Last spring Gretchen Coffin, the farm stand manager, of Allandale Farm, called me to see if we’d be interested in buying two baby lambs that would be ready in September.  I jumped at the chance!  We are committed to using as much local ingredients as possible and whole local lamb was pure excitement.

The summer flew buy with all of the Hells Kitchen craziness and, of course restaurant weeks, and we found our selves at the end of August with no menu and lambs on the way in a few weeks, Chef Izzy kicked out a killer menu and the dinner was so yummy.

Here’s the menu and pictures….

Allandale Local Farms

Lamb Tasting Menu

Hors d’oeuvres

Mini  BLTs

House made lamb “Bacon”

Butter head lettuce , heirloom tomatoes

Rosemary aioli

Coriander Scented lamb

Phyllo triangles

Caramelized onions, toasted pine nuts

fig chutney

Steamed Scallion Ginger “Momo’s”

Ground lamb- Spinach and Cilantro

Soy Sake and Sirracha sauce

Appetizer

Frisee and Arugala salad Duo

12 hour Confit belly  bacon lardon

And Pearl onions

Cask aged sherry vinegar

House made fennel crisp

Entrée

Trio of Lamb

Sausage Merguez- Roasted Red pepper

Moroccan Spice

Slow baked salt crusted leg of lamb

With orange peel, sweet basil, Summer Savory

“Shepherds Pie” honey glazed rainbow mixed

carrots, Sweet “Providence Corn”

Dessert

Cherve Cheesecake

Summer berry compote

Pistachio Praline

hanging in the walk-in

Dimitrias, Kat, and Izzy giving the lamb some lovin'

and the process begins, breaking down 2 lambs took about 3 hours

Izzy gives me some pionters

primal parts

We do dinners every month, if you’d like advance notice about them, sign up on our website Tremont647.com

My friend Mark Ellis, owner of the Chef’s Table (one of the best caterers I know), has been asking me to go fishing with him for years.  I had never taken him up on the offer until this summer, and if asked again, there will be no hesitation, it was so much fun.

We first got caught in the fog and fished off peggoty beach in Scituate, then trolled up the north river in Marshfield, I caught a striper in the south river by Hummarock…

Friends and Fishing, the best combo eva.

Awards for the invitational are over, we place 43 outta 119, not our best showing.

I thought our Q was good! Tomorrow we compete against 476 teams….

Here’s the boys during awards and me an bill Arnold- he makes the award wining blues hog sauce.

We’re done with the turn ins
Veg: pumpkin purée seasoned with nutmeg cinn maple syrup topped with fluff and toasted pecans

Potato: cheddar filled tots

Beans: 4 beans with east coast grills baked beans, head country sauce, and BBQ spices.

Dessert: ken’s butter cake, cool whip and caramel

Here’s our brisket turn in, few years back we placed 1st here

Meats are so goood, we’re real happy.

We’re all hurting from last night. Meats are looking real good.

Chicken is first, here’s the turn in

Arrived last night at tenish, (chris hart, iQue’s pitmaster, flew in and got here a little after we did) put the cooker (Jambo pit) in place, emptied the rv of coolers and gear and settled down for some serious poker and bourbon. We played till about 2am then crashed.

Up at 7am. Today is mainly filled with setting up camp and getting ready for the invitational BBQ competitions tomorrow (we start cooking tonight at 11- briskets and pork) and the sides competitions.

For the BBQ meats we trim, inject, and rub building unique layers of flavor. The side dishes we are running tests, just made the most tasty pumpkin puree thanks to chef John Delpha. Blanched potatoes for tots and braised the beans in Bill Arnold’s Blues Hog sauce.

Team next to us, Montley Que, is making gumbo so we’re off to try some then a shrimp boil at Transformer BBQ, then to see Gari and his team from Jamaica for Red Stripe and Appleton Rum.

Meats will be fired later, Chris, Kenny and Jamie will stay up all night to watch the fire, I’ll be up at 6 to enter the grits comp..

I’ll take pictures of tomorrows entries, here’s today’s piks…

We are still driving to Kansas City, been driving straight thru with ed, ken, and i driving in 3 hour shifts, we project our eta is 10pm.

We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel, of course, and then decided we’d try to find some killer BBQ for lunch.

Thanks to Yelp we realized that 17th Street, Murphysboro IL, selected by Food & Wine magazine as having Best Ribs in America, was only a hour out of the way. Actually, not really on the way, not for ribs that is.

I met Amy Mills years back when she was writing with her father (BBQ legend Mike Mills) Peace, Love, and Barbeque. A cookbook fearuring recipes from bbq cookers around the country, I am honored to have contributed a recipe in it.

Quickly emailed her to see if she or Mike would be there, she wasn’t going to be but wrote Mike would! We were sooo psyched!

Mike Mills is a three time Memphis in May champion as well as numerous other competitions and owns many BBQ restaurants. He gave us a tour, and treated to some of the best BBQ eva! What a great guy.

We’re three hours out from kc, and then the craziness starts….

Here’s some pictures from the visit

Ed Doyle and I are finally on the road. Between picking up the RV, getting the smoker, and loading up five hours dissapeared….

We’re on 90 heading to Nyac to pick up Ken Goodman and then a straign shot to Kansas City.

Here’s what this weekend will entail:
Friday night:
10 thousand person party
shrimp boil with the transformer team, start cooking meats for invitational BBQ comp-about 85 teams

Saturday
7:15 am, ugh, ‘kiss my grits’ competition
Noon BBQ turn ins start
Awards 5?
Start cooking meats for Sundays open BBQ comps, about 500 teams
Texas hold’em tournament
Red Stripe party at Gari’s from jamaica team site

Sunday
BBQ turn ins
Sides comps: veg, potato, beans, dessert
Awards

A very long fun weekend, with lots of poker, Harpoon Beer (we love our sponsor!), laughs, and hard core BBQ comps.

I’ll be blogging all weekend….stay tuned…