Casual Easter meal with Mom and my brother. SIL is soaking up the sun in Florida, so I was free to make one of my favorite proteins, which she does not eat: salmon.
I am obsessed with Alaskan salmon specifically.
I made a Cook’s Illustrated recipe that calls for briefly broiling, then finishing in a low oven, a whole side of salmon which has been salted/rested for several hours first, then brushed with honey. I have a special stash of uber-local honey I bought last summer that I broke out for this application.
To eat with the salmon, I made a family favorite: sliced and liberally buttered potatoes in a foil packet on the grill.
As a first course, I made a mashup of several asparagus/burrata/prosciutto recipes I saw online (including this one). Basically, I made a bed of tender homegrown lettuce (first harvest of the year!!), dressed with olive oil, sea salt and lemon. Atop that, I then laid some blanched/shocked asparagus spears. I made some rosettes of prosciutto, and nestled a ball of burrata in each one. Those went on top of the asparagus, along with some homemade buttery bread crumbs, some toasted chopped pistachios (standing in for pine nuts), and another squeeze of lemon. It was great! The play of flavors and textures was awesome.
Wild Fork ham, sliced, heated via sous vide, and glazed under the broiler with pepper jelly that just wouldn’t set up right. And store bought potato salad.
My Easter dinner was springy stuff, even though it feels more like winter. Drunken Jerk chicken wings, asparagus potato salad with hot bacon dressing and a deviled egg that had spent the night in pickled beet juice. Cocktail was tequila, Fiero with a splash of tonic and orange peel.
Reverse seared rack of lamb, potato-caramelized onion-gruyere gratin and sauteed green beans in lemon-browned butter and toasted almonds. The lamb was fabulously tender but a bit too rare - I like the inside of the “eye” to be very rare but I prefer the exterior and fat a little more cooked. I pulled it from the low oven when the interior temp was 105 and I probably should have either waited until 110 or given it a bit more searing time on the stovetop (or both). Still good, though - and this way I can still grill the leftovers to reheat and not end up with overcooked lamb!
We enjoyed another sensational dinner at the Circle Restaurant in Newton, NJ including the first soft shell crab of the season (crispy tempura battered with lemongrass aioli). Woohoo! We also enjoyed rigatoni with English pea and arugula pesto; lamb chops with couscous, spring onion, shoestring potato, and sriracha; roasted asparagus soup with stracciatella and pistachio, and a charred shallot vinaigrette. It all went great with an excellent Shiraz and red blend.
The Chicago version was playing on my car radio when I arrived home Thursday afternoon. It has been with me everyday since. Worst earworm I have ever had. If I’ve caused anyone else to become afflicted, I apologize.
BF worked all day yesterday and Easter hasn’t been a big deal in years since I was usually working. So after my Titanic cooking adventure Saturday, I was more than happy to order Chinese takeout.
But we did have mom’s Pizza Rustica (Easter Pie) for lunch.
Fun to see the pink devilled egg. You got that much color with just an overnight in pickled beet juice? I made these a few years ago using the instructions from The New Midwestern Table cookbook and thought they required a week to get colorful. I’m adding a “try these again” note to my calendar.
I made this recipe, and I used fresh pineapple. Most recipes call for canned, it seemed. I used brown sugar instead of white. It was like a pineapple upside-down cake bread pudding with lots of fruit and some crunchy chewier caramelized parts.
I didn’t know it was a thing until I Googled scalloped pineapple yesterday. Hope you like it, if you make it!
Deviled and pickled eggs are two of my favorite things separately, and I absolutely LOVE the mash-up as well. Yours are beautiful (as is the rest of the meal)!
