Thursday, March 4, 2010

Lamb Shoulder Steak with Farmers Market Loot

Ok, no beef tonight after all, I had some lamb shoulder steaks that were waiting to be eaten. And I had been at the Farmers Market in Santa Cruz and came home with some beautiful loot that want to be eaten!

Let's start with what I brought home - watermelon radish. It's exactly what I love about Farmers Markets, you get things you've never seen before, challenging your senses, your cooking, and tasting very good. So what is watermelon radish? They are a relatively unknown radish, about double the size of your standard grocery store radish, and surprisingly sweet and tender. And they look spectacular!


Beautiful, huh? And now you understand why they're called watermelon radish? Ok, they'll be part of the salad, perhaps sliced on top? Oh dang, my mandoline is already packed up for the kitchen remodel. Hm. Braised radish? We'll see!

Next comes the lamb: Karin Sinclair's lamb is superb, very tender, and not muttony at all, to a point where I almost could use a bit of mutton! It gets marinated, with market fresh sage, pepper, salt, and good German mustard. This is how it looks like before the mustard gets smeared all over:


Ok, braised radishes it is. Delicious as it cuts some of the sharpness. Together with the BBQed mustard marinated lamb steak - delicious!


Recipes (exceedingly easy):

Lamb steaks with Mustard Sage Marinade

2 lamb shoulder steaks
1 tablespoon minced sage
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard or similar
salt, pepper

Add sage, mustard, salt pepper to steaks, spread over steaks, let marinate for a few hours, then barbeque till desired doneness.

Sage Braised Radishes

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sage - or more if you feel like it!
1 lb radish - watermelon, daikon, summer radish
salt, pepper

Melt butter in a wide pan, add sage until a little crisp, add radish, mix, cover for a few minutes on medium heat, salt, pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. Love the radishes! Will have to wait a bit for warmer weather before the farmer's markets open in New England. I did see some daikon in the health food store, may have to try your braising recipe, it looks so good!

    ReplyDelete
  2. First time I had cooked radish was in this dish from the chef of Manresa, the (wayyyyy overpriced) 2-star restaurant in the town I live in: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/baby-root-vegetable-stew-with-black-tea-prunes
    Once I had it I was hooked, and have made them in many different incarnations. It's funny that we always think of them as a salad ingredient...

    ReplyDelete