It's All About The Goozle

When I set out to make a shepherd's pie with a topping of squashed kabocha instead of mashed potato, little did I know it would be all about the sauce.

I sauteéd cubes of lamb London broil in a little bacon fat, set them aside in the baking dish, then repeated with two green garlics and a leek in the same pan. Added chunks of skinny little new carrots in three colors, and frozen peas with pearl onions, cooking just until the carrots were tender and the peas thawed. Dumped all of that into the baking dish but, before adding the squash, I thought, "That looks dry. How can I keep it moist in the oven?"

If you are a regular reader here, you know that I don't know from gravy. I wasn't raised by a gravy-lovin' mother so I don't really even know how to make it, but gravy is exactly what this dish needed, so here goes!

I considered chicken broth but decided beef would be more compatible with the lamb (oh, for a little lamb broth!). Just as I was about to wash the pan, I realized that the best flavor in the whole dish was languishing at the bottom of that pan. Bacon flavor! Lamb drippings! Oniony stuff!

So, I added just a tad of butter to the pan to get things moving, sprinkled it with a modicum of flour and cooked those together for a few minutes, then blended in a squiggle of tomato paste from a tube, before adding beef stock little by little, stirring like a mad witch until it all smoothed out, deglazed the pan, got shiny and turned a very homey brown. I poured the resulting gravy, if you can call it that, all around the lamb chunks and veggies, and patted the squash blanket over the rest. Dotted it with a tad more butter and slid it into a 350 degree oven to heat.

The veggies were fine and fresh, the squash was sweet and buttery, the lamb was tasty but, kids, it's really all about the goozle. It was so packed with flavor that it cast the rest of the dish into the shade. We chased that last bit all around the plate, refusing to leave even a smidgen (oh, for a nice piece of bread!). I've coined a new Irish blessing:

"May your meals be filled always with plenty of goozle."

Rendez-vous in Albany

I went with the photo of the daube, since it turned out the best in the low lighting at Rendez-Vous Cafe-Bistro, our newest favorite restaurant in Albany, CA, but all four of the dishes we tasted this time were outstanding. If you live in the greater Bay area, you gotta try this place!

We ordered the French-style deviled eggs (four halves to a plate), rich with green onion and garlic, for our shared appetizer; I don't know how they made them but if there was mayo in there, it was very, very minimal. They were served on a curving leaf of Boston lettuce with Niçoise olives and cherry tomato wedges on the plate. If you have a more ladylike appetite than I, the eggs alone would make a nice meal.

My Beloved chose the daube, a killer slow-cooked beef stew, topped with crispy onions and mashed potatoes. I ordered the lamb stew, equally deep in flavors; fork-tender lamb mixed with big chunks of hearty fall veggies in an unctuous sauce. My bowl of stew was so generous that I brought home half. Pal Sari had a Croque Monsieur slathered in béchamel sauce. We all tasted all four dishes and they all were pleasure groan-producing, table-pounding, eye-rolling delicious.

Dessert was also wonderful. My Beloved enjoyed his apple crepes with caramel sauce and Sari ordered profiteroles with vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sauce. All three of us sampled these, too, and pronounced them fit for a king and two queens. Add prompt and responsive service by a personable and charming wait staff and reasonable prices, and you have a treat of the first magnitude.

I might also mention that the owner is a tall, handsome, charming Frenchman with a smile capable of making this old gal's heart flutter a bit, a small but distinct bonus. Even Sari, who is more dignified than I in the presence of gorgeous guys, had a rather starstruck look on her face after he visited our table.

After dinner, we strolled up Solano Avenue, settling our dinners before settling in to our seats at the Albany Twin Cinema next door to Rendez-Vous for a showing of "Paris," the new Juliette Binoche movie, which is a feast of a different sort.

Pretty Sweet Little Stew

You may recall that we had a little lamb left from the shanks that simmered all day in our crock pot - I was planning to make curry with it so I saved the meat and the rich brown goozly broth from the bottom of the pot.

I wanted to make something similar to a Thai curry, thick with chunks of potatoes and carrots like they served at the Thai restaurant near my workplace; now that I'm retired, what I miss most aside from my students and coworkers is the variety of restaurants nearby. I had a couple of fresh carrots, half an onion and two big red potatoes but, when I opened the vegetable drawer, I noticed that I had half of a small kabocha squash as well, and to my combination of parsimony and taste memory that sounded pretty good.

I peeled and chunked the veggies and coarsely chopped the lamb and plopped them all back into the goozle, warming the meat and simmering the veggies. When I lifted the lid to add the curry part I was struck by the beauty of the stew with its fall colors, and the scent that wafted up was pure winter heaven. It smelled richly of lamb and sweetly of onion and squash. I decided not to mess with perfection.

I just scooped it all into bowls, added a few slices of sour baguette, and called it dinner. My Beloved and I had one of those moments where we taste, meet each other's eyes and grin. Pretty sweet little stew, indeed!