Dani Had a Little Lamb

October 28, 2020
Herb-Crusted Lamb with Spaetzel and Mint Sauce
Pg. 124
Dara, Season 1
48 down…51 to go!

Okay, it’s official: lamb is one of my new favorite proteins. It’s right behind steak for me, which is a big deal if you only knew how much I love steak. I definitely plan to make more of it in the future, but I’m gonna have to make friends with the meat guys at Central Market to get a discount because lamb ain’t cheap!

The most interesting aspect of this dish was that the recipe called to have chopped up anchovies in the panko and herb crust for the lamb. I had never seen an anchovy in my life, nor did I want to haha. I wonder why that was an important ingredient for the crust, because I didn’t even taste it while I ate the lamb. Either way, I can now say I have had anchovies. Next on the list of recipes to try: sardines (but only because it’s in the appetizer section of the MasterChef Junior cookbook hahaha)!

I had never made spaetzle before, and I wish I had the special tool needed to make it. Instead, I had to push the dough through the holes of my colander and that was not easy. Thankfully, I was only making this dish for myself (my sweetheart is doing keto now, so we don’t always eat the same foods). So I only made a tiny bit of this German pasta.

There was no picture of the mint sauce to use as a reference, but I knew the consistency of the sauce wasn’t quite right as I was making it. I expected something different because the instructions said, “stir until thick and creamy,” but there was no way it could get creamy with the ingredients in the recipe. So I decided to add some sour cream to it, plus some additional seasonings (salt, fresh cracked pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes), and it was delicious!

I was most excited about the plating, trying to make it different than my last lamb dish. I tried a popular sauce presentation. I’ll call it the “swoop” since I don’t know the real term. But you place a scoop of the sauce or puree on the plate, then use the back end of the spoon to swoop it out.

What I did differently:

I added sour cream and extra seasonings to the mint sauce.
I did not garnish with pomegranate seeds like the recipe instructed. I’m not a big fan of pomegranate seeds, plus they are expensive.

All my love,
Dani, a big tid

P.S. Are you a fan of lamb? If you have any good lamb recipes let me know so I can cook them all!