Lamb 5 Ways & Momofuku Milk Bar Cakes

Follow Me Foodie’s Sunday Night Dinner Series

Follow Me Foodie to Lamb 5 Ways & Momofuku Milk Bar Cakes!

Welcome to Follow Me Foodie’s Sunday Night Dinner Series! It’s a new addition to the blog and I hope you find it inspiring for your own recipes or dinner parties. It’s a behind the scenes look at what happens when I’m not eating out at a restaurant. It’s a peek at epic meal times in the homes of like minded foodie friends. There is the chef’s way and then there is the foodie way.

On this occasion we were celebrating a very special birthday hosted by my intense foodie friends Tanis and Dave. They’re the ones that also hosted that epic summer BBQ last year – see here. The theme was lamb 5 ways as well as 2 massive cakes from the Momofuku Milk Bar recipe book.
Everything was made from scratch by passionate foodies with no formal training.

When I say “made from scratch” I mean made from bare bones scratch. I don’t think I have many PETA activists reading my blog, and I’m sorry if I offended you with this picture, but it’s the circle of life. Remember when Mufasa from The Lion King explains to Simba “the circle of life”? The lions eat the antelope and when the lions die they turn to grass and the antelope eat the grass; so in this case just replace “lions” with “foodies” and “antelope” with “lamb” and there’s no difference. It’s a natural process, and for the most part nothing goes to waste and we respect every part of the animal.

Yes, this is a house and not an industrial kitchen. Sure, it helps to have the right equipment, but if you don’t, please feel free to skip this step and just head to your closest butcher shop.

Appetizers

Charcuterie & Pickles

House made Portuguese Cheese – It was very mild in flavour and not that rich and in between a fior di latte, buffalo mozzarella and a ricotta. It only ages for about 4 days so the flavour is very mild and the texture is quite soft. I was eating this like a sandwich and it was incredibly moist with a bit of added salt and it goes with almost everything.

Ingredients

• 1 Quart Whole Milk
• 2/3 Cup Dry Milk Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Rennet Tablet
• Round Forms

For further directions and recipe see here.

Kusshi Oysters and Malpeque Oysters – These are two of my favourite oysters and they have incredibly different flavour profiles. The Kusshi (West Coast) oyster is from Vancouver and that’s the smaller one. The meat is sweet and clean with a cucumber finish. The Malpeque (East Coast) comes from Prince Edward Island and they’re very meaty, creamy, buttery, rich and smooth in texture. I prefer Kusshi to Malpeques, and not because I’m a West Coast girl, but for me it’s creme de la creme of oysters.

These salty sweet pickles were from the Momofuku cook book and it was just sugar, rice wine vinegar and a bit of fish sauce. They were simple and divine with the fresh oysters. I think they’re the same pickles used in Chef David Chang’s famous Momofuku Steamed Pork Buns too – see my post here.

You see that glossy oyster juice? Now stop pouring it out if you do. That’s the flavour of the oyster and the flavour of the ocean it comes from.

This is JJ, and the reason I’m showing this photo is because, not only is he cute, but I really believe in encouraging children to explore new foods from an early age. Sometimes it’s not that the kids who are picky eaters, but quite often it’s just the lack of exposure to new foods. Of course it’s not always, but at least give the window of opportunity.

Hamachi Sashimi – This is another one. When it’s high grade sashimi, don’t dunk it in soy sauce. If you did that at a high end Japanese restaurant, you might get your hand slapped… either by me or the sushi chef. Soy sauce is generally perceived as a “corrector” and wasabi an “enhancer”. The good stuff will only need a bit of wasabi and that helps to open up your palate to taste the fish. A touch of soy sauce is appropriate if it needs it, but stop soaking your sashimi in it. Of course if you want to, go ahead, but in that case you might as well just get super cheap sashimi.

Mains

Lamb #1 – Roasted Lamb Legs

As bloody hard as it was to not fill up on the appetizers, I had to save room for the mains. The mains were cooking in the backyard. Again if you don’t have an Il Forno oven, your regular oven will work as well.

Lamb #2 – Grilled Rack of Lamb, Chops and Tenderloin (Before)

Lamb #2 – Grilled Rack of Lamb and Tenderloin (After)

Lamb #3 – Lamb Sausage

The sausage was made with lamb neck as well as other random parts. It was a very simple recipe with few seasonings and spices and it just used a bit of white wine.

Lamb #4 – Braised Lamb

I tend to favour anything that’s braised, so this was my favourite. It was braised in red wine and tomato paste.

Lamb #5 – Lamb Shoulder Ravioli

If you want to try an excellent lamb cheek pasta I would also recommend the Braised Lamb Cheek Mafalda at Cento Notti – see my post for it here.

The spread ended up looking like this. Lamb 5 ways + potatoes 2 ways.

The one lonely vegetable dish was excellent though! It was roasted brussel sprouts with bacon and deep fried kale. I actually mentioned kale in my post about Food Trends for 2012 and how lots of restaurants are deep frying it now. That was the inspiration for this dish. As foodies who dine out quite a bit, we get a lot of ideas from our restaurant experiences.

And of course what’s a birthday without some cake?

This is the “Birthday Cake” and the “Banana Cake“. Both these cakes are from the Momofuku Milk Bar recipe book, but the recipe was increased by 6. The two cakes took 3 days to make and I really give credit to Tanis for putting in the effort and having the patience to do it. See here for the recipes!