I have to tell you: I’m a sucker for blue food. Especially food that you don’t always expect to be blue. (You know what I’m talking about. Anything blue raspberry flavored, etc. And bonus points if it makes your tongue change color.)

Call it a weakness.

So, you can imagine that I’m thrilled as can be whenever I can get my paws on nice-looking blue potatoes.

You could probably blast these at super high heat in the oven and get them nice and crunchy. A lot of folks make oven-baked fries that way, say 20 or 25 minutes at 450 degrees.

Me, I prefer to roast them for about an hour at a lower temperature. I’m not a kitchen scientist, but I swear that there’s something about doing it this way that makes them a little nuttier. (Anyone, anyone?)

What is a blue potato, anyway?

Blue potatoes, native to South America, have been popping up in American markets since the 1970s. Aside from their striking color, though, they taste pretty much like a regular potato. (No blue raspberry flavor here, sorry.) The insides will range from solid blue, to speckled, like mine.

They get their blue color from anthocyanin pigments. That’s the same phytochemical that makes cabbage purple and blueberries blue. Anthocyanin is also a source of antioxidents. (Hello, a healthier potato? Yes, please!)

Blue potatoes are a medium starch potato. This means that they’re starchy enough to make fabulous mashed potatoes, and waxy enough to hold their own in potato salad.

A lot of folks are partial to making red, white, and blue potato salad around July 4.

This is a really simple recipe. It’s a great, easy weeknight alternative to french fries. I tossed the potato wedges with some fresh, minced herbs, garlic, and olive oil, then baked ‘em in the oven.

Roasted Blue Potato Wedges with Fresh Herbs

1 lb. blue potatoes
1 Tbls. fresh green herbs, minced (I used rosemary, thyme, and oregano)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
kosher salt
freshly cracked black pepper

Serves about 4 as a side

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and set aside.

Grab your potatoes. I got mine from a local farmer’s market, but I have seen ‘em in some Whole Foods.

Scrub ‘em clean under cold water. You can peel them if you like. Blue potatoes have relatively thin skins, so I don’t bother. Nip out any big eyes with a sharp paring knife and discard.

Blue potatoes tend to be on the smaller side, so I just whack each potato into quarters, like this.

Put your potato wedges in a large bowl. Toss in the chopped herbs.

Give them a good drink of olive oil. A quarter of a cup is usually good for about a pound of wedges.

Add the garlic and some kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

And toss to coat well.

Spread them out on your prepared pan.

Pop them into your preheated 350-degree oven. Roast for about an hour, stirring them once about halfway through.

They’re done when they’re crisp and brown on the edges.

Serve hot or at room temp. To reheat, pop them in a 250-degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until warm throughout.

(Seriously, yum!)

Enjoy!

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We’ve been pining for summer weather here in Boston. It’s been cold, dreary, and drizzly for days. This pasta salad is like a little dose of summer—it’s cool, creamy, and an absolutely fabulous thing to bring to a picnic or barbecue. Assuming, that is, that the sun ever comes out.

Here’s how to put this pasta salad together—as well as a step-by-step guide for how to clean and de-vein fresh shrimp. My recipe calls for about a pound of fresh shrimp, but scale the amount up or down to fit your budget and what looks good at the fish market.

I like to make it with fresh fettuccine, but use any kind of pasta you like.

For the fresh goat feta, I used cheese that I picked up on a recent adventure to Sweet Pea Farm in Connecticut. (More on that to come soon.)

If you can’t find goat feta, swap in any fresh goat cheese you can find—you may just need to add less of it, depending on how salty the cheese you choose is. (Fresh goat feta is very mild.)

On to the recipe!

Pasta Salad with Shrimp, Goat Feta, and Basil

1 lb fresh fettuccine (or other pasta you like)
3/4 – 1 lb. large fresh shrimp
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp. fresh rosemary, minced
1 clove garlic, mashed
1 cup fresh goat cheese feta
1 cup basil, loosely packed
freshly cracked black pepper
1 Tbls. chives, minced
kosher salt

Serves 4-6

Cook and drain the pasta

Bring a large pot of water to boil on the stove. Add your pasta.

Toss in a little salt.

Cook until it’s done to your liking. (I shoot for a little on the al dente side.)

When your pasta is cooked, drain it. Then rinse it well with cold water until it’s cold to the touch. (That’s important, and will help keep your pasta from getting gummy and clumping together.)

Transfer the pasta to a large mixing bowl when it’s drained.

Set it aside while you deal with the shrimp.

How to clean and de-vein fresh shrimp

Now, technically, you can eat the whole shrimp—shell and vein and feet and all. (We just saw Duff Goldman from Charm City Cakes raving about fried shrimp heads on TV, in fact.) Most folks however, like to remove the vein for aesthetic reasons.

So! Grab your shrimp. Keep them cold while you clean them by setting them in a bowl of ice. (To make this operation even easier, shell and de-vein your shrimp in the sink, under cold running water.)

Pull the shell away from the body of the shrimp, including all the little feet, if they’re still attached. Pull the tail off gently, so you don’t rip off much of the meat.

Your shrimp should look about like this:

Flip him around and take a look at his back. You should see a black line running down the center. This may be fat or thin (so thin that it’s barely visible), depending on the shrimp.

Make a shallow slice along the black line with a small, sharp knife.

Your shrimp should look about like this:

Spread the shrimp apart. You should see that icky, black line.

Scrape or pull it out with your knife, so it’s totally gone, like this:

Repeat with your other shrimp. Keep them on ice as you finish them to ensure they stay cold.

How to cook the shrimp

Shrimp are easy to overcook. But they don’t have to be. For this dish, I use gentle heat and don’t walk away from the stove while they’re in the pan.

Put the olive oil, garlic, and rosemary in a large non-stick pan. Give it a stir. Set it on the stove over medium heat for a minute or two to help release the flavors into the oil.

Add the shrimp.

Cook them for maybe 2 minutes on this side.

After a minute or two, your shrimp should be a rosy pink underneath. They should also be opaque on that side. When you see that, flip ‘em over.

Cook them on this side for another one or two minutes.

They should be slightly curled at this point—but not tightly curled.

When a shrimp is cooked, it’s opaque. (See on this one, the top half of the shrimp is opaque, but the bottom is still kind of translucent because it’s not done yet.)

When the shrimp are pink and opaque on the bottom, take the pan off the heat.

Let them sit in the pan, off the heat, for another minute to finish cooking through to the center.

Transfer them to a dish or plate and set them aside. Reserve the oil from the pan. That’s going into the pasta salad.

(Mmmmm, shrimp. Better give one a nibble, just to…you know…be totally sure they’re done.)

Assemble the pasta salad

Fluff up your pasta a little to be sure it’s not at all stuck together. (If it is, rinse it again in cold water, then drain it well.)

Pour the oil and juices from the pan into the bowl with the pasta.

(Mmmmm, garlic.)

Toss in the basil. Then add the goat feta.

Chop the shrimp up.

I like medium-sized pieces, like this:

Toss the chopped shrimp into the bowl.

Toss in the chives. Grind on some black pepper. Squeeze on the lemon (pick out any seeds).

Now, you can mix this up with tongs or a few wooden spoons. I tend to use my hands, especially with a long noodle like fettuccine. It’s gentler on the pasta.

You want the ingredients to be evenly distributed. Give it a taste, and toss in a little salt if you think it needs it (and depending on the type of cheese you used).

I don’t like to keep cooked seafood for more than one day, so I usually make this no earlier than the night before I want to serve it.

If it needs it when it comes out of the fridge, you can toss in a little extra olive oil to loosen it up.

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Yum. You know how I love miniature food. Don’t ask me why, but I do. Most of the time, I’d rather nibble on a bunch of different things than have one big meal. These sliders combine all the traditional seasonings that go so well with lamb—rosemary, mint, garlic—in one tiny burger that’s packed with flavor.

Freshly fried sliders, waiting for their buns

I know they’re on almost every bar menu these days, but just in case you don’t know, a slider is just a little thing. (In fact, they’re so popular, that there was a selection of slider buns in the bread aisle at my local grocery store.) Here’s a slider bun, next to a teaspoon, for comparison.

I used fresh mint from my front garden.

My front garden is basically a giant mint patch (can you say, “mint julep?”). I was super excited to see that my rose bush—the only other thing up there—finally decided to push out its first flower of the season!

This recipe has a fair amount of rosemary and mint in it—without being overpowering. For garlic lovers, by all means, toss in another clove if you like.

One green onion gives the sliders the right amount of subtle onion flavor.

Finish the sliders with a few thin slices of creamy, salty feta for a fresh tang.

Feta cheese

Lamb Sliders with Rosemary & Mint

1 lb. ground lamb
kosher salt
freshly cracked black pepper
1 tsp. fresh mint, minced
1 tsp. fresh rosemary, minced
1 clove garlic, mashed
1 green onion, minced
olive oil

slider buns (or a long loaf of crusty French bread cut into small wedges)
feta

Makes 6-8 sliders, depending on how big you make your patties

Make the lamb mixture

Grab your ground lamb.

Put it in a large bowl. Sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste.

Toss in the minced rosemary and mint.

Add the mashed garlic.

Toss in the chopped green onion.

With your hands, gently mix the meat to incorporate the herbs and garlic.

You’re aiming for a fairly homogeneous mixture, like this:

Form the slider patties

Gather the meat mixture into a large ball, then smoosh it down, so it looks like one giant hamburger patty.

With a large knife, cut it into 6-8 wedges, like this (this will help you keep all the sliders about the same size):

Grab one of the wedges.

Roll it into a ball.

Then smoosh it flat into a patty.

Make them as thick or thin as you like. (Remember, they’re going to shrink a little when cooked.)

Do this with the rest of the meat, until all your patties are formed.

Cook the lamb sliders

Now, you can grill these, too. Or you can fry them on the stove. Totally up to you.

Drizzle a little olive oil in a large, non-stick pan. Set it on the stove over medium-high heat for a few minutes to heat up. When the pan is hot, add the sliders. You want them to start to sizzle right away.

Keep the sliders relatively spaced out, so each browns nicely. (If they’re too close together, they’ll steam, more than brown.)

Cook for a few minutes. When they’ve developed a nice, brown crust underneath, flip them over.

Cook them on this side for another few minutes. Your final cooking time will depend on how thick your sliders are.

If you’re a food thermometer type, you’re shooting for an internal temperature of about 160 degrees.

Bon appetit!

Depending on how fatty your ground lamb is, you may want to drain your sliders for a minute or two before plating.

When you’re ready, pop each on a bun.

Top with thin slices of feta.

Serve and enjoy!

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Lamb rib chops—often called lollipop chops when the bone is frenched—are an oh-so-sweet appetizer that’s simple to make and impressive to present. They’re easy to eat, and much more elegant than a big, meaty rib.

The rib chops develop a handsome brown crust from being seared with rosemary and garlic—both classic flavors for lamb.

A sprinkle of fresh, minced mint at the very end gives them an extra burst of bright, fresh flavor.

So what is a lamb rib chop, anyway?

Lamb rib meat is super tender and very flavorful. Basically, a lamb rib chop is what you’d get if you cut a rack of lamb up into chops.

Because they’re so tender—and petite—they only need to cook for a few minutes on each side, making them an ideal fast-and-fabulous party food. They’re best broiled, grilled, or pan-seared.

The thing I love most about them? Lamb rib chops basically come with a built-in handle.

This is more technique than exact recipe. It’s easy to scale up or down, depending on the crowd you’re feeding. This time, I only had a few chops.

This article demonstrates how to french a lamb rib chop, then how to pan sear them. For thicker, extra-fancy chops, buy a rack of lamb and carve it into double chops (two bones per chop) yourself.

Lamb Lollipop Chops: To french or not to french

Frenching the bone like this is a *wee* bit wasteful, depending on how much meat you cut away. (There’s usually not too much meat near the end of the bone.)

Frenching is also totally optional, and depends largely on how you want to present and serve them.

Garlic & Rosemary Lamb Lollipop Chops

Lamb rib chops
Kosher salt
Olive oil
Fresh rosemary, minced
Fresh garlic, mashed
Freshly cracked black pepper
Fresh mint, minced, for garnish

Garlic & Rosemary Lamb Lollipops: How to french a lamb rib chop

Grab your lamb rib chops. Give them a quick rinse under cold water. Pat them dry.

For my lamb lollipops, I like to leave about 2 inches of rib bone totally bare. You sometimes see these cut down so that only the large round of meat is left on the bone. I prefer to leave a little more meat on my bone. It’s less wasteful and still makes for a lovely presentation.

With a very sharp knife, cut through the fat and meat down to the bone on all sides, like this:

Next, flip the chop over, so the underside of the rib is facing up. Slice the meat away on each side, getting as close to the bone as you can.

Next, flip the rib back over. Run your knife under the meat on top of the bone, slicing it off.

At this point the bone should be fairly bare. With the edge of your knife, scrape off the remaining meat and fat.

Finally, flip the chop over again, so the bottom of the rib is facing up. There’s a thin skin clinging to the back of the bone. Scrape that off, too.

Go over the bone and scrape off any larger bits that you’ve missed. When you’re finished, your bone should look about like this:

Any little bits (like this) left clinging to the bone will pretty much cook off.

You’ll wind up with a little pile of scraps. Toss it in a baggie in the fridge and save for when you’d like to add a little lamb-y flavor to dishes.

Or, if you have a very (very, very) well behaved dog, fry those scraps up for a treat that will likely make him lose his mind.

Repeat with the rest of your ribs.

I did have one rib in my package that was missing a large piece of bone. It went into the pan with the others. It may have been missing its handle, but it was just as tasty.

Garlic & Rosemary Lamb Lollipops: Marinate the lamb rib chops

Once you’ve frenched the lamb rib chops, it’s time to season them. Sprinkle them with kosher salt to taste.

Drizzle them with olive oil. Rub the oil on all sides.

Sprinkle with minced rosemary.

Smear each rib with garlic.

Add freshly cracked pepper to taste.

If you like, marinate the ribs like this overnight in the fridge. Otherwise, they’re ready to cook.

Garlic & Rosemary Lamb Lollipops: Pan sear the lamb rib chops

Drizzle a little olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan. Set it on the stove over medium-high heat for a minute or two to heat up.

When the pan is nice and hot, drop in your chops.

Sear them like this for a few minutes, until they’ve developed a nice brown crust on the bottom. (The time will vary from maybe 3-6 minutes per side, depending on how rare you like your lamb.) If the pan starts to smoke, lower the heat a bit.

When they have a nice crust, flip them over.

Sear them on this side for about the same amount of time as you cooked the other side, so the chops cook evenly.

When they have a nice brown crust on the bottom, yank them out of the pan. Let them rest for maybe 5 minutes to help them stay juicy.

Garlic & Rosemary Lamb Lollipops: How do you know when your lamb is cooked?

Good question. The truth is, lamb rib chops are little things, so they’re actually easy to overcook. If you’re a food thermometer kind of person, medium rare is 145 degrees, and medium is 160 degrees.

Otherwise, use your eyes and your sense of touch. Your chops should have a good brown crust on each side. The meat, when pressed should be firm, and shouldn’t feel at all squishy. When in doubt, cut a little nick into one and take a peek. The meat should be pink-ish and opaque, not translucent.

Garlic & Rosemary Lamb Lollipops: Serve and enjoy!

Garnish with a little freshly chopped mint.

Enjoy!

Enjoy!

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