Carbonade Cantabrigian: A Cambridge twist on a Belgian Classic

At 4pm, the skies opened. All I could think was: "Thank god, that means I can cook again without making the house 100 degrees." The only question was what will I cook.

While we only spent a few hours in Brussels three things stood out: the beauty of the Grand Place, the Royal Palace and Carbonade Flamande. We ate Carbonades, awesome steak tips stewed in Belgian brown ale at a cafe on the Grand Place with fries and Charles V brown ale.

So, as I was excited to finally cook again - I created the Cambridge, MA twist on it. I took the stewed tips, floured them and then seared them before serving them with beer gravy. My roommate-for-a-month, Andrew, and I both loved it.

Carbonade Cantabridgian

Ingredients

1.75 lbs Top Round
2 small yellow onions
2 cloves shallot
1 22-oz Belgian brown ale. (I used Cambridge MA's own Pretty Little Things St. Botolph's Town)
1 12-oz Witte or Weiss (I "made mine a Smutty" with Portsmouth's Smuttynose Summer Weizen)
1 tbsp Paprika
1 tbsp Tumeric
1 tbsps Oregano
2 tbsps Worcestershire Sauce
Flour
3 tbsp taragon
Margarine
Salt
Pepper


1. put cubed beef in a crock pot set on low
2. atop the beef put diced onions, diced shallot paprika, tumeric, oregano, Worcester sauce, salt & pepper
3. Pour in entire bottle of brown ale
4. stew for 2 hours

5. in a bowl mix 1/4 cup of flour and taragon
6. with a slotted spoon pull out steak tips and toss in flour and targon
7. sear tips in a pan over medium-high heat on lite oil
8. put seared tips aside

Weiss Gravy
9. in pan that you seared tips, put in margarine and flour to start gravy
10. slowly stir in half of bottle of weiss beer over medium heat
11. drink other half of the beer
12. continue stirring until hot

I serve the Carbonades topped with Weiss Gravy next to roasted potatoes and sauteed leaks.

Apple Pie Leg of Lamb: As American as Leg of Lamb?

So, it's Fourth of July weekend. Cookouts galore and it's time for me to bring my dish. Most people will bring burgers and dogs. Maybe some will go as far a field as brats. These are, of course, key to any Fourth of July cookout. Once the keys are in place, we should have some fun.

At the Co-op, I found a nice 1.5 lb piece of leg of lamb, with the bone in. Then it became a question of how to prepare the piece. I could go the "traditional" mint jelly route. But, I remembered the Moroccan Lamb, I had had at the place in Philadelphia a number of years ago. Central to the Moroccan flavor was cinnamon and nutmeg. And then it hit me.

With cinnamon and nutmeg all you need is allspice and wham! you have apple pie spices. And on the Fourth nothing is as American as Apple pie right?

Apple Pie Leg of Lamb

1.5 lbs piece of leg of lamb
1 Tablespoon of Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon of Nutmeg
1 Tablespoon of Allspice
(now, the Co-op had in bulk "apple pie spice" I bought this instead)
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
3 ozs of prosciutto de Parma - sliced
2 Granny Smith Apples - cored and chopped

1. Mix together Cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice into apple pie spice
2. Slice open the leg of lamb
3. stuff with 1/2 of a chopped granny smith
4. fold back closed
5. Rub lamb with half of the apple pie spice
6. Wrap Prosciutto slices around lamb
7. Rub remainder of apple pie spice.
8. Place on large piece of tin foil
9. cover in 1 chopped apple
10. (Eat remainder of apple)
11. pour balsamic on the apple (The acid will draw out some of the apple juice)
12. Wrap tin foil around Lamb and apples
13. Place on the edges of the grill, let slow cook 45-1, flipping occasionally.

Berry Skorthato: New England Summer Twist on a Greek Favorite

Skorthato is a traditional Greek Chicken and Potato dish. In a flavorful explosion of Mediterranean flavor, one mixes lemon, garlic and oregano over chicken and potatoes. Only the Ionian favorite, Stifatho, can challenge as my most loved Greek dish.

However, the use of the lemon seems incompatible with New England Summer for me. In Kefalonia, we had a lemon tree outside out house and in Corinth, lemon and orange trees lined the main roads and the town square. The use of lemon and the dish are distinctively tied to the area. So I asked, what New England summer flavor can challenge this. Blackberries and raspberries are the answer!

Berry Skorthato

Ingredients
1.5 lb of Gourmet Red Potatoes (These PEI perfect sized potatoes replace the Greek yellow finger potatoes
Half pint of raspberries
Half pint of blackberries
3 Tablespoons of Pomegranate molasses
1 Tablespoon of Balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup of Shiraz
1 shot Sour Cranberry Schnapps
1 Medium red chili pepper - chopped
2 lbs of chicken - in pieces
1/2 - 1 lb chopped vegetables - chopped

1. Bring potatoes to a boil; continue to boil for 15-20 minutes
2. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C)
3. In a bowl grind together blackberries and raspberries
4. Add molasses, balsamic, Shiraz, schnapps and chili pepper to berries
5. Lay pieces of chicken about a 9x13 baking pan
6. Rub chicken with half of berry mixture
7. Halve potatoes and place about the chicken - filling up the pan
8. Place chapped vegetables atop chicken and potatoes
9. Pour remainder of berry mixture evenly over the top of potatoes
10. Cover in tin foil
11. Bake 35-45 minutes