I originally planned to make lamb, but then Dad the Lamb-Hater said he would be in attendance. I thought about it, decided that lamb was still on the menu, and added pork chops.
Here's the lamb (left) and pork chops (right) plus grilled asparagus.
The whole boneless leg of lamb was marinated overnight in a bath of 1 cup soy, 6 cloves crushed garlic, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon Korean red pepper flakes, 1 tablespoon gochujang (Korean chili sauce), and a couple glugs of canola oil.
The 4 bone-in center cut pork chops got a marinade of 4 stalks of chopped lemongrass, 2 cloves crushed garlic, 1 tablespoon Thai chili basil sauce, 1 tablespoon sugar, 2 tablespoon soy, and a couple glugs of canola oil.
Both were excellent. The lamb was melt-in-your-mouth tender, and cooked to a perfect medium-rare. The chops were more well-done, cuz Dad likes most proteins cooked to death. But they were really really good. I'm going to have to try pork tenderloins in the same marinade. Despite all of the Asian ingredients, the meat didn't have obvious Asian flavors.
Because we're Polish, we had to have pierogi. I used America's Choice brand, which are pretty good. First I microwaved them, then my brother helped me pan-fry them, and finally they were smothered in the onions I had cooked to a flavorful mush earlier in the day.
In addition to the grilled asparagus (which had been tossed with olive oil and s&p before grilling), I marinated some in a vinaigrette of red wine vinegar, brown mustard, olive oil, and tarragon, and sprinkled it with grated Parmesan before serving.
Last, but not least, I made a salad of Belgian endive with bleu cheese and walnuts.
For dessert, MinxBro provided an assortment of pastries from Yia Yia's (including mini eclairs, a wee lemon meringue tart, an almond croissant, and very rich slices of tiramisu and cheesecake), which saved me from having to contemplate yet another dish.
What did you serve for your holiday meal?
You are going to laugh, we were at the ocean and had pizza and an italian sub. But earlier in the day we had eaten a huge brunch buffet at The Old Salt and Lamies inn, which well more than made up for it.
ReplyDeletePierogies look fantastic, i love them. Have you ever made them?
Hey Red - no, I've never made pierogies. I have no counter space in my kitchen so can't work with dough - even if I wanted to. :)
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