Garlic Bread, Agneau aux Framboises + Whipped Cream and Strawberries

Dated: Feb 12, 2010

My first go.
This one was inspired by my mother's Canard Aux Framboises - needless to say, I had no duck.

I started with some garlic bread. Why? Because I'm Italian, and there's nothing in this world better than garlic bread. Now I had no baguette bread - if you can, get some. I mixed some butter, basil paste, crushed garlic and a little dash of salt and spread it over the bread. Into the oven those puppies went (try not to burn, yeah?)

 

When they are ready, they'll look something like this

 

  

If you want to make things more interesting, open a bottle of wine. 

Try not to get drunk, that would be disastrous.

Now cut up some onions (one of those cute little yellowy ones, they're not as strong as the white ones), heat up some olive oil in a pan and throw them in with some crushed garlic.
Side Note: yes, there is quite a bit of garlic on this one, but unless you're Edward Cullen it won't kill you. To make things easier on you, get some of that minced garlic in a jar. It will come in handy in the future.

Once they get all nice and golden - and golden does not mean brown! - throw in the sweet stuff. Now there are several ways to do this. If you can afford to get some raspberry vinegar and fresh raspberries go with that. I used some raspberry sauce (yes, I am aware I said don't earlier, but that's all I had) with balsamic vinegar and a little bit of wine. Turn the heat down and let the sauce reduce (that's fancy talk for "thicken")

 

The Sauce

In the meantime, brown your agneau - that's lamb - on both sides for a few minutes and then stick it in the oven. Make sure you pat dry your meat, otherwise it won't brown properly.

I give it about 10 minutes or so depending on how thick your meat is. I like mine medium rare... This part is really just a waiting game. 

The Meat

 Now if you want you can cook up some rice or potatoes to go with this. I decided to do some rice (yes, with garlic, a la peruvienne!) 

And voila...

 

  

And now... dessert !

I made some whipped cream.

How? Well you pour some cream into a bowl, tip it over to the side, and whisk until it becomes... what do you know, whipped cream!

I am plenty aware that the whipped cream wasn't ready, but I was tempted to have some!

And there you go! Agneau aux Framboises with garlic bread and strawberries with whipped cream for dinner.

Go impress someone.