Ham and lamb. These are the traditional stars of a celebratory Easter dinner.
But they can be intimidating — lamb, especially, which doesn’t come ready to heat ’n’ eat. How much to buy? How to marinate or season it? How long to cook it? No one wants to invest time and money in a main dish that’s not going to turn out perfectly.
Have no fear. Tracy Plumb-Ruiz will guide you through the process and guarantee a grand, glorious, and gorgeous centerpiece for your feast.
Ms. Plumb-Ruiz is a graduate of the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute and the cook/owner of Chef Tracy 419 catering. She and her husband, Drew Ruiz, join forces in The Chefs Ruiz, which is involved in a variety of projects including nutrition counseling and hands-on cooking classes.
The very busy chef works her culinary magic every Saturday and Sunday at Black Kite Coffee and Pies, 2499 Collingwood Blvd., serving brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The menu changes each week and features seasonal produce and other local specialties along with Ms. Plumb-Ruiz’s own surprising and playful touches.
When asked to coach readers through the process of preparing an Easter meal, she readily agreed. And she put her creativity and talent to work, developing special recipes just for the occasion.
This isn’t your same old standard meat ’n’ potatoes.
To start with, you’ll want to buy a boneless end cut sirloin lamb roast. The one Ms. Plumb-Ruiz prepared weighed 5 1/2 pounds and would feed 8 to 10 people easily when served along with side dishes.
The meat will need to marinate overnight, so plan accordingly. Fresh mint and rosemary, salt and pepper, and oil combine with brown sugar, garlic paste, and Dijon mustard to infuse the meat with a significant depth of flavor.
“You want something that has a bite to it,” such as the strong mustard to complement the sweetness, she said. And there’s no need to mash your own garlic cloves: Garlic paste is available in tubes found in the produce section of grocery stores.
If your lamb comes trussed, be sure to remove that after it has marinated but before searing the meat. Removing the string from the roast before cooking makes it that much easier to handle, rather than having the string become embedded into the meat.
When you’re ready to start cooking, “a large, heavy cast iron [skillet] is going to give you the best browning or sear,” she said, though any sturdy, oven-safe pan without a plastic handle would work. Rather than searing the lamb and then transferring it to a baking dish, all the cooking is done in one skillet.
Once the lamb has reached an internal temperature of 125 degree to 135 degrees Fahrenheit, it needs to rest before being sliced and served. “Like any good meat, it has to sit 10 minutes or else you lose all the juices,” Ms. Plumb-Ruiz said.
To accompany the lamb, she offered both traditional mint jelly and, “to give that little bit of spice,” a jalapeño mint jelly, as well. “You have to use food coloring,” she said. “As soon as you start to heat them,” the jellies turn brown. And what would a mint or a jalapeño jelly be without the expected green color for aesthetics?
Because these will be served soon after being cooked, there’s no need to use a water bath to seal the jellies in jars for storage; they can go straight to the fridge, she said. They can both be made the day before, allowing them to grow firmer while giving you one less detail to worry about as you prepare for your guests.
As for a starch to serve alongside the meat, Ms. Plumb-Ruiz said, “I have just become obsessed with Hasselback potatoes.”
These simple classics are sliced very thin, but they are left intact at the base to hold everything together; when baked, they resemble open fans. The chef stuffed garlic, parmesan, and fresh rosemary in between the potato slices, carrying over the theme of having fresh herbs in each of the dishes. Alternate the ingredients, rather than placing a bit of each in every opening, to help distinguish, rather than muddle, the flavors.
To facilitate cutting the potatoes into thin slices without cutting through them entirely, she recommended laying two skewers onto a cutting board and taping them down, parallel to each other a potato’s width apart. The potato rests comfortably in the space between the skewers, and when you cut through it, your knife will hit the skewers instead of going all the way through to the board and leaving you with sliced potatoes instead of the traditional Hasselback fan.
Marinating the potatoes for at least two hours will help to soften them, allowing them to cook more thoroughly. A simple mixture of salt (kosher or sea salt), black pepper, and olive oil is all that’s needed. “I don’t like that oil taste taking over everything,” Ms. Plumb-Ruiz said, so she recommended a light-flavored oil rather than the green extra-virgin variety.
The potatoes can “bake right along with the lamb,” she said, though they’ll go into the oven first to precook a bit before being stuffed. Then the entrée can roast while the side dish is finished up. This will “get a little bit of brown on those herbs and get the cheese melted.”
There’s no need for gravy or a sauce. Ms. Plumb-Ruiz said you should simply “drizzle the pan jus” over the lamb once it’s been placed onto the platter. “Because of the brown sugar, it’s not runny.”
And that’s it: With a few simple steps, a great coach, and a bit of advance preparation, a divinely delicious dinner can be yours on Easter Sunday.
Meat ’n’ potatoes never looked — or tasted — so good.
Contact Mary Bilyeu at mbilyeu@theblade.com or 419-724-6155 or on Twitter @foodfloozie.
RECIPES
Easter Lamb Roast
Be sure to start this the night before serving, so the meat has a chance to marinate.
One 5 1/2-pound sirloin end leg of lamb, boned
For paste:
2 tablespoons garlic paste from a tube
8 fresh mint leaves
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon salt (kosher or sea)
2 teaspoons black pepper
5 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for cooking
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
Place the lamb in a dish large enough to hold it.
Put all paste ingredients in the food processor and purée. Spread the paste evenly over entire roast. Cover and refrigerate overnight, to marinate.
Preheat oven to 350F. If you bought the lamb trussed, remove the strings.
Place cast iron (or other heavy duty, oven safe pan) on stove top, on high heat. Drizzle some olive oil in hot pan. Remove lamb from marinade and place it, fat side down, in the pan. Sear each side about 5 minutes, until paste has caramelized. (Use two sets of tongs, one in each hand, to make turning the meat easier.)
Put the lamb, still in the pan, straight into the oven. Cook for 25 to 30 minutes, or until internal temperature is 125 to 135F for rare to medium-rare.
Take lamb out of oven and let the meat rest for 8 to 10 minutes before slicing, to let the juices regroup. Slice against the grain and place onto a serving platter. Drizzle pan drippings over roast.
Yield: 8 to 10 servings.
Source: Tracy Plumb-Ruiz.
Hasselback Potatoes
6 baking potatoes, scrubbed and dried
2 wooden skewers
Light olive oil
Salt (kosher or sea)
Black pepper
1 sprig rosemary, leaves torn off stem
1 tube garlic paste
3/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, divided
Tape skewers down on cutting board, parallel to each other, spaced to border the width of a potato. (This will keep your knife from cutting all the way through the potatoes when slicing.)
Place the potatoes, one by one, between the skewers. Cut very thin slices, about 1/8-inch thick, down to skewer, for the length of potato. Drizzle the potatoes with olive oil to lightly coat and season with salt and pepper. Place the potatoes into a baking dish that holds them comfortably, with some room for expansion. Cover, and marinate at least 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350F. Roast the potatoes for 30 minutes to get the potatoes to open a bit along the slices.
Place rosemary, dollops of garlic paste, and sprinkles of parmesan, alternately, in between the potato slices. Roast the potatoes for 25 minutes more.
Remove from the oven and serve immediately.
Yield: 6 servings.
Source: Tracy Plumb-Ruiz.
Traditional Mint Jelly
1 1/2 cups packed fresh mint leaves and stems
2 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 drops green food color
3 1/2 cups white sugar
Half of 4.7-ounce container powdered pectin
Rinse off the mint leaves, then tear leaves off of stems and place them into a large saucepan. Add water, and bring the mint to a boil. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 10 minutes.
Strain mint, reserving liquid. Rinse out saucepan.
Pour liquid back into the saucepan. Stir in the lemon juice and food coloring. Mix in the sugar, and place the pan over high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Once the mixture is boiling, stir in the pectin. Boil the mixture for 10 minutes while stirring constantly (it will boil over if you don’t stir constantly).
Remove from heat. Skim foam off the top using a large metal spoon. Transfer the mixture to clean container, and refrigerate for at least four hours.
Yield: 8 to 10 servings.
Source: Tracy Plumb-Ruiz.
Jalapeño-Mint Jelly
12 small jalapeño peppers
2 cups apple cider vinegar, divided
6 cups sugar, pre-measured into a bowl
Half of 4.7-ounce container powdered pectin
2 drops green food coloring
1 batch Traditional Mint Jelly
Remove the tops and seeds of all peppers. (Keep 1 jalapeño with the seeds in for mild heat; keep more if you want more heat.) Grind all peppers in food processor with 1 cup of the vinegar. Do not strain purée.
Add purée and remaining vinegar to a saucepan. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Strain mixture, reserving the liquid.
Rinse out saucepan, then pour liquid back into saucepan. Add sugar and food coloring to liquid; stir. Bring to a boil. Once the mixture is boiling, stir in pectin.
Boil the mixture for 10 minutes while stirring constantly (it will boil over if you don’t stir constately). Remove from heat. Skim foam off the top using a large metal spoon. Transfer the mixture to clean container, and refrigerate for at least four hours. When jelly has set, stir it into the Traditional Mint Jelly.
Yield: 8 to 10 servings.
Source: Tracy Plumb-Ruiz.
First Published March 22, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
