A Cross-continental Easter Dinner

I didn't have any particular plans for Easter Sunday dinner. We had a big wine tasting meal planned for friends with the idea that people would bring appetizers to pair with particular wines. Complicating matters was that Keen was sick and had a monster transcription to work on, Secondo was an exceedingly cranky convalescent from recent surgery (adnoids & tonsils), and I was a bit stretched. It brought home to me how much Keen does when I decide to throw a party.

Everything worked out in that a dozen or so adults and half a dozen kids had a good time. My idea of paired wines and foods was totally trashed, but that's OK. The worst moment might have been when a cigarette butt was found in one of the bottles of red. I'd opened them up early and left them on the porch to cool. One of the guests is a smoker and didn't realize that these weren't ashtrays. [Sheesh, dude, even it it wasn't a FULL bottle of wine, maybe I recycle?] Ah, well. I wanted to dump the bottle and substitute something, though was shouted down. I decided to skip the red course as I wasn't going to have a glass of Vin Roja de Cigare. Fortunately, I'd opened and chilled a bottle of an amazingly good American sparkler from New Mexico (Gruet--try it!) and so sipped on that instead. 

While shopping on Friday, I ran into a friend at the grocery store. He was planning on buying some lamb to have with his girlfriend. I wandered over to the meat section with him and spied a gorgeous bone-in lamb sirloin. I adore lamb for its flavor, but haven't made it recently due to its high fat content. Oh what the heck. I took it out today ambivalently. Is that a word? Guess so, as the spell checker didn’t put squiggly lines under it.

After a bit of chatting, we decided on braising. I cut off all the surface fat, seasoned it with salt and pepper, and put it in the ‘fridge. Awhile later, I seared it on all sides and tossed it into a warm oven along with a big can of tomatoes, a can of chicken stock, the same can filled with a decent inexpensive red wine, some vegetables and herbs.

But what to pair with it? I’d roasted some potatoes for the wine event the day before and abandoned the dish I was going to make. Aloo tikki is great Indian street food. A friend of mine introduced me to it. The basis is grated or mashed potatoes, mixed with onion, cilantro, and some spices. Form this into cakes, pan fry, and serve with chutney and chaat.

Thinking about it, it sounded like a great starch side. I omitted the chile peppers from the mix and used it as a base. Take one tikki, top with braised lamb, and add a couple of ladles of broth from the braised lamb. Delicioso!