Colourful dish is a winner
Try lamb instead of the usual veal or pork for scallopini, suggests cookbook author Naomi Pomeroy, and you will find you get a flavour boost for your bucks.
Pomeroy’s new cookbook, Taste & Technique: Recipes to Elevate Your Home Cooking (Ten Speed Press/Penguin Random House, $45), tells you exactly how to make your own scallopini by slicing the meat from thick lamb chops into thin strips, then pounding them extra thin. Lemon zaps up the flavour and the dish pairs well with crème fraîche, a radicchio salad and some rosé wine.
The book takes you step by careful step through the cooking process in its nearly 140 recipes. Pomeroy, an experienced chef from Portland, Ore., is a detail person; her recipes may remind you of Julia Child’s style. This is a big, beautifully produced book packed with interesting flavour ideas.
LAMB SCALLOPINI
Serves: 4 4 lamb rib chops, each 5 to 6 oz (170 g), 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick 3/4 tsp (4 mL) salt 1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) freshly ground pepper 3 eggs 1/2 cup (125 mL) all-purpose flour 2/3 cup (160 mL) fine, dry bread crumbs 4 tbsp (60 mL) butter 2 tbsp (30 mL) olive oil 8 lemon wedges, seeded
1. Using a sharp knife, cut meat from chop bones and then across the grain into three even slices, each about 1/2-inch (1.3 cm) thick. Place slices between sheets of parchment paper and pound until thin. Season with salt and pepper.
2. In a shallow mixing bowl, beat eggs. Place flour and bread crumbs on two separate plates. Dip pieces of lamb in beaten eggs, then in flour, then back in the eggs, then in crumbs. Spread cutlets on a baking sheet or wax paper.
3. When ready to cook, heat two large sauté pans or heavy frying pans over medium-high heat. Add 2 tbsp (30 mL) butter and 1 tbsp (15 mL) oil to each pan and heat until butter foams and starts to turn light gold, about one minute. Add six lamb medallions to each pan in a single layer, pressing each flat with a spatula.
4. Turn the medallions over in the order you put them in the pan; don’t worry if butter is browning as long as it doesn’t turn black. The lamb is done when both sides are evenly golden-brown, about 2 minutes total cooking time. Remove pan from heat and squeeze lemon over the lamb.
5. Spoon crème fraîche on each plate, top with three lamb scallopini, add salad and lemon wedge.