LAMB, In Cubism – Alinea Restaurant cookbook recipe, pages 188-191. Continued from LAMB, In Cubism (Part 2)

A cubist feast of Mediterranean flavors, lamb, mint, eggplant, yogurt, lemon and exotic spices. Continued from the Alinea Restaurant recipe for LAMB, In Cubism (Part 2)

Day Three — The Bolero Climax

By the time all was said and done and the slow dance was over, the food turned out deliciously amazing. It had all the flavors of a Greek or Moroccan meal on one plate! Each way you took a bite — mixing the many flavors — was different. We ended up having enough for several meals, and our dining experience was different each time!

Assembling the Garnishes

They day before, we spent making the eight puddings to be used on the base of this dish. Today was much easier, assembling the various garnishes. There are ten or so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Braised mustard seeds, Dijon mustard, chili rings, preserved Meyer lemon batons, chive tips, saffron threads, fenugreek sprouts, mint leaves, eggplant caviar, fennel tips, and pomegranate seeds.

 

Prepping the Lamb

I took out one rillette roll from the fridge and quickly sliced it into medallions. I did not want the heat from my fingers or the room temp to melt them. One rolI will make 6-8 pieces, depending on how thick you slice it. I dredged the rillettes in flour, egg and panko, and set them near the cast-iron skillet — ready for frying.

Then I fetched the lamb loin noisette from the fridge. Here’s the setup on the line:

 

To Assemble and Serve

We assembled all of our mise in the prep area, and at the last minute brought out the eight frozen sheets of pudding. Some hold up better over time, others melt very quickly. You’ll notice that the date purée is the lumpiest on the final plating. That’s because it was the quickest to thaw…

Champagne in-hand, I’m ready to do this!

I started by using a palette knife to spread out a square of Dijon mustard, then applied squares of the eight puddings randomly on our flat CB2 serving platters.

I had trouble with the date purée, as it melted the fastest! Rather than waiting for it to re-freeze, we conferred, said something along the lines of “frack it,” and smoothed the son-of-a-bitch out to a reasonably square shape. Maybe I can hide it with some garnish?

Then I fired up the skillet and seared the whole rolled lamb noisette until brown, took it off the heat to rest before removing the string and slicing it up.

Added more canola oil to the skillet and fried the breaded lamb rillettes. I drained them on paper towels. Now I was ready to plate…

Now I was ready to plate the meat and add the final garnishes. I placed two medallions of lamb on top of the ugly-ass date purée. Then with a quarter-teaspoon, I added a small pile of braised mustard seed. And with tweezers some eggplant seed caviar, a chili ring with preserved Meyer lemon baton, some pomegranate seeds and a chive tip. Topped with some saffron threads, fenugreek sprouts, fennel fronds, and a mint tip on the corner of the plate. The added a lamb rillette. Voila!

The frozen puddings had started to thaw as soon as we retrieved them from the freezer. By the time plating was done, they had melted considerably, but retained their square shapes. A touch with a creme brulée torch was all that was needed to melt the last of them. Then it was time to eat!

Ingredients
Canola oil
Dijon mustard

Equipment
Pretty much everything I have in the kitchen

Serveware
Flat serving platters, from CB2

Yields: About eight servings per lamb loin, with lots of date purée and frozen puddings left over. If you do the whole saddle of lamb (with two loins and two rillette rolls) and full pudding recipes, you’ll easily have enough for 16 servings.

Above, cubsim vs. abstract expressionism.

Alternate Servings
The second time I plated this, I added some roasted garlic and a spicy cucumber salad to the garnishes. I thought they would complement the other Mediterranean flavors…