I made a grilled lamb dish for dinner and promised to get the recipe on the blog. Since I'm on a support call (listening, since I'm no longer useful as I'm in management), here it is.

NOTE: I'm feeding six with leftovers planned for lunches, so that's what this calls for. Adjust accordingly.

Miz ɑ̃n plas:

• Two boneless, lamb loins, either cut from a whole leg or packaged
• 16 oz plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup of cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp of sugar
• 1 tbsp (or more) of turmeric
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 1 tbsp (equivalent) chopped or mortared ginger
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• salt
• fresh, ground pepper

Slice diagonal strips in the lamb and pound it a bit with a meat mallet to get it fairly evenly thin (1-1.5") thick.

Thoroughly mix everything but the lamb in a bowl. In a glass baking dish, spread part of the mixture on the bottom and place the lamb on it and then cover with the rest. The lamb should be thoroughly covered.

Seal well and leave in the fridge for 12-24 hours (it can go a bit longer if necessary).

Prepare a real charcoal grill and toss some hickory chips on it. Grill lamb for 1-1.5 hours, turning every 15 minutes.

Serve with chana dal (drop a note in the comments if you want me to post a quick easy recipe for chana dal) and a lovely merlot/shiraz.

Dinner turned out pretty well, so I tend to want to preserve the recipe when that happens.

Miz ɑ̃n plas:

• pork, chicken or veal cutlets (4 thin per person if pork)
• asparagus, sliced into thin rounds
• red pepper, thinly diced
• butter
• white wine
• tarragon
• orange zest
• honey
• flour
• salt & pepper
• olive oil

Oven at 250°!

Have your butcher take a pork loin or thick center cut pork chops and slice them thinly (typically, 4 slices per standard, thick chop). Salt & pepper them, then dredge them in flour.

Add olive oil to a medium-hot pan and sauté the pork until just cooked on both sides (a scant 5 minutes in total).

When done preparing the pork, put them in the heated oven on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Remove most of the olive oil then return the pan to the heat (lowered to medium) and sauté the asparagus until almost cooked through (seasoning as necessary). Add tarragon and red pepper and do a quick toss or three, the turn up the heat and add the orange zest and white wine. Scrape the pan as everything reduces. Remove from heat and add butter and honey. Gently swirl the pan around to incorporate the butter and honey without over-mixing it.

Remove pork from oven, plate it and pour the sauce over it.

I served it with mashed potatoes and deep-fried butternut squash tossed with cinnamon sugar.

I wanted to do something different for dinner tonight, both because I was getting bored with some of the "usual different" and because I was not able to celebrate the new year that a large portion of the world celebrates (and I desperately miss Eric's new year feasts at Monsoon in Seattle). So, I threw together a last-minute menu for this evening.

I, unfortunately, am directing this recipe at fairly established cooks/chefs since I am giving the bare-minium of measurements and cooking instructions. Drop a note in the comments if you would like more detail (I'll need the number of people you plan on serving).

5-spice, Panko-crusted Pork Chops

Miz ɑ̃n plas:

• bone-in pork chops (not too thick, not too thin)
• Chinese 5-spice powder
• Kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• flour
• buttermilk (we use Kate's)
• Panko
• vegetable oil + peanut oil

Rinse & dry the chops. Sprinkle 5-spice powder and then salt & pepper them. Dust with flour & shake off excess. Dip in buttermilk (let the excess drip off) then drip in Panko (make sure to add some salt to the Panko before dipping). Do this for all the chops.

Heat oil in a good pan on the stove and cook the pork chops like you would any breaded pork chop. Panko burns a bit easier than "regular" bread crumbs/cracker meal so watch the heat and pay attention to them. You can finish them in the oven if they brown before they cook through. You can cook them ahead of time and leave them in a 350°F oven or try to time it with the rest of the meal (the rest go quickly, so it should be very doable).

Bok choy & Chinese broccoli steam & fry

Miz ɑ̃n plas:

• Chinese broccoli, cut into thirds
• bok choy - the "white bits", cut cross-wise into 1" chunks
• powdered ginger
• Kosher salt
• sesame oil
• mirin
• water

Par-boil both the broccoli and bok choy then immerse in an ice-water bath to stop the cooking. Dust with ginger & salt. Heat a wok then add the oil. Wait until it just smokes then add the vegetables and stir fry quickly until heated through and a tad caramelized. Add mirin and water and steam through until fully cooked. Again, you can place it in the oven (in a dish with a lid) with the chops (or on their own if the chops are still cooking) while you make the noodles or time it right for all being done at the same time.

Buckwheat (soba) noodles with Ponzu sauce

Miz ɑ̃n plas:

• buckwheat noodles (duh)
• peanut oil & sesame oil
• Ponzu sauce
• mirin

Boil water (salt it!) and cook soba noodles for 3 minutes. In a wok, heat oil and ponzu sauce and mirin. Let that reduce just a bit and add the noodles. Vigorously stir fry until completely coating the noodles and (lightly) browning some of them.

Serve all three at the same time with some lovely, unfiltered, warm sake.

As a result of a distributed Thanksgiving menu Twitter conversation, here is another recipe (and two blog posts in two days...whoa).

This serves 4. Just multiply if you need more.

• 1.0 lb fresh brussels sprouts, cleaned & halved
• 0.5 cup maple syrup
• 2.0-3.0 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1.0 tbsp peanut or walnut oil
• 0.75-1.0 cups of walnuts
• lemon zest (to taste, but about 0.125 surface of a lemon)
• nutmeg (to taste, but about 0.125-0.25 teaspoon)
• coarse kosher salt

"Miz ɑ̃n plas" is kinda important here as I tend to make this dish last when preparing any meal it will be served with. The procedures below assume all ingredients are prepped and ready.

In a frying pan on the low-ish side of medium heat, put in peanut or walnut oil and roast the walnuts with a little bit of salt. Your nose should tell you when they are ready. Put them in a prep bowl and set aside. Don't eat them! (But, if you do, I promise not to tell :-)

Setup steamer and have the sprouts ready to go. Get a sauce pan on the burner on medium heat (you can use the roasting pan you made the walnuts in).

When steamer is ready, add sprouts then make the sauce while they are cooking:

Put 2 of the 3 tbsp of butter in the pan and melt it. Add the nutmeg and lemon zest. Remember to use whole nutmeg and grate it yourself, otherwise you could be eating shredded & powdered leftover "beauty bark" or just wretched filler. Stir until it all gets heated nicely, but not browned.

Add maple syrup and then salt to taste. Keep sauce on low. You are not done yet.

Just as the sprouts finish steaming, remove sauce from heat and add last 1 tbsp of butter to the pan and swirl it gently around. This will thicken the sauce very nicely and add a warm, buttery feel to it.

Remove sprouts from steamer and sprinkle salt on them, then mix with sauce in a serving dish. Grate some fresh nutmeg on top and serve!

I made lamb curry the other night and posted a note on Twitter about it. A few folks asked for a recipe. So...below is my recipe for this particular version of a basic lamb curry (I have four of them). Where there are ranges, you must decide how much to use given your personal preferences. I used the max for each, but I tend not to measure, so they are kinda very edumicated guesses at the max. REMEMBER, while it is not optimal (the frying brings out more spice flavor through extraction of oils than just adding later) you can start with a smaller initial amount and add more once it cooks for a while to experiment. The essence of cooking is knowledgeable experimentation.

A basmati rice & peas recipe is below all this to keep the ingredients from being confused with one another.

This recipe is designed to serve 6-8. That's just how I roll.
The main bits:

• 1 5-6lb lamb leg
• 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 onion (not huge, but slightly bigger than what you get if you buy them bunched in a bag)
• 3-6 whole cloves of garlic
• 3.0 tbsp Gourmet Garden Ginger Spice Blend (do not give me a hard time about this...3 kids at home and full-time job. I am not cutting, peeling and chopping ginger for as much as I use it :-)
• 1.0-2.0 tbsp brown sugar
• 1.0 tbsp pure cane sugar (I probably use a bit more)
• 3.0 tbsp ghee or peanut oil (real chefs use ghee, don't be a poseur)
• coarse kosher salt (to taste)

For the curry powder:

• 1.0 tbsp ground coriander
• 0.5-1.0 tbsp ground cumin
• 0.5 tbsp ground turmeric (I probably end up using more, tho)
• 0.5 tbsp fenugreek (I would not make the curry without this)
• 0.25 tbsp ground mustard
• 0.25 tbsp paprika
• 0.5 tsp (yes, teaspoon) nutmeg
• 0.0-1.0 tbsp of chili powder (this is the kick, so consider yourself warned)
• 3-6 whole cloves
• 2-8 whole green cardamom pods
• 1 whole cinnamon stick
• 1-2 tsp of powdered ginger

(NOTE: I will not mock you if you use 3.0-4.0 tbsp of Simply Organic Curry Powder instead of mixing your own...Well, not much, anyway. Purists take whole spices, roast and grind, so I am already taking a shortcut)

I'm a pretty big believer in miz ɑ̃n plas, so we'll cover the recipe that way. You should have a number of decent-sized and small holding bowls/ramekins. These work well. I use stainless steel ones.

Mix coriander, cumin, turmeric, mustard, paprika, nutmeg, giner & chili powder (if any) in a small prep bowl and set aside. Notice that the fenugreek is not in this list.

Trim as much of the fat as possible from the lamb leg and remove the bone. (I roast the bone and give it to our golden retriever...your dog will love you forever, trust me). Remove all traces of tendon from the meat as it will make the lamb tough unless you slow-simmer the curry for hours. Cut the remaining lamb meat into smaller than you think it should be bite-sized pieces. Dust the meat with some kosher salt and set aside in a larger bowl.

Peel and cut onion into small enough pieces to put into a food processor (and then put them in the food processor). Toss in garlic and ginger. Make it into a fine paste with almost no lumps. The lumps will be large pieces of garlic or onion and your guests will despise you if they bite into it. It's not like you are doing the chopping or grinding. You're just pressing a button. Set this mixture aside in a bowl or the food processor container with the lid off.

Heat the ghee in a decent sized pan/pot (I use this) on medium heat and put in the paste you just made. It will probably splatter a bit, so just take that into consideration. Stir it constantly (you'll end up dedicating a spoon to curry if you use wooden ones) and let it turn just a hint of brown. This releases sugars that are quite yummy and also helps break down the garlic for those that are more sensitive to it (like me).

Toss in the whole cloves & cinnamon stick, then press the cardamom pods with your fingers and add them too. Stir this mixture for about 2 minutes.

Add the curry powder you made, lower the heat a bit and stir for 4-5 minutes.

Add the crushed tomatoes and mix together thoroughly.

Put the heat back to medium and add the lamb. Stir the mixture until everything is evenly covered. When the curry starts to bubble, reduce the heat and add the sugar and fenugreek.

Cover with a lid and stir occasionally. This can sit for as long as you like (or until the rice – below – is done). It is safe to eat when the lamb is cooked through (the volume of liquid will increase as it is released from the lamb). This will depend on how small you cut the lamb, tho.

If you can find it, adding a small amount of asafetida powder when you remove the dish from the heat will really bring out more flavor.

When you serve it, you can take out the cardamom, cloves and cinnamon stick if you like. Or, you can make it a nice hide-and-seek game for your guests.

You can reduce prep time further by substituting Gourmet Garden Garlic Blend for the garlic cloves and just use the Simply Organic curry powder. It will come out almost as good.

Final warning: I read through this four times after all edits, but check back for updates (I'll note them) and offer up suggestions/corrections/results in the comments.

For the rice:

• 3.0 cups of basmati rice
• frozen peas (as many as you like!)
• 1.0-2.0 tbsp of ghee or peanut oil (see above, yo)
• 2 pinches of kosher salt
• 6-8 whole cloves

Rinse the rice until the rinse water becomes mostly clear. The rice bangs together during transport and generates a fine powder that covers the grains. If your rice sticks together and you don't want it to, this is probably why (not rinsing). You can also take this time to inspect the rice for particles that aren't rice. I've found small rocks/granules more often than you might think.

Put the ghee into a rice cooker and let it melt (or melt it before putting in). Mix rice thoroughly with it and add the salt and cloves. If you are one of those "the salt does not go in with the rice" people, then don't. Now, mix in the peas and add 4-5 cups of water (I would lean towards 4). Start the rice cooker.

Serve all this with buttered naan, mango chutney and yogurt/raita. A nice shiraz would be lovely, too.

Mary & I did one of the monthly event dinners (part of the week-of-birthdays for her) at Monsoon last night and had a wonderful time. Eric did an amazing job giving us all a taste of Vietnamese new year with the fusion twists the restaurant is famous for.

We weren't expecting it to be family-style, but that only added to the collective enjoyment and we were lucky enough to meet the owners of Yama Japanese Restaurant and Red House Beer & Wine Shoope, both local eateries that we now are anxious to sample.

Here's what you missed last night:

• grilled flank steak with green scallions and vermicelli noodles
• fisherman's soup with morning glory greens
• five spice washington chicken "roti"
• braised leek and asian eggplant salad with crispy tofu paper
• braised baby back ribs with coconut juice and longevity egg
• kurabuta pork belly with pickled cucumber and banh bo
• mung bean sweet soup with tapioca

Ever since getting here I've wondered why there are *so* many teriyaki joints in and around Seattle. This Seattle Weekly article goes into great detail:

Food: How Teriyaki Became Seattle's Own Fast-Food Phenomenon (Seattle Weekly): "Nothing seems to stop the exponential growth of teriyaki shops in Seattle and its surrounding environs, including market saturation. To wit, the Washington Restaurant Association recently generated a list of all the restaurants in its master database with "teriyaki" in the name, listed by date of entry. As of 1984, the database contained 19 (that is, restaurants still in business). That number doubled by 1987. In the mid-1990s, 20 to 40 teriyaki joints appear to have been opening every year, and the database now contains 519 listings statewide (there are more than 100 teriyaki shops within Seattle's city limits alone)—which doesn't include restaurants that favor "Bento," "Wok," or "Deli" over "Teriyaki" in their titles.

And that's far from the extent of the dish's omnipresence. Pho shops pad their menus with chicken teriyaki. Asian-operated burger joints like Herfy's, Stan's and Dome Burger all feature teriyaki dishes. A Somali cafe down in Tukwila that I reviewed last month offered halal chicken teriyaki; not to mention sushi restaurants, even ultratraditional ones, which offer teriyaki chicken and beef on their menus—something (surprise) you'd never see in Japan."

Foreign Policy magazine has a blog (obvious if you've ever looked to the right block column at all) and one of their recent entries lends some credence to my milk post earlier in May.

All but the very rich are going to feel the food cost crunch and it's going to hurt. I suspect this is one reason we now have Diet Coke Plus, so the kiddies (and adults) can get their vitamins in a non-dairy, cheap beverage.

As the FP post suggests, why can't I have some of my tax dollars back so I can afford the outrageous food prices. Why am I subsidizing farmers who clearly are gouging consumers?

While it may still wind up costing more in the end, you can help stick it to these multinational, multi-billion dollar farming outfits if you:

• buy local
• buy organic
• grow your own (if you can), and
• consume less

Writing your state and federal representatives would be a prudent item to add to your to-do list as well.

Eventually, I'll use my "Christianity" tag for something a bit more serious, but it's far more interesting pointing out the crazy stuff folks will attach to that word. I almost wish there were a different way to refer to my faith, just to separate myself from these wackos.

Take Pastor Reynolds and his faith-based dieting Sunday morning tirade:

About 40 percent of you need to lose weight," he tells churchgoers..."When you love potluck more than God, it's serious."

Thankfully(?), folks from other faiths are doing the same thing, though you can't beat the creative crew who came up with the URL of www.fatfree4jesus.org.

From everyone @ RUDIS DOT NET (Mary, boB, Tori, Jarrod, Liz, Ian and Nana) have a food and fun-filled day with family & friends!

If things turn out well, we'll post snaps of the feast. Dinner today includes a ~20lb organic, free-range turkey (brined then roasted), wild-rice & fresh herbed bread stuffing, sour cream mashed potates, fake jellied cranberry sauce, homemade fresh cranberry sauce, whipped sweet potatoes, fresh crescent roles, peas, brussel sprouts in a maple-walnut sauce and some nice, fresh veggies. Dessert includes chocolate chip cookies (baked by Mary) and the traditional pumpkin pie with a wicked-good chocolate ganache.