Spoon & Shutter

Lamb Ragout with Chestnuts and Roasted Brussels Sprouts

From Susan: Julia Child may be a legend, but James Beard is an icon. Or maybe that’s not fair – they are both legends and icons – Child for demystifying French food for American cooks and Beard for celebrating the wondrous variety of American cooking. Each of them was colorful, captivating and, to use a cliche that’s altogether apt here, larger than life; together, they built the foundation for the wide-ranging culture of food that fascinates so many of us today. It was Julia Child who insisted on establishing the James Beard Foundation at Beard’s Greenwich Village home and it was she who famously said “In the beginning, there was James Beard.”

Beard wrote numerous cookbooks – many of them foundational treatises on individual culinary subjects, like “Beard on Bread, “Beard on Pasta,” “James Beard’s New Fish Cookery” and “James Beard’s Barbecue Cookbook.” I received the first two in a box gift set years ago, before I, and anyone I knew, had any idea about how to bake “real” bread and make any other pasta besides spaghetti and meat sauce. I made my first attempt at a French baguette thanks to Beard; this remains my go-to recipe.

The chef d’oeuvre of Beard’s collection is James Beard American Cookery. Originally published in 1972, it was re-issued to much fanfare last fall with a forward written by superstar chef Tom Colicchio. I was fortunate to be a guest at the press luncheon at the Beard House to celebrate the publication of the new edition. Colicchio did a meet and greet and we dined on a simple menu created from recipes in the book.

James Beard American Cookery is not for the neophyte cook: it assumes a certain amount of basic kitchen knowledge and there are no diagrams or illustrations to show you, say, how to truss and spit a goose. The recipes are written in a straightforward way and the number of servings is not always included. However, it is fascinating reading, with detailed descriptions of the process for curing Smithfield ham or the history of baked beans – for which Beard gives 10 regional recipes! I could – and have – sit down with a cup of tea, open to a chapter and delight in the great chef’s prose. An example:

“Although everyone thinks fried chicken is as American as blueberry pie, it did not originate here. We have made it our own dish, however, and it stands or falls on a great tradition. Some of it served to people along the road and in many restaurants is best forgotten – batter soaked as it is, dropped in stale deep fat and cooked until rather slimy, fatty and indigestible. When correctly prepared, few dishes can be so good. At its best it resembles a Viennese dish called Wiener Backhendl, a favorite in Austria for generations. The only significant difference is that there is a larger amount of lemon juice in the Viennese recipe, which gives it a more attractive flavor.”

I didn’t know the history of fried chicken, did you?

For one of my weekly columns in The Record last month, I made two old-fashioned hors d’oeuvres: steak tartare and Roquefort cheese log. These are just the sort of recipes one might turn to American Cookery for; the book is a treasury of “lost” dishes like Crabmeat Remoulade, Steak Diane, Deviled Ham and Baked Alaska. But there is plenty here to please the forward-thinking cook as well, like this simple and absolutely delicious lamb ragout. The combination and preparation method is something I would never have thought of, and the finished lamb is not at all gamy and beautifully complimented by the chestnuts. The recipe is copied exactly from the book; my comments are at the end.

Ragout of Lamb Chops with Chestnuts

10-12 lamb chops (2 per person) cut from the shoulder, fat removed

Salt and fresh ground pepper

Thyme

2 onions cut in thin slices

6 tablespoons butter

2 cups peeled chestnuts (canned whole chestnuts may be used

1 1/2 to 2 cups liquid (broth or half broth and half wine or water)

Chopped parsley

Butter a rather deep baking dish or casserole equipped with a cover. In it arrange half of the chops. Salt and pepper them and add a touch of thyme. Add a layer of half of the onion rings and dot with butter. Add a layer of half of the chestnuts, a layer of chops, a layer of onions and finally, a layer of chestnuts. Add broth to barely cover the dish. Dot with butter and season with salt, pepper and thyme. Cover and baked at 350 degrees for an hour. Test the chops for doneness by cutting a slit near the bone. If not done, return to the oven for 15-20 minutes. Served with braised Brussels sprouts. Garnish with chopped parsley. Note: The addition of a couple of cloves of garlic to the recipe enhances it considerably.

The ragout before going into the oven

The finished ragout

That is typical of Beard – the garlic note at the end! For two of us, I used four chops with the outside fat trimmed off, 1 small onion and 2 small cloves of garlic, which I smashed and chopped roughly.  My grocery store was out of jarred chestnuts, but we had some fresh ones, which we roasted and peeled – some went into the pot whole, some in pieces. The liquid was a combination of chicken broth and white wine. The chops were about 3/4 inch thick, so they were easily done in an hour. I roasted the Brussels sprouts instead of braising them.