Rosemary Lamb Cutlets with wine, lemon and honey pears

Posted on by cheryl

lamb_serving

Lamb cutlets
with garlic and rosemary fried potatoes and wine poached pears.
J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson © 2010

Just recently I was looking for inspiration in the local food store, when suddenly some of the best cuts of lamb cutlets I have seen in a long while stared me in the face. So that was easy. Nice, thick and juicy cuts from the lower back and with the filé left in place. Perfect.

I always find cooking lamb a bit of a challenge. However we look at it, lamb is far from an everyday dish where we live. In Sweden it’s a traditional meal that belongs to the autumn and winter season and to have lamb is a little event in itself. Because of this, there are a lot of unspoken expectations surrounding these meals. One of which is the hope that it will turns out good, another the fear that it will not.

However, since this dish worked out fine, I will share what we did, not the least so I will remember it myself.

First of all, there are many traditions in which to cook lamb and ours was inspired by Italy and Greece, as in lots of garlic and olive oil, and only a vague idea about keeping tabs.
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Filé mignon on a mirror of red wine sauce

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ingredients

For an icy winter’s day, Filé mignon on a mirror of red wine sauce.
J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson © 2010

Just back from exotic Shanghai, Hangzhou and Singapore, from a balmy 28C to a -10C outdoors here in the Nordic winter with chilly winds. No doubt, the snow covered land and the white Christmas upcoming is festive and promising, beautiful in its own way, but hardly warm.

So something to go with a deep, full, red wine sauce that warmed body and soul was what we craved. One that would stand up against a good cut of beef as an alternative to all those parsley and pepper sauces. And to that full bodied red wine sauce and a good cut of beef, I wanted a mashed root celery puree to see if the combination of flavours actually worked well when served together. I had an idea it would.

A visit to the local food store supplied the ingredients for today’s dinner that was teeming with ideas. The root celery was easy enough to boil and mash, to which I then added in some King Edward potatoes, a soft cooking kind of potatoes, utterly suitable for making mashed potatoes since that is what it becomes by its merry self if left boiling on the stove for only just a few minutes too long. A few pieces of beef of the filé mignon cut and some sunflower sprouts for a fresh green salad. A bunch of fresh green asparagus looked too tempting not find some use for them…perhaps they could go with wrapped baked bacon?
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A touch of magic at Ristorante da Valentino and Perla’s Pastry Boutique

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Cheryl M Cordeiro-Nilsson with Valentino Valtulina and Perla Valtulina.

Myself, flanked on the left by Valentino Valtulina and his sister, Perla Valtulina in Perla’s Pastry Boutique.
R Di Nardo, G Valtulina and CM Cordeiro for CMC © 2010

It was somewhere between lunch and tea, that I met with Valentino and Perla in the Ristorante Da Valentino, located along a stretch of previous shophouses at Jalan Binka, nestled in the midst of a housing estate in the Bukit Timah area that to me, was quite like Opera Estate where I grew up in the East of Singapore. Here Valentino has three units, a private dining room, a pastry shop and their main restaurant.

Upon entering the restaurant I was greeted by Singaporean families decked in their most casual Saturday wear, in t-shirts, Bermuda shorts and slippers, finishing off their lunches at the pink table-clothed tables, as if they were at home in their very own kitchens. The sight and the atmosphere could not help but fill you with a feeling of warmth and sincerity. You felt welcomed right into their family.

The Executive Chef for the restaurant and this family business is Valentino himself, and on the menu you would often find dishes created by his mother, Alma. As a guest, you could expect to be greeted and seated by his father, Gianpiero.

An exciting part of this venue is the pastries and dessert shop that is taken care of by Valentino’s sister Perla, literally adding the cherry on the top of the entire dining experience at Valentino’s.
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M on the Bund, Shanghai

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Cheryl Marie Cordeiro-Nilsson and Yina Huang at M on the Bund, Shanghai.

Sunday lunch at M on the Bund with the Swedish delegates to Shanghai (pictured below) and Yina Huang, Associate Director, Global Local Public Relations Office, Shanghai University’s MBA Center.
Photo © Olof E Johansson, J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

Shanghai is a remarkable city. Considering all vicissitudes this unfortunate city has seen over the last century it was with great expectations that I recently got to visit it, and to explore to what extent this city had regained its former glory. And in many ways it has.

The ebb and flow of great fortunes being made and lost ripples through the city, constantly changing its face. What is a constant is the river, and facing it is still the Bund however much widened. Across the river on the east bank, an entirely new skyline of Pudong greets us, the new skyscraper-laden financial and commercial district that also houses the new Pudong International Airport.

River view

Pudong area, just seen across the Huangpu River. To the left, the somewhat brutal outline of the ‘Oriental Pearl’ Tower.

What better place to take in all of this but at the fashionable restaurant, M on the Bund? As one review had it:

With superb Continental cuisine, an excellent wine selection and deft service, the fashionable M on the Bund sets the standard for other haute cuisine restaurants in Shanghai. As the place to see and be seen, the much-touted eatery attracts its fair share of Shanghai’s movers and shakers. Contemporary, airy and stylish decor complements sweeping views of the Bund. The food reaches equally high heights. Diners are recommended to try the Salt Crusted Leg of Lamb and the Crispy Suckling Pig. They should also leave room for dessert—the sinfully delicious pavlova is rightfully legendary.

But however much I had wanted that to be my impression too, I am forced to say I beg to differ.

I believe that if I were living in Shanghai, M could possibly be a place where I might want to bring friends and visitors. But it isn’t a place I would find myself craving to come back to, nor a place I would get addicted to as it stands right now.
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A Swedish lemon cardamon sockerkaka or sugar cake

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Lemon cardamon sockerkaka

Sockerkaka or Sugar Cake, is one of Sweden’s most popular cakes to serve, whether at tea or birthdays.
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

It’s difficult to forget the things that you’ve grown up with, such as the blue pleated pinafore, walking through void decks, eating potong ice-cream bought from the streets, and having HDB heartland bakery butter sponge cakes when you want them. Oh! What it is to have a sponge cake or a chocolate cake when you need it in Sweden!

And when in need of a sponge cake fix today, I fingered the bookshelves in the pantry and landed upon some traditional Swedish recipes for cakes. My favourite book being this lightweight, Sju Sorters Kakor or Swedish Cakes and Cookies that has now been translated into English by Melody Favish.
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Gravlax – Swedish food in the raw

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Gravlax sandwich

This Swedish specialty – the salt, sugar and dill cured salmon – these days internationally known under its original Swedish name gravlax or gravad lax, is served with a dill and mustard sauce and is prepared completely without any actual cooking.
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

Reading up on the latest food trends, I see that the Californian raw food is getting back in the cool stream of things with the idea of no heat, no cooking. The concept is today, spreading as an ecological trend and with the addition of ‘raw’ as in unrefined and unpolished that refers to back to basic foods. Like raw elk. With the horns on. Or, at least that was how I initially read it, and was admittedly not very impressed.

Personally I appreciate gourmet cooking as the ultimate in good handicraft and I see no point in flairs, fashions and useless embellishments. I have eaten my share of culinary creations that don’t taste good and combinations of flavours that just don’t work together, and have a healthy appreciation for the chefs that actually know what they are cooking, and don’t just combine textures and colours on a whim.

That we ever got stuck with the useless aspects of gourmet cooking is actually the fault of numerous cooking competitions where taste is only judged as one of several aspects of good cooking and not even the most important. In my view, taste should be ranked appropriately much higher than for example, the even thickness of slices or whether the display table has four equal legs.

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Trying out the Inova

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After an interesting seminar on potatoes organized by the Western Swedish Academy of Gastronomy, Sweden, we decided to do some research on our own …
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

There are so many basic things in life that one take as given, that one should just “know”. Like walk, know that water is wet and that the sun is warm, and in the western hemisphere – how to cook potatoes.

Eventually when you look deeper into things you might find that it is not that easy at all. At a recent restaurant professionals’ seminar on potatoes which I attended mostly out of curiosity, we eventually brought home a whole box of a variety called Inova. An early winter, firm cooking potato that in the testing sessions just struck me as unusually good tasting, with a full, sweet round and lacking a better word, “buttery” flavor.

Then we set out to try out how this Inova would turn out in home cooking. When talking to the “potato guru” Dan Berntsson, we had felt that the Inova despite being a fairly firm cooking kind, might be just the right thing for a gratin, which according to regular wisdom instead should be made from a soft boiling variety such as a King Edward VII.
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Meeting with Dan Berntsson, the “Potato-Guru”

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Dan Berntsson, Potato Masterclass lecture.

Dan Berntsson, giving a lecture at the Potato Master Class organized by the Western Swedish Academy of Gastronomy, Sweden.
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

The weekend’s culinary adventure was directed towards one of the most common staple root vegetables in the world, the potato. Admittedly, when the Invite to a Master Class on Potatoes by Sweden’s foremost expert on potatoes, Dan Berntsson, landed in the mailbox, I wasn’t exactly all fired up in terms of enthusiasm, but I’m always one for new adventures, so I signed up. As it turned out, there was a lot to learn about potatoes, in fact, much more fact and information than one could process in the four hours allotted to class.
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Autumn pears

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Mature Camembert cheese, Conference pear with a dollop of homemade boysenberry marmalade.
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

One of the things I like most about autumn is that it is harvest time for so many of the nice things I have seen growing over the summer, from the fresh green leaf sprouts of the spring, to the happy flowers of early summer and then finally the fresh fruit presented clean, crisp and straight from the tree!

A last harvest celebration before the winter!