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Foodie Friday | Lynn Crawford’s Cherry Cola Lamb with Jeweled Basmati Rice + Charred Onion-Cherry Relish

I have a confession to make. I have a foodie’s crush on Lynn Crawford. She cooks with a kind of joy for the process – and a love for the people eating her food – that makes me really, really happy. She is also a world-class Canadian chef, and I quite simply love her taste in taste. She gets layered flavours like nobody’s business and her fearless experimentation is nothing short of inspiring.

In my recent search for “what to make next” with our abundant cherry harvest from our very own backyard tree, I came across Lynn’s inspiring cherry episode of Pitchin’ In on the Food Network and just had to make this main course, cherry-inspired dish for my family. And let me just say oh. my. gooooooodness. So decadent! So gorgeous! So delicious! This is one to pull out when you have good friends coming for dinner and you want to linger around the table over a beautiful meal. No one will be in a hurry to rush away and everyone will feel well loved by your culinary efforts. Trust me. Or better yet, trust Lynn.

I of course documented the process with some photos, but this recipe is 100% a Lynn Crawford original. I would highly recommend watching the corresponding episode of Pitchin’ In. Lynn just makes me love cooking and people and natural gatherings all the more when I watch her in action. And the way she turns one key ingredient into so many variations on gorgeous? Well, it’s something to aspire towards. Thank you for such abundant inspiration, Lynn!

CHERRY COLA LAMB with JEWELED BASMATI RICE + CHARRED ONION-CHERRY RELISH

by Lynn Crawford

Cherry cola lamb? Why not!

Breakdown of times:

Prep Time: 60 minutes

In-Active Time: 120 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Preparation time: 180 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

Cherry Cola Lamb

3 cups (750 mL) cherry cola, or 2 cups cola (500 mL) + 1 cup (250 mL) cherry juice {Sarah’s side note: This is what I did and used Zevia cola instead of the sugary stuff. Just blended up a cup of cherries in my Blendtech, mixed it with 2 cups of the Zevia cola and voila!}

3 shallots, finely diced

4 cloves garlic, chopped

4 sprigs thyme

1 teaspoon (5 mL) red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon (5 mL) salt

1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) pepper

1 boneless butterflied leg of lamb (about 3 lbs/1.4 kg)

2 tablespoons (30 mL) extra virgin olive oil

Golden Jewled Basmati Rice

1 tablespoon (15 mL) extra virgin olive oil

1 cup (250 mL) basmati rice, rinsed several times in cold water and well-drained

1/2 cup (125 mL) sun-dried cherries

1 teaspoon (5 mL) salt

1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) pepper

1 pinch EACH saffron threads and ground ginger

2 cups (500 mL) chicken stock

1/2 cup (125 mL) toasted slivered almonds

2 green onions, finely sliced

1/4 cup (60 mL) finely chopped Italian flat leaf parsley

Charred Onion-Cherry Relish

1 tablespoon EACH extra virgin olive oil and unsalted butter (30 mL total)

2 large yellow onions, peeled and quartered

1 cup (250 mL) halved, pitted fresh cherries

1/2 teaspoon EACH salt and pepper (5 mL total)

1/4 cup (60 mL) finely chopped Italian flat leaf parsley

METHOD

Cherry Cola Lamb

Stir together cola {and cherry juice if you’re using this method}, shallots, garlic, thyme, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, pour over lamb, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to allow flavours to meld. Remove lamb from marinade, pat dry, then rub both sides with oil and grill over medium heat on preheated barbecue to medium-rare, about 10 minutes per side. Discard marinade. Let lamb rest 10 minutes before slicing.

Golden Jewled Basmati Rice

In a saucepan set over medium heat, add oil, rice, sun-dried cherries, salt, pepper, saffron and ginger and stir-fry 5 minutes. Stir in stock, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until all the liquid is absorbed and rice is al dente, about 15 minutes. Stir in almonds, green onions and parsley and keep rice warm until ready to serve.

Charred Onion-Cherry Relish

In a skillet set over medium-high heat, add oil and butter, then add onions and sauté until dark golden brown, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cherries and cook until fork-tender, about 5 minutes, then stir in salt, pepper and parsley.

TO PLATE:

I pulled out the good china because why not? Life’s too short to save it just for when company comes.

I started with a swipe of fat-free plain Greek yoghurt on the plate. Why? Because I saw Lynn do it. And because every nice meal I’ve had in the last six months has had a swipe of something on the plate. Apparently it is de rigeur for the serious gastronomes these days.

My only departure from Lynn’s recipe was to add some green beans to the plate, and only because we didn’t start with the salad she served her guests when she made this meal. OK, also because I have been preaching to my son since he was a baby and started on solids that “green is the most important colour on your plate.” And the colour did give a nice contrast to the cherries and the lamb. I just sautéed them until they were al dente with some butter and fine herbs.

Next, a heart-warming mound of the Jeweled Basmati Rice.

Top that with a gorgeous helping of the Charred Onion-Cherry Relish.

And finally, the pièce de rèsistance, the grilled lamb – medium rare and melt in your mouth delicious.

Cherry tree or no cherry tree in your yard, you will want to try this recipe for yourselves. One of my favourite meals I’ve made at home in a long time – and my guys loved it! I truly believe you can taste the love in really good cooking, don’t you?

Have a lovely weekend, friends! Eat, explore, rest, read, be inspired…and pull your loved ones close and kiss them more than once. ‘Cause life really is too short.

xo
s.

A Cherry Good Tree – Braised Lamb Shanks with Cherry Sauce

HAPPY (belated) CANADA DAY!! What a beautiful long weekend we’ve had to celebrate our home and native land. I think it’s going to be a pretty spectacular summer!

In honour of this good earth we call home, I thought I’d share some of her harvest from our own back yard. We bought this little home of ours 4 years ago this coming September. We were motivated to move to this part of Oakville in large part because of the mature trees. As it turns out, this particular neighborhood was once an orchard. Apples and pears (the Cockney slang for “stairs,” though in this case I’m referring to the actual fruit) can be found scattered on lovely old trees in backyards for blocks. As luck (or grace) would have it, our particular yard is home – not to a crab apple or gnarly pear tree – but to one very large, very lovely cherry tree. Being the arborists (read: neohphytes) that we are, we did not realize we had this treasure in our literal backyard until our first Spring in this home when our tree came into breath-taking full bloom.

Gorgeous, black, ripe and juicy Bing Cherries are truly one of my all-time favourite Canadian delights, so we were pretty much beyond ourselves when we gathered our first harvest that Spring. Last year, we had our first year of blooms with no fruit (still not sure what happened), but this year the harvest was SPECTACULAR. Truly the best yet. I think we may have picked as much as 10 pounds of cherries from our very own backyard. Pretty terrific if you ask me. Here’s a shot of just one of the several bowls we filled with this early summer’s harvest:

In addition to gorging ourselves on this ruby goodness straight from the tree, the abundance of fruit inspired an abundance of cheesy puns: “What a cherry good tree!” “I love you cherry much,” “This was a cherry good meal,” “See you cherry soon!” etc. Basically think of any opportunity you can imagine to swap out “cherry” for “very” and we took it. I blame it on being drunk on these Bing Beauties. Cheese and cherries go well together, right?

Once I recovered from OD-ing on groan-worthy puns and freshly picked cherries, I decided that this was the year to work on some new recipes to make the most of this delectable fruit. So, inspired by the lamb shanks I had at 1000 Tastes of Toronto, I created today’s recipe for some truly inspiring and heartwarming friends who came to visit us last weekend. The verdict was that it was cherry, cherry good. (Sorry…had to squeeze in one more pun to round out the cheese plate.)

BRAISED LAMB SHANKS WITH CANADIAN BING CHERRY SAUCE

Ingredients:

12 lamb shanks

flour for dusting

salt + pepper

2 Tbsp Grapeseed Oil for braising

2 large Vidalia onions, finely chopped

1 large carrot, finely chopped

A handful of fresh rosemary

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

6 oz good Balsamic Vinegar de Modena

10 oz good red wine (I like a nice Australian Shiraz for this one)

1/2 pound or more of Organic Canadian Bing Cherries, pitted + halved

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 300° F. Season the shanks with salt + pepper on both sides and then dust with flour.

Heat grapeseed oil on high heat and add lamb shanks to braise on both sides (2 mins or less per side).

{A quick aside: I use grapeseed oil rather than olive oil for braising. It is considered one of the “good fats” as it has a high concentration of unsaturated fat, is low in saturated fat and is cholesterol-free just like olive oil, but it has a much higher flashpoint. This means that it doesn’t start smoking until 419° F (i.e. SMOKIN’ hot) and doesn’t absorb into the food as much, thus not changing the flavour and also reducing the fat absorbed into the dish. In simple terms: it’s the healthiest choice for frying and it works really well. I love a good extra virgin olive oil for salad dressings, but I always stick with grapeseed oil for frying, braising and sautéing.}

Once you’ve braised the lamb shanks, they should look something like this:

Remove the shanks and add the chopped onion and carrots. Cook 10-15 mins on med-high heat until the onions have softened and are translucent. Add the rosemary and crushed garlic and cook for a few more mins. (I left the rosemary on the stalks and just removed the stalks from the sauce after I pulled everything out of the oven – easy peasy once it’s cooked). Add the balsamic vinegar and the wine and bring to a simmer to reduce. Pour the sauce into your roasting dish and add back the lamb shanks, layering them so they look something like this:

Cover with parchment paper and place the lid on the roasting pan. Roast in the oven for 2-3 hours at 300° F. Remove from oven and transfer shanks to a serving plate. Cover with tinfoil to keep warm and let rest. Meanwhile, transfer the sauce of onions, carrots, balsamic and wine to a sauté pan and add the cherries. Sauté on high heat for 2-3 mins until the cherries have softened a bit but still retain their shape and some of their firmness.

Serve with Cauliflower Purée (recipe to come) and steamed French Green Beans. Plate by serving the Cauliflower and green beans and then creating a bed of the cherry sauce and finishing with the braised lamb shanks. The meat fairly falls off the bone, and the slightly tart sweetness of the cherries is the perfect compliment to the earthy goodness of the lamb. Dee-LISH!!

Hope you’ve all savoured a great weekend and – for those of you north of the border – I hope you’ve taken time to celebrate all the best of what it means to be Canadian! More cherry goodness to come in the days ahead… Happy Monday!

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