Sean liked this dish so much that he put it on the “lets make it again” list.  Maybe he will read this and copy down/memorize the recipe so he can make it and I can sip wine and put my feet up!  This dish is for 2 servings, and it seemed like a fairly small serving by just looking at the recipe, so I doubled the cauliflower.  I also didn’t steam it like I was supposed to, I just boiled it out of sheer laziness and didn’t want to create extra dishes :P  This is the 2nd out of the 3 recipes I grabbed from epicurious this week, the last is a carbonara but I’m not making it just yet, I went to SUPER FOODS and Dragon Star next door,  got a lot of Asian groceries, so that will be what’s on the menu for next week, I have crazy vegetables and I even got oxtail!!  But anyway, back to the lamb, it was delicious after I made a few minor adjustments to it.  I like my foods heavy on the spices, if you don’t, follow the original recipe here.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups small cauliflower florets (1 small whole cauliflower)
• 2 6-ounce lamb shoulder blade chops (original calls for 4-5 oz, but pfft what am I on a diet??)
• 4 teaspoons curry powder, divided
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoon all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup low-salt chicken broth
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 4 tablespoons mango chutney
• 2 large green onions, chopped, divided
• 1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce (cock sauce, rooster sauce, the garlic one that comes in the not-squeeze bottle, it has more flavor, trust me.)

Directions:

1. Boil cauliflower in enough water just to cover it all, until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer to bowl; sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. Sprinkle lamb with salt, pepper, and 1.5 teaspoon curry powder. Heat oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Sauté lamb to desired doneness, 4 to 5 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer to plates. Pour off oil from skillet.
3. Make sure your skillet isn’t on fire here, or else you will burn the flour.  Add 2.5 teaspoons curry powder and flour to skillet; whisk 15 seconds. Add broth, cream, and chutney. Boil until thick, whisking, 2 minutes. Add cauliflower and half of green onions; toss to heat through.
4. Spoon curried cauliflower over lamb. Sprinkle with remaining green onions.

I found this little restaurant at chowhound, and from the reviews it sounded pretty delicious so we thought we’d give it a try.  Other than the very odd and yet comical wait to get seated, it was a great experience.

About 15 minutes after they opened (we were hungry for an early dinner) we walked in, the whole place was empty, which is to be expected.  Here is how it played out:

waitress #1: Hello! Have you been helped?  Oh let me get the maitre d’ for you!
30 seconds later…
maitre d: Hello!  I’m Eric, I’ll be right with you!
1 minute later…
waitress #2: Hi! Have you been helped?  Let me go get Eric for you!
25 seconds later…
waiter #3: Hello there, Eric will be right with you!
1 minute later…..
Eric: Hi, sorry about the wait!
At this point, we didn’t see anybody else in the restaurant and it was almost comical.  What is Eric doing back there?
a) Sewing up a rip in his new pants
b) Beating the last level of Super Mario Bros
c) It’s a portal to a parallel universe where he is also the maitre d’ OH MY GOD THAT BLEW MY MIND.
d) All of the above.
Eric proceeded to greet us, and spent about 30 seconds hacking the gibson typing on the computer, then run off again, I mean literally, he ran away.  I think he went to get more menus.  I didn’t ask.
1 minute later…
Eric asked for our names, and 30 seconds later we sat down.

I work for the government, and this whole process was very familiar to me so I didn’t really mind.  I still don’t know if there’s another dining room or parallel universe in the back or what, but he seemed to really enjoy it back there.

We started off with an amuse-bouche, which I love because I love eating duh. It’s a shrimp spring roll garnished with grapefruit, in a mint basil pesto.  Everything about this was delicious, except the wrapper was doubled and tripled over so many times that the outer layer seemed a bit gelatinous and thick.  Don’t get me wrong, this was delicious and only $2.50, can’t go wrong with that.

Our next course was the SHEFZILLA SURPRISE.  Yup, this is actually the picture on the menu.  It’s a dinosaur, wearing a chef’s hat, if you can’t tell.  You are not allowed to know what it is before you order it, because duh stupid, it’s a surprise.  They do tell you the price, and today it was $11. You also have to let them know of any allergies you might have, like the table next to us, guy was all “I’m allergic to shellfish” – wow dude, sucks to be you.  This idea is pretty genius, I mean how do you NOT order that?  Just look at the picture!

And now… the surprise!  It’s a seared diver scallop in a carrot foam with dehydrated corn.  Also a very tasty dish, the corn was especially great because it gave the scallop some sweetness.  The only awful part is that there is only one scallop and I had to share it with Sean. I ate really fast and I think I got most of it, sucker!

Our main courses, I had the Australian sea bass with parsley puree, parsnips, and creamy mussel foam, topped with some crispy wonton skins.  This was amaaaaazing, probably the best sea bass I’ve had.  And you wouldn’t think a parsley puree would taste good, but it had little chunks of parsnips inside that gave it a really sweet flavor and it complemented the sea bass perfectly.  Although I do have to say, I’m not a huge fan of foam, just give me the broth ok, I really don’t need it to be bubbly and textured, it doesn’t add much to a dish.