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Here’s a lamb chops recipe I put together that I feel is pretty straightforward.  The cooking technique is one I learned from another recipe and has always yielded very juicy steaks/red meat.  Also works with thicker cuts of fish.

Here it’s served with collard greens that were boiled for 30 minutes then sauteed in lamb drippings with shallots.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

• ~1lb lamb chops (about 5-6 chops)
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Meyer lemon, juiced
• 1/2 tbsp lemon zest
• 1 tbsp herbs de provence (dried thyme, basil, rosemary)
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• sea salt
• black pepper

Instructions

1. Make the marinade out of olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, herbs de provence, sea salt and black pepper.
2. Put lamb chops in a container or plastic ziploc bag – cover with marinade and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
4. Use an oven-safe skillet and heat the canola oil over high heat.
5. Sear lamb chops  for 1.5 minutes on each side.  Use a splatter guard per your desire.
6. Insert your leave-in meat thermometer in to one chop, put the skillet in the oven, and cook to 135 degrees F for a “chef’s” medium rare or 145 degrees for the “USDA” medium rare.
7. Remove from oven and let the chops settle for 5 minutes before serving.
8. Season with salt and pepper as desired.

Father's Office Burger

If you live in L.A., you’ve probably heard about the Father’s Office burger, deemed by some as the “Best Burger in L.A.”   And, if you don’t live in L.A., the next time you visit, it might be worth the trip to Santa Monica or Culver City to get a taste of this burger.

The Father’s Office burger is one that you can’t “customize,” meaning, you can’t say cook it well done (not that you ever would), or skip the cheese.  It only comes out of the kitchen one way, and ONLY one way.

But, now, you just might be able to recreate the Father’s Office burger with this post from Meemo’s Kitchen that reverse engineers the burger recipe.  Looking at the recipe, I think back on how it tasted and I believe it does a pretty good job replicating it.

What’s a bit disheartening is the health information posted: 1000 calories for the burger alone, and some absurd amount of sodium.  But, oh so good.  Can I get a side order of sweet potato fries with that?  And don’t forget a cold microbrew to go with, because that’s part of the Father’s Office experience as well.

• Read about the deconstruction of Father’s Office burger

Do you like deconstructing recipes from popular restaurants?  Try these eBooks:

• Secret Restaurant Recipes eBook – recipes from popular restaurants
• Copy Cat Recipes eBook – recipes from popular restaurants

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with rosemary, garlic, and bacon

This is a super easy recipe that is quick to prep, but requires a bit of marinating and cook time. But, it’ll impress your guests and make your house/apartment smell phenomenal! Need to work on my food photography/plating. I got a bit lazy on this one.

Serves: 6

Total Time

• 15 minutes prep
• 1 hour marinating
• ~40 minutes cook time

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup Dijon mustard
  
• 2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
• sea salt
  
• 1 tablespoon freshly chopped rosemary leaves, plus 4 sprigs rosemary, with hard woody stems
• 6 large garlic cloves, 3 cloves minced, 3 cloves smashed
• 2 pork tenderloins, about 1-pound each
• 4 slices maple bacon

Pork tenderloin, prepper with mustard sauce, bacon, and rosemary

…

Directions

• In a small bowl, mix the Dijon mustard, fresh ground black pepper, chopped rosemary, and minced garlic.
• Put the tenderloins in a gallon-sized ziploc bag, add in the mustard mixture, and seal the bag tightly.
• Mush (yes, I said mush) the tenderloins around in the bag until the tenderloins are nicely coated.
• Throw it in the fridge for an hour.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Arrange the rosemary sprigs in the roasting pan with the smashed garlic near the center.
• Place the bacon strips at a diagonal, then lay the tenderloins on top.
• Season the tenderloins with salt – just sprinkle along the length of the tenderloin.
• Wrap the bacon over the tenderloins.
• Put the roasting pan in the oven and bake for at least 40 minutes until the interior temperature reaches 160 degrees F. (if you’re serious about cooking it perfectly, try the Thermapen – it’s pricey, but it’ll be the last instant-read meat thermometer you’ll ever have to buy)
• Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes on a cutting board.
• Garnish with the rosemary sprigs and the roasted garlic.

A super quick, easy, healthy recipe that takes less than 10 minutes.  It’s so easy, we almost didn’t post it!

Total Time: < 15 minutes

Ingredients

• asparagus spears (6-8 per person)
• fresh lemon
• sea salt
• black pepper
• olive oil spray

Instructions

• Preheat the grill, low-medium heat (you’ll need to experiment with the temperature for your own grill).  Or you can use a grill pan indoors.
• Wash the asparagus spears and slice (or hand snap) off the tough ends of the spears.
• Put them on a plate and season with salt and pepper.
• Spray with olive oil to coat; then using a fork, roll the spears over so some of the uncoated side shows; then spray again.
• Put them on the grill for around 4 minutes, then roll the spears over with your tongs, and let them grill for another 4 minutes.  This should give you spears that are cooked but still slightly crisp.
• Plate the spears and squeeze lemon juice on them.  DONE!

You may have to try this a couple times to get the heat and cooking time right on your own grill.   If you have lemon salt, that could be a good alternative if you don’t have a lemon handy; although we haven’t tried that yet.

Pan-roasted Chilean Sea Bass with Shallots and Shiitake Mushrooms

This is a fast, easy, healthy, low-carb recipe that you can actually make on a weeknight. The photo above was taken right after we plated it!

Servings: 2

Total time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients:

• ~1 lb (2 fillets) of chilean sea bass (substitute with black cod for lower cost)
• 1 tbsp canola oil

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 medium-large shallots
• 1-1.5 cups shiitake mushrooms
• 0.25 cups of good quality white wine (stuff you would actually drink)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp parsley (optional)

• sea salt
• ground black peppercorns

Tools:

• 1 saute or saucepan, for the shallots and shiitakes
• 1 oven-safe saute pan, for the fish.  (If you don’t have one, try the Calphalon One Infused Anodized 3-Quart Sauté Pan with Lid, or you can just line a baking pan with aluminum foil and spray olive oil on it)
• 2 mixing bowls or containers

Instructions:

1. Prepare shallots – slice off both ends of each shallot, and peel off the top layer, thinly slice each shallot crosswise and put in to a container
2. Prepare mushrooms – wash the shiitakes thoroughly, remove the stems (which are too tough too eat), thinly slice each mushroom, and put in to a separate container.
3. Prepare fish – wash and pat fish dry.  Salt and pepper on both sides of the fillet.
4. Heat olive oil in sautee/sauce pan on medium-high, wait until it’s hot.  Then, add shallots and sautee until they turn clear, usually 2-3 minutes.
5. Add shiitake mushrooms and butter, sautee a couple more minutes.
6. Add white wine to deglaze and reduce the liquid on medium low heat until it thickens a bit, then remove from stove.
7. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
8. Heat canola oil in the oven-safe sautee pan, wait until it’s hot because you want a nice sear on the fish.
9. Add the fish to the pan, and sear for 3 minutes on one side, then 2 minutes on the other.
10. Remove pan from stovetop and put it in the oven for 4-5 more minutes.   If you’re using a toaster oven, transfer fish on to the aluminum foil.
11. Add shallot and shiitake sautee to serving plate and then place the fish fillets on top.  Sprinkle with chopped parsley to decorate!

Pair with roasted or grilled asparagus with lemon, and a nice chardonnay – we opted for a 2005 Chalk Hill Chardonnay from Sonom, California.