Our second attempt at Chopped at home was almost a bit of a disaster. Gerrit went to the store to buy ingredients and came home with black beans and chorizo, and while I’m sure that I could have come up with something had I actually been in a competition, I had to remind him that we have to actually eat this stuff for dinner. As in, I actually have to eat this stuff for dinner and spicy chorizo with black beans was not going to cut it.
So back to the store he went to buy what he had really wanted in the first place (but which he thought I would complain about because it was on the expensive side), which were some beautiful lamb chops. We seriously ate these in silence and sucked every bit of meat off those bones. And while I was pretty excited about my creative use of papaya, it didn’t even matter because those lamb chops completely stole the show.
Basket Ingredients:
Lamb Chops
Corn on the cob
Arugula
Papaya
What I made:
Lamb Chops: I cooked these simply, with salt and pepper and a bit of rosemary. And that was all they needed.
Corn: I wanted to pan-fry the corn with a bit of bacon to create kind of a hash, but we were all out of bacon. So I pan fried the corn anyway, with herbs and the fat left from the lamb, and then mixed it with some cous cous.
Arugula: Well, obviously a salad, with my most creative use of an ingredient which was…
Papaya: I made a salad dressing out of this. I blended it up with a bit of olive oil and red wine vinegar, and when it was still too thick I stirred even a bit more olive oil in. And even I, who tend not to like salad dressings, thought this one turned out pretty good, and the sweetness of the dressing paired with the peppery arugula went together quite nicely.
The thing I am loving about doing this at home is that it brings foods I never buy into my kitchen. I’ve only cooked lamb chops perhaps once before. And I have never ever eaten a papaya in my life. And it turns out it’s another thing I can add to the list of fruits-I-sorta-kinda-like. Accomplishments.
We do this with the girls and they compete against each other, but now I want to do this with my hubby – so fun! I would never thought to make salad dressing out of papaya, but it sounds great and fresh tasting! And those lamb chops look delish. I looooove lamb. You figure you would pay 2-3 times that in a restaurant and yours are probably just as good!
Oh I bet that is so much fun to do with your girls! And you’re right about the lamb…it is less than in a restaurant, and I have to say that mine was better than some lamb I’ve had in restaurants!
I love these posts! So creative to use the papaya in a salad dressing too.
Thanks Kathryn. :)