April 20, 2011

KY cooks – Lamb Chop with Asparagus & Baked Tomato

We bought some lamb chops from Jaya Grocer about a week back and really didn’t know what to do with it at first. A bit of research on the internet tells me that garlic, mustard, pepper and rosemary makes good marinate for lamb, so I decided to use them all for this recipe.

I added asparagus and tomato to serve as sides to compliment the savory taste of lamb with the freshness of asparagus and sweet/sour taste from tomato. As an added bonus, they make the dish looks better with added colors.

While many are not as familiar with lamb, this is a surprisingly simple dish to prepare, and takes only half an hour to serve.

lamb chop with tomato and asparagus on the side

This is a three part dish, the lamb, asparagus, and tomato. Luckily all three of them are very simple, and the only juggling act is to time each dish properly so you get to serve them all on the same time.

Lets start with the lamb.

Ingredients:

• lamb shoulder (I made 5 pieces), I got them frozen from Jaya Grocer
• 1 bulb of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 table spoon French mustard
• black pepper
• rosemary
• a teaspoon of butter, and a bit of cooking oil

marinate lamb chop with mustard, pepper, rosemary, and garlic

Instructions:

• marinate the lamb with all ingredients in a zip locked bag for at least an hour in the fridge, over night if possible
• preheat oven to 200 celcius
• pan fry each side of the lamb in medium heat for 1-2 minutes, use minimal cooking oil, or butter
• put the lamb in the oven for a further 10-15 minutes (depending on how well cooked you want the lamb to be, I also add a bit of butter to the aluminum foil)
• remove from oven and let the lamb chop rest for about 3-5 minutes before serving

Total time not including marinate takes not more than 20 minutes or so. If you don’t pan fry the lamb in advance, baking process should be between 30-40 minutes. Of course, you can also use a grill for this.

lamb chop and baked tomato

The lamb chop will not be complete without side dishes, so here’s how you do the tomato!

• remove the core of tomato
• add half a teaspoon of sugar (brown sugar if available), 1 clove, and a teaspoon of vinegar into the core
• bake in oven at 200 Celsius for 30 minutes

Haze, Vinn, and KY

Last but not least, the asparagus

• remove wooden end of asparagus, and shave off the bottom with a vegetable peeler if the skin’s a bit tough
• add a teaspoon of butter and salt to the water in you steamer
• steam asparagus for 7-8 minutes
• sprinkle some salt before serving

To get everything ready at the same time, the timeline for this should be something like this:

• 0 min: bake tomato
• 10 min: start pan frying lamb on both sides
• 15 min: put lamb in oven
• 22 min: start steaming asparagus
• 25 min: remove lamb from oven
• 30 min: serve everything!

Give it a try, this is really much easier than the dish suggests. For more cooking recipes on this blog, click here! Now what should I cook next.. ermmm.

March 30, 2011

KY cooks – Sambal Asparagus

Ladies and gentlemen, today we’re going to talk about asparagus. Now most of us associate asparagus as sort of a Western style vegetable, something you find in a fancy restaurant sitting pretty next to your steak (such as this side dish at Mandarin Grill), or being wrapped in bacon and BBQ-ed (ala BBQ Addict’s menu).

You will be right, but I’ve always known asparagus from Sambal Belacan Asparagus, one of my favorite dishes from childhood, a Hokkien/Penang Nyonya specialty of sort.

ingredients for sambal asparagus – sambal, garlic, ginger, dried shrimp

This dish is also surprisingly simple to make, but it is mighty handy if you’ve already have some ready made sambal belacan. For instruction on how to make a jar of wholesome sambal belacan, click here – sambal belacan fried rice.

Anyway, here’s the ingredients:

• a bunch of asparagus, cut into 2-3 inches, only retain the top 2 sections, throw away the bottom wooden parts
• 2 table spoon sambal belacan
• 15 shalots
• 10 cloves of garlic
• 10 dried shrimps
• 4 fresh prawns, peeled

the secret is the steaming

Cooking this dish is fast and simple too!

Instructions:

• use pastel and mortar to pound shallots, garlic, and dried shrimp
• marinate peeled prawns with salt for a couple minutes
• heat up a couple table spoon of cooking oil in medium heat
• throw in prawns first, then everything else
• fry for 5 minutes, then add a quarter cup of water, and close the lid to steam the vegetable for 2-3 minutes
• remove lid and fry again till water evaporates
• food is ready to serve!

a few prawns go a long way

The secret to cooking asparagus is really the steaming part, since the vegetable can be a little tough if not properly cooked, but frying it too long will get the outer layer burnt. So there you go, another recipe from yours truly who reignite the cooking passion ever since our kitchen is renovated.

I’ve recently gotten Astro B.yond PVR installed at home too, and check out what sort of programmes we have recorded.

Yes, mostly cooking shows. It’s brilliant, I can’t tell you how many times I missed out crucial part of cooking show just because they go over it a tad too fast. With the PVR’s record function this problem is a thing of a past. Of course PAUSE and REWIND function comes in mighty handy too.

I’ll be reviewing the PVR’s function soon too. In the mean time, happy cooking!