Fancy-Pants Dinner

I was in the mood for a slightly more gourmet dinner...something special.

While browsing through recipes a few weeks ago, I came across Emeril Lagasse's Emerilized Lamb Wellingtons...that's it!

First...yuck. I trimmed and sliced and handled the lamb myself.

I can usually deal with chicken, but come on: lamb? There's a reason you don't find vegetarian lamb substitutes on the market! Reminds me of the Paul and Linda McCartney story: there they were, sitting at their dinner table, eating lamb, and watching all their little lambs playing and romping in the fields. Watching the lamb, looking down at the plates. That's when they both became vegetarians!


Anyway...

Trim (French) lamb, season with essence (I've always thought it rather nice of Chef Lagasse to include the recipe for his various essences), grill two minutes on each side; allow to cool. Mix chevre, toasted pine nuts, chervil (we didn't have any, so I used dried dill and thyme), minced garlic and salt and pepper. Cut slit in lamb chop, stuff with cheese mixture. Spread mustard over lamb. Wrap in puff pastry, and bake till pastry is golden.



Add some red potatoes roasted in butter and olive oil, kosher salt, garlic and fresh rosemary (from the garden!), and light salad of greens, carrot and avocado, and dinner is on.

Matt loved this.



He kept telling me "this is so good". He really loved the way the cheese, lamb and pastry worked together. And he said he certainly wouldn't mind if I made it again!

I did make a Veat version for myself; every step was the same, except mine was made using a chicken substitute. I've never had lamb...and I'm not likely to have it in the future...but I'm sure the flavors were much more pronounced in Matt's dish then in mine. Still, this was a really filling dish, and despite the ickiness (for me...next time, Matt can trim and stuff), fairly simple to prepare.