Easter Recap

I love Easter. It's a time of new beginnings, sunshine (mixed with a little rain) and family gatherings. It was Jack and I this year but I'm really trying to learn how to bake/cook so when the time comes for us to host friends and family for get togethers I won't be so freaked out. Hence Jack is my guinea pig and for the most part he enjoys his new role. Sometimes I fail miserably (I made blackberry scones over the weekend that came out mushy, yuck) but most of the time I do pretty good.

In this case my Easter Dinner was a success! The recipe was true to form for the most part. The rack of lamb is really a feast for the eyes and a true show stopper. If you want to impress then make a rack of lamb. And it really is easy to make (this is coming from a cooking novice so if you are semi-experienced in the kitchen you can probably do this with your eyes closed!). A couple of things to note: 1. When you sear the lamb fat side down it really is...um...pungeant. For me not in a good way. I was a little freaked out at first. The fat tastes the way it smells. As Jack said "You either love it or hate it". The smell dissipated once I started to work on the delicious garlic sauce which really made the dish "sing" 2. No two stoves are alike and in this case I had to cook my potato gratin for an hr vs. the recommended 30 minutes. I was also a little shy on the garlic since the rack of lamb was already going to be heavily infused with the roasted garlic. The gratin was simple to make and delicious!

Dessert was fantastic. We had creme brulee for dessert for the rest of the week (um, not so good for my figure). I wanted to include my own recipe for creme brulee in this post because I think its a great dessert to serve to guests. It's fancy sounding, it's fun to tap, tap, tap on the sugar crust and everyone gets their own individualized portion. Also you can make all sorts of variations on the recipe (coffee, chocolate, fruit etc). Here is my own New Orleans inspired variation (based on Tyler Florence and Emeril Lagasse recipes mixed in with my own) . Enjoy!





Chicory Creme Brulee:

Ingredients:

9 egg yolks

3/4 cup of super fine sugar (plus 6-8 tablespoons of sugar)

4 cups of heavy cream

1 whole vanilla bean

1 tablespoon of chicory coffee

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. In a large bowl cream together your egg yolks and sugar until the mixture is pale yellow and thick.

Pour cream into medium saucepan over low heat. Using a pairing knife, split the vanilla bean down the middle and scrape out the seeds. Add the seeds and the vanilla bean to the saucepan. Use a mesh tea infuser and add 1 tablespoon of chicory coffee and let the coffee infuse the cream in the saucepan. Bring cream to a brief simmer, but do not boil. Remove from heat, take out the vanilla bean and coffee infuser and temper the yolks by gradually mixing in the hot cream into the yolk and egg mixture. Do this very slowly in order to avoid "cooking" the eggs.

Divide the custard into 8 ramekins (6 oz) around 3/4 full. Place ramekins in a roasting pan and fill pan with enough water to come up halfway up the sides of the ramekin. Bake until the edges start to set up, about 45 minutes to an hour depending on your oven. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Transfer the ramekins to the refrigerator and chill for at least 2 hours.

When you are ready to serve, sprinkle one tablespoon of sugar on top of each ramekin. Use a kitchen torch to brown the sugar. Let it stand for 3-4 minutes to allow the sugar crust to form.