I’ve been patiently waiting to get my hands on some blood oranges so I can play around with some recipes. You know…something like a blood orange, molasses peppercorn sauce for a nice fillet. But alas, my grocer hasn’t produced and so here I am, filling my curiosities with some other fruits. I made a fruit salad a few weeks back that had white peaches, plums and heirloom tomatoes. It was good and had an interesting mix of flavors…hmmm…where’s the post for it? It’s in draft mode, I’ll get to it soon. With no blood oranges in basket, I stocked up on a couple of grapefruits, a cotton candy melon and some enormous shrimp.

My sister and C were coming over for our usual Sunday dinner. I knew that when I told my sis what was for dinner, she’d pass on it. Her comfort zone for food is rather…”selective.” Well, after we started plating, she had changed her mind and ended up loving the salad.

Serves: 3

Ingredients

9 jumbo sized raw shrimp
2 pink grapefruits
4 TBs. of extra virgin olive oil
1 cotton candy melon, a.k.a. sweetie melon
1 avocado
1 tsp. jalapeno, deseeded and minced
1 tsp. of togarashi
black sesame seeds for garnish

Preparation

For the grapefruit dressing
1. Juice 1/2 a grapefruit into a glass bowl.
2. Add the minced jalapeno and togarashi.
3. While whisking the grapefruit juice, stream in the olive oil and continue whisking til emulsified.
4. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set aside to let the flavors mingle.

For the salad
1. Boil the shrimp with their shells intact, 3 minutes in salted water.
2. Remove the shrimp from the water, and toss with some of the grapefruit vinaigrette. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set aside.
3. Peel the grapefruits and section the slices from their skins. Making sure that all you have left are fruit slices.
4. Peel and slice the avocados into thin slices.
5. Half the cotton candy melon, deseed, cut into slices and remove the skin.

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One of the laments that my friends, who don’t cook, have is, “I always have ingredients left over and I don’t know what to do with them.” So, for this dish, I wanted to make use of items that I had leftover from last weekend’s dishes and stuff I had in the pantry. Limiting the things I needed to pick up was key. I allowed myself 1 item that I could buy.

So let’s see what we had left over from the other weekend and what was in the pantry:

baby potatoes - from the serrano wrapped scallops recipe
asparagus - from the farmer’s market
canned chickpeas

hmm…I have my veggies and starch…now, I just need the star. One of my friends/readers “hinted” on how I was making so much seafood, so meat it is. Lamb, haven’t had it in a while and I think the chops are perfect for grilling.

So, let’s get to it.

Serves: 4

Ingredients

For the lamb:
8 lamb chops - ask your butcher for them “frenched” - means, trim the fat off of the bone, keep ‘em skinny. This is a joke for my sister.
6 TBs. of soy sauce, low sodium - I like to control my salt content
2 TBs. of dijon mustard
2 TBs. of Worchestershire sauce
2 TBs. olive oils
1 TBs. of fresh rosemary, chopped
4 tsp. of fresh thyme, chopped
4 tsp. of fresh sage, chopped
1 tsp. of freshly ground black pepper

For chick pea rosemary ragout:
1 15.5 oz can of chickpeas
1 TBs. + 1 tsp. of demi-glace concentrate, or to taste
1 tsp. of fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tsp. lemon zest

For baby potatoes and cumin vinaigrette:
I found a great looking recipe at, 28cooks.com. The recipe below is similar to theirs but I had to substitute some items because I couldn’t break the 1 item rule.

5 cups of baby potatoes, I had red and purple mixed from last weekend
5 cups red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1″ pieces
1 tsp salt
2 green onions
3 tbsp shallots, diced

Vinaigrette
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp. of crushed red pepper
1/2 c fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 jalapeno
1 tsp minced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
6 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 c olive oil
1/2 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

For lemon garlic asparagus:

1 bunch of asparagus - I use about 5-8 spears per person
2 TBs. of shallots, chopped
1 TBs of garlic\
1 TBs. of fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. of fresh lemon zest, chopped

Preparation

1. Chop the potatoes into 1″ cubes and place in a medium saucepan. Fill with water and add 1 TBs. of salt and bring to a boil. Boil until for tender. Drain and add the green onions, shallots and toss with cumin vinaigrette to taste. Set aside to cool. Serve at room temperature or with a slight chill.
2. For the lamb, combine the soy sauce, mustard, worcestershire, olive oil, rosemary, thyme, sage and black pepper into a large ziploc bag. Add the lamb after you’ve given the bag a good shake. You’ll want to marinate the lamb for at least 30 mins. Keep refrigerated but remove, 20 mins. prior to grilling.
3. Preheat the grill to high.
4. Drain and rinse the chickpeas but preserve the juices. Add the chickpeas, 3/4 cup of the juice, rosemary, demi glace and lemon zest into a small saucepan.
5. Bring the mixture to a lower simmer and raise the heat to medium low. Make sure to constantly stir. You may need to add more of the reserved chickpea juice, if the mixture gets too dry. If you run out juice, add a bit of water. Simmer for about 10 - 15 minutes until the chickpeas are soft and creamy. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Cover to keep warm.
6. Remove the lamb chops from the marinade and brush off any extra herbs. Discard the marinade and place lamb chops on the hot grill. Heat about 2 minutes per side for medium rare. Depending on thickness. My lamb chops required 3 minutes per side for medium rare. Remove from the grill and let the lamb rest.
7. Meanwhile, heat a medium Sauté pan on a medium heat. Add 1 TBs. of olive oil and add the chopped shallots, garlic and lemon zest. Sauté for about 2 minute and then add the asparagus. Sauté the asparagus for about 4 -5 minutes or until el dente. Drizzle the asparagus with lemon juice to finish the dish.

Here are some plating examples:

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