Eighth of an Acre Bounty

Our featured dinner for the dark days challenge this week was actually our Christmas Dinner. A smaller than average group around for Christmas gave me the opportunity to host at our house this year (tiny house). The Menu?

Roasted Leg of Lamb with Fennel Butter and Red Wine Sauce

Glazed Baby Carrots and Parsnips

Sauteed Kale and Spinach with Shallots and Garlic

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Rosemary

Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes

and for dessert a choice of

Pumpkin Custard Tart with Anise Crust

or Espresso Chocolate Pecan Pie

both offered with a topping of maple whipped cream.

The leg of lamb was the last bit of lamb we had in the freezer from last years purchase of a whole lamb from Bradrick Family Farm in Montisano. We didn’t get a lamb this year (for some reason Bradrick has decided not to sell direct any longer) and it was sad to see the last of it go, but a Christmas dinner for 8 was a fitting goodbye. The fennel came from our golden fennel plant this year, I harvested a metric ton of fennel seeds in the fall and this seemed like a great use for them.

Most of the vegi’s for the side dishes came from the U district farmers market on the Saturday before. We ventured out despite freezing temperatures and snow to see if any farmers had anything. We picked up a bunch of sunchokes, some beautiful tiny carrots, and a bit more garlic. It was so cold on that day that all of the meat purveyors simply had thier individually quick frozen and wrapped cuts laying out on the tables, no coolers necessary.

The desserts both turned out well. The pumkin custard tart I made from a sugar pumpkin I picked up a month ago at the Columbia City Market. The pecan pie, decidedly the most unlocal part of the meal – was the bit hit. I worked from a recipe found in a December 2007 issue of Fine Cooking. I had been wanting to try this recipe for over a year and with good reason it seems. Now I will go about tweaking and experimenting to see if I can replace hazelnuts for the pecans for a more local twist. Does anyone know of a workable substitute to corn syrup in pies of this sort?

Local Foods: Lamb, Kale, Garlic, Fennel, Butter, Cream, Flour, Pumpkin, Potatoes, Carrots, Rosemary, Jerusalem Artichokes (sunchokes), Red Wine, Eggs.

Non Local Ingredients: Pecans, corn syrup, salt, pepper, olive oil, proscuitto (in the kale), spinach, parsnips (unknown provenience), Espresso powder and chocolate.