. Place potatoes slices into a large bowl and pour butter and olive oil over potatoes – mix with your hands. Layer the potatoes in the pan, overlapping in concentric circles, adding garlic and thyme after every 2 layers – you can add even more thyme if you wish. Bake in the middle of the oven for approximately 50 minutes. Take out of the oven and let sit for 10 minutes, sprinkle with garnish. Slice into wedges and sprinkle each with more garnish if you wish.
Serve with blanched sugar snap pees (droop a handful of pees into boiling water for a couple of minutes until slightly tender) and blue corn chips.
Lemon Blueberry Tart
Pate Sucree (pastry dough)
2 Cups Flour
Pinch Salt
1 tbsp. sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
9 tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces, chilled
6 tbsp. ice water
2-3 cups of dry beans and parchment paper for pie weights
8-inch false bottom tart shell pan, buttered
Lemon Curd
4 large egg yolks lightly beater
1 large egg lightly beaten
1cup sugar
½ cup fresh lemon juice, approximately 3 lemons
8 tbsp butter 1 stick
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
8-12 oz of blueberry’s – enough to cover the tart
3-4 tbsp clover honey
For pastry, add flour, salt, sugar and zest into the food processor and pulse several times. Add butter all at once and pulse until the dough has the consistency of corn meal. To check, scoop some out with a spoon and spill back into the mixture and watch how it pours. Add up to 6 tbsp of water 1 tbsp at a time. You may use more if the humidity is low and less it it’s high. Don’t make it too dry. Pinch between your fingers and when it holds together it’s done.
Pat dough into a disk several inches high and 5 or more inches in diameter. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.
Roll dough on lightly floured surface about 9 inches in diameter, leaving enough dough to go up the sides of the tart pan. Roll the rolling pin over the pan to cut off the excess. Poke holes across the bottom of the pan with a fork and put back into the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place a piece of parchment paper and lay it across the tart. Dump your dried beans into the center – push light to the sides but don’t worry about getting every pleat, the purpose is to keep the bottom from rising. Cook in the oven for about 20 minutes. Take tart shell out of oven and lift the parchment paper off the dough. It’s best to have a large bowl nearby to drop the beans into. Put the tart shell back in the oven for another 10 or 15 minutes or until dough is a light golden brown.
Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack – cool completely.
For curd, combine everything in a heavy bottom pan except the butter and zest, stir on medium heat with a wooden spoon constantly until thickened and the mixture coats the back of the spoon – up to 10 minutes. Take the pan off heat and add butter 1 tbsp at a time. Stir in the zest. Cover and chill up to 2 hours or more (it’s okay to chill initially without cover to allow steam to escape) – the custard should be mostly set. Do not stir. Refrigerate for up to 3 days in an airtight container.
For assembly, scrape curd out of bowl with a large spatula. Spread the curd evenly throughout the tart pan. Make sure the curd touches the side of the dough. Cover the tart with blueberries, and drizzle the honey over the tart.