What's for Dinner?

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Dinner was good. Very good. Gave it the Saltbae treatment with the Pinot Noir Salt before serving. Loved it! Large flakes of salt w/ the Pinot infusion created bursts of flavor and an unexpected crunch. Delicious.
 
True. But I was happily ignoring that part.

I only had 4 ripe tomatoes, betting on an early spring, I planted a few right before my Napa trip in the end of February. Only 1 survived, but I got a little early yield from that one. The basil is out of control, but the Mrs. is about to make a big batch of pesto......
 
Had a wonderful lamb chop dinner. My local little organic co-op grocery store often has local grass-fed lamb. Unlike a large store, you can almost reconstruct the animal it came from. That is, it isn't like they have 200 chicken drumsticks, like my big grocer, but they have, well, about 1 lamb's worth of lamb in the case at any one time. So, depending on when I get to the store, there is a certain number of chops, one heart, one liver, 2 foreshanks, 2 hindshanks, etc. The rib chops are, of course, the most expensive, but there is a big fall-off in price for the shoulder chops. But I have learned to look for the first cuts of shoulder chop that are just barely into the shoulder, that is, nearly indistinguishable from the rib chops.
Well, the other day I found the nicest such chops I had ever seen. They were more marbled than Michaelangelo's Pieta! These were like the Wagyu beef of lamb chops. :HB

My DW returned from a long, out-of-hemisphere business trip this morning, so I decided to save them for this evening. I seasoned them with thyme powder and garlic powder, then cooked them sous vide for about 4 hours at 131F; I then seared them in a smoking hot pan for ~1.5 minutes/side. I made a pan sauce with fresh thyme, fresh garlic, butter, the lamb juices, red wine, and lamb stock. This was all paired with some leftover polenta with blue cheese, and the first asparagus of the (US) season. I broiled the 'gras with fresh thyme, garlic, and lots of fennel powder. All of this was washed down with one of my aged, cheap wines: a 2008 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Merlot. This wine has held up very nicely.

It was really a nice meal. I am grateful to have had it! :b

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Just a little weeknight dinner, but I tried to push it a bit on each dish. Veggie was mustard greens (blanched), then sauteed with garlic, fresh tomatoes, coriander, and sherry. Starch was angel-hair spaghetti with a garlic cream sauce (butter, garlic, cream, chx stock, parsley, parmesan cheese). Protein was perch, dusted in flour, sauteed, and then I made a piccata pan sauce (capers, chopped olives, garlic, sherry, butter, fresh lemon juice, parsley). Not my best, but not a bad effort for a weeknight. From start to serving was 70 minutes.
 
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