Yeah, that's right, I'm stepping up my culinary game and this is a damn sexy dish. Sure, I could hold myself back and make some quinoa and kale dish that could get a million pins on Pinterest, or I could make a bucket of bacon and get a million views on reddit, but why would I restrain myself when there's dishes like this to be made. This is a cooking blog and dammit I'm going to cook dishes that blow other blogs out of the water. Oh, and of course, this blog is for making jokes about nature's scrotums (figs).
Well I guess I should describe what makes up this piece of art. If you don't think food is art then you're probably Guy Fieri. These are lamb chops cooked in a fig and orange sauce on a bed of micro greens with a fig vinaigrette and on the side, baked carrots and purple potatoes with a cheese sauce. While you're reading this post just try to forget that time you ate a chicken nugget off the floor and just pretend you're a foodie.
Here's a fun fact about figs: if you want start a fruit fly farm just leave a plate of figs out overnight and soon you'll have enough fruit flies in your kitchen to be a fully functional and licensed fruit fly rancher. Your farm subsidies should get to you in 6-8 weeks. Also, you can sell the fruit fly milk at your local farmer's market.
Fig & Orange Lamb Chops
- 1/5 lbs Lamb Chops
- 1 tablespoon Butter
- 1/4 cup Port
- 2 Fresh Figs quartered
- 1 Orange
- cut 3 1in. zests
- juiced
- In a small sauce pan add the port, orange zest, juice and figs. Cook on high, covered for 10 minutes.
- Place the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat, cook the butter until it starts to brown slightly. Add the lamb chops. Cook each side for roughly 30 seconds. Remove the chops from the pan and place them in a oven-proof pan along with the port and fig mixture.
- Bake at 375° for 25 minutes.
Fig Vinaigrette
- 1 fresh Fig diced
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- In a bowl mix all the ingredients together. To fully emulsify the dressing and pulverize the fig I recommend using a hand blender if you have one, or you can just throw it in a blender or food processor.
Baked Carrots and Purple Fingerlings
- 3 Carrots
- 4 Purple Fingerling Potatoes
- 1 tablespoon Olive oil
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- Toss the cut up vegetables in a mixing bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Feel free to add a dash of cumin. Place in a oven proof cooking vessel and cook at 375° for 20 minutes. Half way through the cooking time flip the vegetables to avoid sticking.
Cheese Sauce
- 1/2 cup Cream
- 1/4 grated Manchego Cheese
- 1 tablespoon Butter
- A whisper of Whiskey
- In a small skillet melt the butter over medium heat. Add the cream and cheese. Stir until melted. Once the cheese is melted stir in the whiskey.
- Add to anything you want to make taste better, including that beverage you're drinking right now.
It's time for the moral of the post: don't hold yourself back. It does more harm than good. Also don't stress about the small things, if you have a loose structure to your project (or life), things will fall into place. This loose structure thing also applies to engineers - don't worry about the details, your plan for that highway overpass is good enough.
Figgy photos by Katy Weaver
