Paulchens FoodBlog?!

Paper Chef tends to push me even more to posting at the very last minute.

I love this challenge, not only because you are given 4 random ingredients that not necessarily need to be familiar with each other in one dish but also because it makes me think and come up with combinations I’d never have tried on my own.

Paper Chef #60 is hosted by Ilva’s co-host Mikey and he challenged us with:

Oi, oi, – I am not a huge fan of lamb but remebering the outstanding beef we had at P2P I immediately thought something similar should work with a nice piece of lamb as well.

I chose apple as my 4th ingredient, because summer apples are right in seaseon here now and I thought it would go perfect with the tangy goats cheese as a side dish – and I was right with this one!

Considering my “not-so-big” love for eating lamb at all I thought: If I hide it under a ver nice herb-infused crust I might even forget that I am eating lamb… LOL one has to fool oneself sometimes, huh?

Lamb: check

Goats cheese: this took me a little longer to think of how I would use the goats cheese. I finally decided to use a matured goats cheese that could be easily grated and mixed under the herbs for the lamb’s crust. Bingo!

lamb+goats cheese: check

Flour? What the heck should I do with flour?! After some thinking the Irish potato farls and boxty came to my mind, they would go wonderful with that lamb, won’t they?

lamb+goats cheese+flour: check

Apple: oh yes I decided on apples for my fourth ingredient. but how would that match with the lamb covered in herbs and goats cheese along with the potato farls? HA! Yet again my crazy mind began to tweak a tratiditonal recipe: I decided to not only grate some raw potatos for the traditional Boxty but also grate some apple and mix them in as well.

so finally – lamb+goats cheese+flour+apple: check!

Now off to the kitchen to make Herbed Lamb with Apple Potato Boxty and Veggies.

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Herbed Lamb

 

4 loin chops of lamb
1 goat cheese roll
about 1 TBS each: cilantro, chives, basil, thyme (fin ely minced)
1 teaspoon mustard
1 glove of garlic, minced
salt, pepper
Method:

• In a bowl mix toghether, goat cheese, herbs,  mustard and garlic until creamy. Season with salt and pepper to your liking.
• Heat a large pan and sear your lamb chops on both sides until golden brown and crusty at the outside (it’s up to you how much “well done” you like your chops – I like to sear them very shortly whereas my family rather likes them very well done)
• Remove chops from pan an place on a baking tray. Top with herb-cheese mixture and put under your grill until it gets a nice golden brown crust.

Apple-Potato “Boxty” 

 

200 grams raw potato
200 grams  cooked mashed potato
100 grams raw apple, roughly grated

150 grams  plain flour
 1 egg
1 medium onion, finely chopped
Salt and pepper

Method:

• Roughly grate raw potatoes and apples and mix with the cooked mashed potatoes. Add salt, pepper, onion and flour. Beat egg and add to mixture.
• Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a hot griddle or frying pan. To make them look more nicely I used a serving ring to fry them, so them got a lovely round form.
• Cook over a moderate heat for 3-4 minutes on each side.

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Verdict:

Surprisingly I liked the lamb very much. The goats cheese went very well with the herbs and the mustard. The addition of apples to the potato boxty gave them a lightly sweet touch which also was a lovely partner to the lamb and herbs.
I served the whole dish with some steamed broccoli, romanesco and cauliflower – only lightly seasoned with salt.

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If you are not familiar with the concept of Paper Chef it’s quite easy to explain:

Paper Chef follows the thought of TV competitions like Iron Chef or Ready, Steady Cook (the German version was called Kochduell) where chefs had to cook with a rather unusual combination of ingredients. Well this is what Paper Chef does as well.

4 ingredients will be announced at the fist whole weekend of the month and you have 7 days to cook something from it, snap a nice pic and write up your blog post. Submit your blog post to paperchef AT gmail DOT com. That’s it!

If you still need more information please continue to read here.

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