Mystery box #3: Lamb, apricots, and Swiss chard.

Yea, just a little bit behind here. Was waiting on Chef’s pictures then got distracted with other business. That means a couple of short entries before we get back to the longer version of these entries.

I absolutely LOVE lamb. Unfortunately, the only lamb available at the farmer’s market is frozen, and the lamb at the regular grocery store is pricey. So frozen it was. Unlike frozen vegetables, which weather freezing better than being canned (canned vegetables are just nasty), meat doesn’t retain its flavor or texture very well when frozen. Even the lamb I love becomes so much less than it is in terms of flavor. But it’s still lamb and one of the best meats on the planet.

So, he had to use frozen lamb because of finances. We found a lovely red Swiss chard and chose dried apricots as the farmer’s market didn’t have fresh. Chef didn’t do much with the lamb—broiled it, I believe. He did a wilted Swiss Chard with olive oil, nutmeg, and paprika and made a glaze for the lamb with the apricots.

It was absolutely a wonderful, delicious combination. Just loved it.

One of the things we learned from this plating is that the glaze might have done better on the bottom of the plate. The chard definitely should have gone on top because you can’t see it here at all.

Still, another wonderful success from the Chef.

No recipe play for me this week: we’re short on cash and the Chef will be very busy tomorrow, which is when we actually get some cash and would be able to purchase some food to play with. I’m thinking about trying to do something interesting with the chicken we have, but not sure I have much to work with, so it might end up being a very simple, not so interesting dinner tomorrow night.

Mystery Boxes are also less likely to be regular every week. Chef finally has a job! But it’s at a sport bar and restaurant, which means working nights, and especially means working Fridays. The hope is that he will have one weeknight a week off and we’ll be able to still do the MB’s every week, but we’re not sure that will be the case.

Mystery box #3: Shark steak, lemon, and cauliflower.

Again, the sword steak was Chef’s idea, and unfortunately, ended up being the first failure. I don’t think it was Chef’s fault; we just didn’t like the flavor of the fish. He did a cauliflower puree, but it wasn’t as smooth as I expected. I did like the fresh Parmesan cheese he grated over it—the flavor of the cauliflower and cheese worked well together. He served them with roasted asparagus, which I love, but couldn’t eat because the teeth, though worked on, still weren’t up to the task.

And that’s pretty much it. A short entry, I know. Hopefully next week’s mystery box will go much better.

Mystery box #2: lobster, Asian pears, spinach.

The lobster was actually Chef’s idea, but this time it was probably a good idea since lobster tends to be expensive, and we just got our tax return so could afford it. After this week, the meats are probably generally going to have to be fairly inexpensive. He also picked up some dandelion to play with as something different.

I was really impressed with his eagerness to cook despite the fact that it had been a long, stressful, and frustrating day. We had a couple of major shopping trips, his credit card got frozen, we had to take our older male cat in to the vet, it was snowing (and he’s a California boy, so not used to driving in snow), and dinner had to be made quite late. Usually a long day like this frustrates him and he doesn’t want to cook. But last night, he didn’t let it bother him and got into cooking as soon as we got to the point where he could. This is something he needs to learn to do all the time since there will be days on the job when it’s going to be frustrating and long and stressful, and he will need to cook anyway. So I’m proud he managed it last night. Here’s hoping he can start doing it more consistently in the future.

First course: A spinach, dandelion, Asian pear, and feta salad:

This wasn’t as successful as the salad he made for his first Mystery Box. The dandelion is bitter, and I think there was too much used here because the salad came off more bitter than anything: I didn’t taste the spinach at all, and the other ingredients didn’t blend.

For the dinner, he had to prepare the lobsters:

and stuff the mushrooms:

The mushrooms are stuffed with a mix made of cilantro, garlic, spinach, mushroom, lobster, lobster roe, and lime juice. In the future, he’ll add some kind of bread crumb to give it more texture, but it was otherwise a very nice stuffing. The mushrooms did need to be cooked a little longer, but it was overall a wonderful appetizer/side.

The really impressive thing was his final plating:

This looks very high end to me. It probably needs a little tweaking, but this is the first plate he’s done that has truly reminded me of a fine dining or competition plate. The stuffed mushrooms are resting on a spinach leaf. Now Chef said he thinks it needs something. I suggested a sauce in a circle around it and a fellow student suggested some risotto.

This Mystery Box ended up being a mixed bag. The salad wasn’t so successful, and the mushrooms, despite being under cooked and the stuffing needing a little texture, was almost as wonderful as the lobster (can anything be as wonderful as lobster?). The presentation was just beautiful.

Two boxes and he’s already stepping it up. I may have to start giving him less time to think about it sooner than I expected.

One of the things we’re starting to do with Chef is give him a Mystery Box A la Chopped and have him use those three or four ingredients in the meal that night. Right now, I’m giving him plenty of time to look up flavor profiles, learn how foods he’s never used before are used, even look up recipes. Eventually the hope is he won’t need that kind of time and planning to figure out how to use the items in the box, but he’s only in his second quarter, so it’s too early to throw him in the deep end without some time to look for ideas and figure things out. We hope to do be doing this every Friday.

Tonight’s Mystery Box started with Salmon. I then gave him the option of Oranges or Figs. His final item from me was Leeks, but he suggested Kale, so I told him he could use Kale, but if he did he had to use the Figs. Unfortunately, the farmer’s market didn’t have any figs. Just as well; they didn’t have the Almond Flour for the fig recipe he found. So his final Box ended up being Salmon, Oranges, and Kale.

And he did wonderfully. The first part of his meal came from a recipe. This salad had Kale, Oranges, Strawberries, Golden Raisins (which surprised me, considering his dislike of raisins in general), and Pine Nuts with a dressing made of Honey, EVOO, and Garlic. He also added some scraps from the carrots he cut for the main course portion of the meal. It was absolutely wonderful. The texture of the kale played off the texture of the fruits, the raisins added an extra burst of sweetness, and the dressing gave it that extra little boost that brought it all together nicely.

For the main course, he grilled the salmon and made his own sauce using Dark Soy Sauce, Worcestershire, Fresh Orange Juice, and Teriyaki Sauce and reducing it down. He brushed this over the grilling salmon. Probably the only thing “out of place” was the squash and carrots with the salmon, but they were good, just not integrated with the salmon or connected with it via the orange juice the way the separate salad was. It was still a beautiful plate and a delicious meal.

Eventually, hopefully, he’ll integrate all the food in the box in one dish. But everything is baby steps, and for his first box, this was a wonderful success. Already looking forward to next week and thinking about what should be in the box.