February 10th, 2011: Lamb Rib Tips, Scallops and Bacon with Caramelized Onions

After my excursion with the Alfredo Chicken meal proved that I could produce a meal of near restaurant caliber, I really wanted to do something impressive and push the envelope in my kitchen. I thought that I should cook something VERY nice and/or delicate to work with. I hit up Naturally Yours, our "hippy" grocery store for some Sushi earlier in the week and walked out with lamb "shanks," farm house bacon and scallops. Turns out they were lamb rib tips, they were mislabeled or something. So, I got to looking up recipes. I had no idea what to do.

I read every "Lamb Shank" recipe on Food Network's website, I asked a friend of mine who is a professional cook and the general consensus was to sear them, then braise them. I talked to my mother on the phone while I was wandering around Miejer trying to get ideas for sides/sauce and I had a sudden epiphany while walking down the liquor aisle. Bourbon-Berry sauce! Just like I made for the bread pudding before! And then braise the lamb in bourbon with potatoes and onions, caramelize the onions and serve that as a side! EUREKA! My mom thought I was insane.

I got home and started cooking right away. Well, I started cooking after I poured myself a glass of Evan Williams on (quite literally) the rocks. My first task, I decided, was the sauce. I melted some butter, poured in some whiskey and cranberry juice and let it reduce.

So, what next? Simple. Sear the sides of the lamb for a couple minutes a side, but don't cook it through. Then pour bourbon over a bed of potatoes and onions (Edit, I believe I put bacon in there, as well, in order to create a blanket of subtle bacon flavor across the meal) with other spices and flavors and plop them pieces of lamb down on it.

Looking back on it, this meal was VERY heavy and VERY big. The next thing I did was idiotic. I wrapped the scallops in the bacon and then skewered them. Why? I have no idea. I've eaten bacon wrapped scallops before, I've eaten bacon wrapped fillet mignon. For some reason I simply wanted to make something bacon wrapped. So I did... but I used ALL of the scallops I had, instead of making a small side of them. They could have been a meal on their own. More than likely, I simply wanted to have that much more impressive food made.

The way that I cooked the scallops was entirely unremarkable. I poured some bourbon and butter in a pan and seared them on it, then threw em in the dish the lamb was cooking it. The entire meal picked up on hits of one and other and really worked well together. I watched an episode of Worst Cooks in America before this and was really impressed with the way that they plated their lamb and I tried to emulate it. My sauce, on the other hand, turned out a bit oily and didn't reduce as thick as I would have liked it to. It was good and edible, but didn't look all that great.

My girlfriend arrived home from work to find this dish on the counter waiting for her, her exact words when she saw it was "holy shit, you actually made this?"

I learned a very valuable lesson from this meal that I haven't forgotten. How much food to make. I made WAY too much food for this meal and we ended up with leftovers. The left overs weren't nearly as good as they were when they were first made and I felt like they went to waste.