Plaintains at a local Peruvian restaurant, La Furia Chalaca. Pan-fried till very crisp and salted, they were like the ultimate potato wedges! Plaintains are easily available here, I just don't cook them - like you with risotto, I like them too much, LOL.

Even though I'm Japanese-American I can't stand mochi, the pounded rice dough - although my Hong Kong-born Chinese-Portugese DH thinks it's okay stuff (go figure). But Slanted Door restaurant (Vietnamese/fusion) uses just a touch of rice flour with a sweet potato puree to create the most divine appetizer, little rounds of sweet potato dough just barely able to hold together, served with fresh coconut cream, coconut shavings and black sesame seed. It is one of the few truly original Asian dishes I've seen, and is sensational.

We live in the San Francisco Bay Area so there's a very wide variety of foods and cuisines available - a foodie's delight. Since all my family loves to cook, every holiday becomes a gourmet theme potluck.

jkom51 - DS & his fiancee did some post-doc work at Berkeley, so we had an opportunity to go to SF to visit. It really is a wonderful food city!

They are now working in Copenhagen, Denmark, which they have found to be very lacking in good, varied, reasonably priced eateries. They are doing a lot of cooking at home - and are missing all their favorites places in the Bay Area.

If you are hooked on risotto, you might want to get a pressure cooker.

It's not that difficult to make risotto in a regular pan, but you have to constantly be paying attention to it, stirring the stock into the rice mixture till it's incorporated, then adding more, etc. With a pressure cooker, you basically dump the stuff in there and pressure cook it till done; it requires virtually no attention. Since I got into pressure cooking I make risotto far more often than I did before I got a pressure cooker.

Kuhn Rikon markets one of their smaller PC's as a risotto maker, but any pressure cooker could make it.

Oh--and as far as recent food introductions, I know what you mean about fried plantains. Got hooked on them a while back, and a local Cuban family just opened up a restaurant with great tostones. There goes the waistline...

OMG!!!!! You live near Ogunquit??????

I was there the weekend between Xmas and New Years! I **LOVE** Arrows and have had many memorable meals there. Actually - I still have their Lobster Strudel recipe and make it once in a while (like on Valentine's Day).

I so wish I would have known - I would love to have gotten together for a coffee or lunch or drink or something while I was there.

And yes, I love risotto too - the friend I was staying with makes an incredible lobster risotto that is about 2000 calories per spoonful LOL! Glad you tried it even if it is hard to resist!

Alexa

Well, it wasn't really new, but it was. I had sushi in California last winter, and loved it. The only sushi I'd had before was here in Michigan and I had a feeling that it wasn't necessarily the best sushi here in the boonies, LOL.

So, the California group took me to get sushi, Diana so kindly ordered for me and I got, among other things, a tempura batter dipped and deep fried sushi. OMG, it was just wonderful. Elery promptly declared that sushi was his new favorite food and bought me a sushi mat, LOL.

Other things not necessarily new, but I've been practicing Renee's 7 year rule: Lamb (still underwhelmed, but it's edible if I marinate it in Jessica's Lime Chipotle marinade), deep fried Nutter Butter cookies (amazingly good) and Ethiopian food with injera bread, another OMG, I loved it.

I'm still working on liking dry wine, I was told at the Wine and Food Festival that it's an "acquired" taste, so I keep on trying.

I haven't tried plaintains yet, and I've got to make some chicken tortilla soup. I had the worst bowl of soup I've ever had in a restaurant, they said it was chicken tortilla soup. I've been assured by Ann T that it's not usually just a bowl of spicy tomato goup with some tortilla strips.....

Annie

Annie, you might try this recipe for lamb. It's one of my favorites. It's a great cold weather dish. (And I apologize to anyone who's tired of me posting it, but it really is easy, delicious, and the long slow braising does dissipate a lot of the slight gaminess that lamb sometimes has). FWIW, my dog goes absolutely crazy when I cook it.

There is a French bistro dish called "Gigot de sept heures"--yes, that's "Seven hour leg of lamb". I first ran across this in Anthony Bourdain's "Les Halles Cookbook". The first time I fixed it there were two teenagers in my house who claimed they didn't like lamb. Suffice it to say there were no leftovers. Bourdain makes the comment that when it's done, you should be able to cut it with a spoon.
Like all common recipes, there are variations: but it's basically a braise in a heavy casserole dish. I used a deep cast iron Dutch oven with a tight fitting lid, and it worked great. Season the lamb with slivers of garlic, sear it, add liquid and vegetables, cover the pot, put it in a slow oven and DON'T PEEK for seven hours. Omigod, is it good--and easy!!
This is a perfect dish for a day when you have a lot of laundry or housework to do. You gotta be in the house anyway, so may as well have a no-stress supper cooking while you're doing other work. You put it in the oven after brunch, then do whatever you need to do, and after seven hours you have some juicy and scrumptious lamb. A half hour before serving, cook up some noodles or something to catch the juices.
Here's Bourdain's version. The only liberties I take with it is to brown the meat prior to putting in the other goodies, and since I have a very tight fitting casserole I don't bother with the flour seal. You can also use a little more wine if you want. The garlic cooks down so its not overpowering; do use at least the amount it calls for.

GIGOT DE SEPT HEURES
1 leg of lamb, about 6#
4 garlic cloves, sliced, plus 20 whole garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
salt & pepper
2 small onions, thinly sliced
4 carrots, peeled
1 bouquet garni
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup flour, 1 cup water
Preheat oven to 300 F. Make many small incisions in lamb, place slivers of garlic in each incision. Rub lamb well with olive oil, season with salt & pepper. (At this point I would brown the lamb on all sidesÂbut thatÂs not necessary.) Place it in Dutch oven and add onions, carrots, bouquet garni, garlic, wine. Put lid on Dutch oven. Combine flour and water, make a 'caulk' and use it to seal the lid to the dutch oven. Place it in the 300 degree oven and cook for 7 hours. Yes, 7 hours. NO PEEKING--leave it alone.
Remove the Dutch oven and break the seal. You don't eat the cooked flour paste.
That's it. About a half hour to an hour of prep, then you leave it the heck alone for 7 hours. It's nearly foolproof. Serve it with whatever else you want, and a medium bodied red wine goes quite well with this (say, a nice Zinfandel) but a dry white (such as the remainder of the bottle you opened to get the cup of wine in the recipe) is fine as well if that's your preference. Bon appetit!

Thanks, arley, Elery will love that, he really likes lamb.

No way I'm cooking six pounds of it though, LOL. Neither of my girls will touch it at all, neither will the grandkids. I'd cut the recipe in half, though, and Elery could have leftovers for his lunch.

I'll bet my cast iron dutch oven would work just right, brown the lamb, then add everything else and pop it into the oven...

Annie

amck,

You're in NH, right? We used to live in Bedford. The Dolphin Striker in Portsmouth is one of our favorite restaurants. It's right on the harbor. We like the restaurant so much that's where we held our DS's wedding rehearsal dinner. We chose 3 options for guests & one was duck. Oh, it was so good! Here's a link to their menu...

I'm not sure if you enjoy Mexican, or not. But, here's another lamb recipe that we really enjoy & the cooking method is very similar to arley's.

BIRRIA

6 Dried Ancho Chilis
2 Dried Pasilla Chilis (optional)
1-1/2 Cups White Wine Vinegar
3 Cloves Garlic, peeled & smashed
2 Teaspoons Dried Oregano
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Dried Cumin
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cloves
5 lbs. Assorted Lamb pieces (I use shanks)
1 Cup Water
1 Bay Leaf
Small amount of masa harina & water to make a paste to seal the baking dish closed. (I use the seal even with my LC Dutch oven.)

1.) Remove stems & seeds from chiles. Place chiles in a saucepan with the vinegar, bring to a boil. Reduce heat & simmer a few minutes until soft. Place chilis & vinegar, garlic, oregano, salt, cumin, & cloves into a blender or FP & blend into a smooth paste.

2.) Coat the lamb pieces well with the chili paste & allow to marinate in the refrigerator for a least 4 hours & 24 hours is better.

3.) Place the water in the bottom of a large ovenproof pot that has a lid. Place a rack in the pot over the water & then arrange the lamb pieces on the rack. Add the bay leaf. For an even better seal, place parchment paper over the meat. Cover with the lid. (The water below the lamb increases the humidity within the pan to better simulate the cooking conditions of a pit. That's how this dish is traditionally prepared in Mexico.)

4.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use a bit of masa harina/water to form a paste. Use the paste to seal the pan closed tight. Bake for 4 hours. Remove the pot & break the masa harina seal. The meat will be falling off the bones tender.

5.) I serve the lamb with a bowl of chopped onion, sliced radishes, & chopped cilantro. We wrap it up in warmed tortillas (we use corn but I've had this dish in Mexico with flour tortillas). I serve refritos & rice along with the birria.

Don't worry about the chilis. It's not a HOT dish...just nicely spiced. Well, there's a bit of a kick but our kids enjoyed this meal when they were still young so it's not over the top hot.

/tricia

That 7 herb leg-o-lamb is wonderful...I love lamb..
BUT if you are not fond fo the gaminess...cut off aas much fat as possible....and/or cook a very lean cut.
Try grilled lamb rib chops, medium rare...well anointed with olive oil and garlic...
Or a butterflied leg...the cut side well rubbed with 3 or 4 garlic cloves, sprinkled with oregano rubbed with olive oil and drizzled with lemon....allowed tos it for an hour of more and grilled like as teak...
Great with risotto!!!
Linda C

ooo baby lamb chops are my once a year indulgence, so yummy!

Funny, the things I like best I rarely make at home! They are usually expensive product and I would hate to screw them up - moreover I would hate to succeed... then I would never get to go out and have those special goodies and have someone *else* make and present those things to me. And clean up ;-)

Does that make sense to anyone?? lol

I Love baby lamb chops too! I make them with a Moroccan Spice rub that is absolutely sublime. When they are on sale (not often) I will make a feast of them and eveyone in my family will eat way too many of those tasty morsels. LOL!

And Tricia, I love the Dolphin Striker too, but my Dad always like the Oar House better. We used to always get the "bed" table by the window. It was a great novelty and the food was awesome. I really miss living in Portsmouth too! We were at the Press Room for a quick drink when I was up there and it brought back so many memories! So much fun.

That 6 hour lamb sounds really good, it is going on my "must try soon" list.

Alexa