Frog and Goat

We just got back from lunch at a place where we’ve only been to dinner. We had a coupon and who doesn’t like buy one get one free? The last two times we’ve been there we’ve been treated to insanity at other tables. The last time we were there I think a small child was celebrating his birthday. The child was 2 or 3 and it is possible that someone else at the table was celebrating. The child clearly said he wanted some cake but the other people at the table, all of them adults, spoke in such loud baby talk that I really am unsure of what was going on. The kid’s pronunciation was nearly flawless.

Today at lunch a family of four let their kids throw stuff on the floor and run around a bit. How old do kids have to be before the rest of us can enjoy our meal too? Then there was the guy who put ketchup on his steak and when the ketchup came out of the bottle it sounded like he blew his nose–all wet and viscous. He also spent quite a bit of time sounding like he was hocking up a loogy. I was so sad to see him leave.

So you don’t get the idea that we are always model citizens, the better-half acted like he was going to stab me in the head with a fork. I didn’t even notice (it happens so often that I am immune to it) but the waiter did and asked if he was going to have to break it up. I told him I had it under control and then acted like I was going to karate chop the better-half.

If you don’t like to cook, then I guess this week’s entries so far are boring you to tears. Sorry about that.

Sunday night we cut up pork chops into medallions. The better-half breaded and sauted the medallions. Then he made a sauce by deglazing the pan with red wine (shiraz?) and then built on the sauce from there with chicken broth, a little more flour, dried cherries, dried cranberries and golden raisins.

I cooked all day and all night to produce the polenta. Ok, what actually happened is I stepped into the pantry, grabbed the polenta, sliced it and then put it in the hot oven to bake. Then I sat down and had a glass of the red wine and talked to the better-half while he did all of the work.

We served with a salad which I did cut up and artfully arrange.

After drooling in my keyboard the other morning, I decided we had to try this dish. Since this is my last week with time on my hands, I thought I’d give this recipe a whirl during the week instead of waiting for the weekend.

Let me start by telling you all the things I didn’t/couldn’t do. I didn’t use all of the whole spices this recipe requires simply because I couldn’t track them down in my little town. I substituted with close approximations of dried ingredients. I couldn’t find the exact cut of lamb this recipe indicated and had to buy chops. I only started with 1.63 pounds and I trimmed out the bones so I’m really not sure how much meat I ended up with. I was too lazy to track down the kitchen scale.

I did use whole cloves, a cinnamon stick and peppercorns. I was warned about all the whole spices in this recipe by Deb over at In My Kitchen but I was already pretty sure that we’d have fewer whole spices in our version than she did. She has access to better shops than I do.

Even with all these exceptions, the dish started making us wish time would speed up as soon as I got to the simmer stage of the recipe. The house smelled super.

I made some basmati rice to go with the saag gosht. I soaked the rice and then steamed it until it was soft and fluffy.

The dish was delicious and we’re going to hold onto the recipe and make it again. Next time I’m in a specialty market, I’ll look for some of the whole spices. It will be interesting to see how this dish differs with the addition of whole spices.

Here’s our version of the saag gosht: