Cumin "Numbing" Lamb

There were a lot of different things for dinner again tonight. Sometimes I cook a lot of things in one pot; sometimes I'm in the mood for everything being on its own plate.

Blanched bittermelon with soy paste. This is Taiwanese cold dish. The bittermelon is sliced in half the long way, its seeds are scooped out (so it resembles a canoe), and then it's poached until it's just tender. The it's run under cold water or submerged in iced water to stop the cooking, then sliced into diagonal pieces about half an inch thick. The bittermelon is plated, put until the fridge until it's time to be served, and then drizzled with soy paste.

This cold "dish," on the other hand, is not at all Taiwanese. These are roasted banana peppers sprinkled with pico de gallo. It's often found at the salsa bar of Mexican restaurants, but I saw some nice looking ones at the farmers market this week and decided to get them.

And the star of the night, something I've been wanting to make for a long time: Szechuan cumin lamb! The making of this dish is long, involved, and not quite perfected, so I'll dedicate a post to it later. For now, let's just say it involves stir frying lamb slices in Szechuan peppercorn-infused oil, adding cumin, topping with toasted garlic and cilantro, and then topping off with more Szechuan peppercorns and cumin.

And just to get some more vegetables in our diets, I used the leftover oil from the lamb to cook some broccoli and carrots. Plus we had cherry tomatoes and grapes for dessert.