The next day brought us to Costco, where we procured a leg
of lamb. Usually, my parents buy lamb chops, but in my opinion, the mini
t-bones are more trouble than they are worth. After some butchering, we had
about seven small steaks ready for the grill. I played around with the flavoring,
making one standard steak seasoning, one greek (I may have cheated a bit on
this one using a Greek seasoning mix and oregano), one rosemary and lemon, and
one Moroccan, adding cinnamon, paprika, cumin, and mustard. The lamb could be
dipped in a tzatziki sauce I made from Greek yogurt and cucumber, blended in
the food processor with lemon, salt, pepper, onion and garlic power, and some
fresh parsley. The lamb was paired with what I like to call “silver onions.”
Sweet onions, preferably Vidalia, are peeled and cut into four sections. Place
a small pat of butter in the center, along with coarse salt and ground pepper,
then wrap in tin foil and twist the top. Place these on the grill as it is
warming up. These will be the first on and last off, they can take a while. To
round out the meal, I created a watermelon gazpacho. Chunks of watermelon went
for a spin in the food processor, the soupy result poured into a large salad
mixing bowl. Cucumber and sweet onion were given a similar treatment. I added white
balsamic, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and a bit of ground mustard to the bowl
and let the flavors mingle. There was some adjusting of spices, but the soup
was served cold and topped with crumbled goat cheese, providing another slight
tart flavor, but also sweetness and creaminess.
The next morning, I claimed one of those seven cuts for
steak and eggs. Two sunny side up eggs ran their yolk all over the lamb. Pro
tip: Don’t reheat the steak in the microwave, use the same pan you cooked your
eggs, but get it hot first, add the steak and a tablespoon of water and cover.
This prevents it from getting leathery and preserves the char from the sear.
Saturday night I made my signature dish, cioppino. There are
a lot of similar, mixed seafood in a tomato-based broth dishes out there.
Cioppino comes from an Italian word “to chop” and comes from the Italian
fisherman community in California (despite its name, you will never find
cioppino in Italy). It’s considered a “catch of the day” kind of soup.
Bouillabaisse, the French version, is comparable, but is flavored with saffron
and very like French cooking, cannot “technically” be made outside the province
(in the same way Boudreaux or Port can’t). Seafood chowder is another analogous
dish, but unlike former two, the crustaceans in chowder have had their shell
removed. Finally, zuppo de pesce (Italian, literally “soup of fish,” this one
you will find in Italy) is most like cioppino, especially in that there is no
prescriptive recipe.
The fishmonger at the local grocer didn’t have mussels, so
we substituted crawfish. We also procured clams, shrimp, bay scallops, and
tilapia (though any whitefish would have done). Starting with sautéing onion
and garlic in butter, I added the diced stewed tomatoes, white wine, lemon, and
fresh parsley. The shrimp went first, as they had the longest cooking time. One
by one the seafood dropped in, each adding their own dimension of flavor. A
Caesar salad with a homemade dressing, a recipe my mother touts as the best she
has ever had, a crisp pinot grigio, and warmed sourdough bread rounded out the
meal. There were no leftovers.
Thank you mom and dad, for letting me have the run of the
kitchen for the week. It was a great visit and I hope to coordinate cooking
when I come home for Christmas.
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