All-Out-Alison Meal with Turmeric-Roasted Lamb, Sour Cream Flatbread, & Apple and Endive Salad

Another All-Out-Alison meal is in the books. I love making All-Out-Alison meals - who doesn’t want multiple Alison dishes in one sitting? But on days when I make these meals, I find myself in the kitchen for a stretch of hours, flitting between tasks and ingredient prep, and it’s really quite an ordeal. Today’s post will document my process. I’m guessing at the timestamps, but they’re close to being accurate. 

To indicate which dish each step belongs to, I’ll label them with [lamb - Turmeric-Roasted Lamb Shoulder and Carrots with All the Fixings], [flatbread - Sour Cream Flatbreads], [salad - Apple and Endive Salad with Parsley and Salted Almonds], and [salsa verde - Another Salsa Verde]. 

Oh wait, one note before we begin. Alison’s lamb instructions suggest a 3.5-4 lb. boneless lamb shoulder, but I could only find lamb leg (similar cut) that was much smaller or much bigger. Since we were having company, I went with the larger 5.5 lb. cut, which meant that I used more garlic/turmeric for the marinade, and had to cook the lamb longer than instructed. More on that in a bit… 

Let’s make a meal, shall we? 

8:40am: [lamb] Remove the lamb leg from the fridge to let it finish thawing on the counter

11:43am: [lamb] Peel and dice the fresh turmeric and excessive amount of garlic cloves - I used 13

11:53am: [lamb] Create the marinade by combining the turmeric and garlic with olive oil and cumin

11:57am: [lamb] Salt and pepper the lam, then rub the marinade all over, getting in all the cracks. 

12:03pm: [lamb] Search for butcher’s twine in the craft box hiding in my coat closet. I find only crafting string, but decide that it’ll do the job. 

12:08pm: [lamb] Use a sharp knife to cut a slit in the center of the lamb, so the whole thing can fold over like a book, allowing you to tie it like Alison says. 

12:09pm: [lamb] Use the found crafting string to tie the lamb, one inch apart. My hands get very yellow and oily from doing this. 

12:20pm: [lamb] Place the tied lamb on a baking sheet covered with tin foil and, with plastic wrap covering the meat, place it in the fridge to marinate. 

1:01pm: [flatbread] Stir the warm water, sugar, and yeast together until the yeast dissolves. Add four cups of flour and combine until no major dry spots remain. Cover, and let sit for ten minutes to hydrate the flour. 

1:20pm: [flatbread] Add the melted butter, salt, and sour cream to the dough using your hands. The dough feels wet and slimy. The goal is to fully incorporate the sour cream. Once done, cover the dough and let it rest for two hours. 

3:20pm: [flatbread] Uncover the dough bowl and punch down the dough, knocking some of the air out of it. I hear the air escape and it's kind of thrilling. Cover the dough back up and let it sit for another two hours. 

3:22pm: [salsa verde] Slice a shallot in half. Reserve one half in the fridge and dice the other half into the smallest pieces possible. 

3:24pm: [salsa verde] Slice a lemon and squeeze two tablespoons of lemon juice over the shallots. 

3:26pm: [salsa verde] Retrieve my herbs: cilantro, parsley, mint, and chives. Tiny dice two whole cups of herbs (which is a lot of herbs). Use mostly parsley and cilantro, but supplement with mint and chives. 

3:42pm: [salsa verde] Cover the bowl and store in the fridge. Alison’s Another Salsa Verde is complete.

4:00pm: [lamb] Turn on the oven. 

4:15pm: [lamb] Pull out the dutch oven and pour some oil into the base. Turn on the burner to medium heat. Remove the lamb from the fridge and place it in the dutch oven to brown the meat, turning the meat with your tongs every 4-6 minutes. 

4:35pm: [lamb] Place the carrots in the pot with the lamb, and toss the carrots in the excess fat at the bottom. 

4:40pm: [lamb] Lift the pot, with lamb and carrots inside, into the oven. Set a timer for one hour and ten minutes. Alison recommends one hour for a medium-cooked lamb. But given the size of the cut of meat, I know I’ll need more time. I just need to check and see how much extra time at the 1:10 mark. 

4:42pm: [salad] Quarter the endives lengthwise, and toss the leaves in a large bowl. Slice the other half of the shallot into very thin rounds, separating them as I lob them into the bowl. Trim several strands of parsley and mint, also adding them to the bowl. 

4:52pm: [salad] Pour out a pile of almonds on the cutting board and chop them into small bits. Place them into a bowl on the counter. 

4:58pm: CLEAN THE HOUSE - GUESTS ARE COMING OVER 

5:20pm: [flatbread] Pour the dough onto a cutting board, and using a dough cutter, create six equally sized balls of dough. Using just a modicum of flour to dust them so they don’t stick to your hands. Coax the first dough ball into a flat, mini pizza shape, letting the dough stretch over the back of my hands like Alison says. 

5:27pm: [flatbread] Get out the cast iron skillet and turn the heat to medium-high. Pour out a bit of olive oil and lay the first dough round in there. I hear it sizzle, and within three to four minutes, just like Alison says, the dough is bubbly and golden. I flip the bread and let it heat for two minutes on the other side. Continue with the rest of the dough, rolling each one out just before the skillet frees up. Keep the flatbreads warm under two plates. One dish done! 

5:50pm: [lamb] Check on the lamb. Insert the meat thermometer. Oh boy, it’s still 95 degrees in the deepest part, and we’re aiming for between 145 and 160. Push it back in and set the time for another 30 minutes from now. 

5:56pm: [salad] Add olive oil to the bowl of almonds, along with salt and pepper, and stir to combine. 

5:59pm: [salad] Thinly slice the Honeycrisp apple into rounds. Then toss the apples with the endive and herb mixture, along with salt and lemon juice. 

6:05pm: [salad] Arrange the salad on a serving platter, then drizzle the almond mixture over the top. Quick! Take several fabulously lit pictures just before the sun goes down. Wrap the plate and place it on the table. Two dishes done! 

6:15pm: [lamb] Check on the lamb, and realize it still has another 15-25 degrees to go in several parts before it’s considered medium-rare. Slide it back in and set a new timer for 20 minutes. 

6:20pm: Get changed, remove your apron and brush your hair. 

6:30pm: Guests arrive! Friends from my hometown in Southern California. Marissa and Drew. Entertain them with a glass of wine (that they brought - it’s so good!). 

6:45pm: [lamb] Check on the lamb, and it’s done! Probably could have taken it out 8-10 minutes earlier… Oh well. It’s still soft and easy to chew. The flavor is incredibly rich but not too overpowering. The turmeric is less harsh and the garlic more potent than you expected. The lamb is delicious. A success! Just next time, try to get one in the right weight range. I think that’ll save lots of guesswork. 

6:50pm: Serve the lamb with garlicky yogurt, Alison’s Another Salsa Verde, and flaky salt. 

7:45pm: Transition from dinner to the gf apple crisp Marissa made, and enjoy every sweet bite. Even better? The company and conversation. 

I hope you enjoyed this play by play. Making meals can be a lot of work, but at least they’re rewarding. 

161 recipes cooked, 64 to go.

Turmeric-Roasted Carrots with Seeds and Labne

I love a good roasted carrot, don’t you? If you’re like me, you almost always have a bag of carrots on hand. And if you’re like me, you also typically wait until they’re about to go bad to consider eating them. The carrots usually sit hidden in a drawer, and then one day I’ll catch a glimpse of orange and realize that if I don’t act fast, I’ll lose the whole bunch to old age. When these situations arise, I almost always place them on sheet pan, turn the oven to 450, cover the carrots with olive oil and various spices, and roast them until tender. If we don’t eat them all for dinner, I have the leftovers for lunch with whatever else I’m eating that day. 

Alison treats her carrots the same way. Exactly the same, in fact. Here she prefers to use turmeric, coriander seed, and fennel seed as seasonings of choice. But the beauty of carrots is that they pair well with so many different spices! Most often I choose cumin. Sometimes smoked paprika and chile powder. I liked this particular combo that Alison uses, especially the seeds, which are fun to bite into. 

Alison also loves some good dairy mixed with lemon and garlic to go with her veggies. I’ve noticed it’s kind of her thing. And you might notice that I chose to skip that here. While I could have gone with some goat’s milk yogurt for my base instead of labne, I had a particularly discouraging episode with dairy the night before, and let’s just say my body would not have thanked me for giving it more. Sometimes, ya gotta call an audible and listen to your body’s cues. 

If you have a bag of carrots in your fridge, don’t neglect them. Cherish them. Give them the oil and spices they deserve and heat them up until your fork can’t help but pierce one. And then another. And another. 

122 recipes cooked, 103 to go.

Grilled Carrots with Limey Hot Sauce and Cotija by Alison Roman

It’s summer, friends! Which means grilling season! Which means of course I had to make a list of all of Alison’s recipes that require (or strongly suggest) using a grill. My in-law’s live about 15 minutes away, and have both gas and charcoal grills. I plan to utilize these grills for all of the grill recipes until we move to Chicago in September. 

I find it necessary to disclose that I’ve never grilled before. I still haven’t. I asked my father-in-law to monitor these carrots while I prepped the rest of the meal. That said, I intend to be more hands-on in the future! 

To prep these delicious carrots, I simply tossed them in oil and salt and pepper before plopping them directly on the grill. The grill is set to medium-high, and Alison says the char should happen in 8-10 minutes. We took the carrots off at 10 minutes, but I must admit that they could have spent another 5 and gotten even softer, charred and more delicious. Margaret agreed. 

That’s right, Margaret! Margaret, more than anyone else in my life, has taught me how to cook. She’s also one of my best friends. She and I cooked this recipe together, and it was such a treat. 

Once grilled, the carrots are tossed in a “limey hot sauce” which is really just a mixture of lots of lime juice, honey garlic and minced jalapeño. It’s not a marinade, it’s a sauce. A very thin liquid sauce with chunks of minced jalapeño. It’s really good, and the leftovers were passed around the table for more drizzling on truly everything on our plates — Alison’s charred corn and some grilled chicken. 

The final element is cotija cheese. We crumbled far more than the recipe calls for on top of the carrots. Margaret would have liked for a better way for the getting the cotija to adhere to the carrots. It tended to fall off once plated, which meant scooping up cheese crumbles with your fork after each bite of carrot. Doable, but not ideal, nor elegant. Although, can you eat carrots elegantly? I’m unsure. 

Overall, these carrots are a fun summer night dish that most definitely will appear again in meals to come. 

90 recipes cooked, 135 to go.

Sticky Roasted Carrots with Citrus and Tahini by Alison Roman

I had a realization the other day about Alison’s use of the word “sticky.” At least when it comes to use in a recipe title, both these sticky carrots and her sticky walnuts use maple syrup, a naturally sticky substance, as a sweetening agent in the roasting process. But oddly enough, both the carrots and walnuts didn’t turn out to be very sticky. That’s about as far as that realization went. Anyways…

Regardless of the lack of stickiness, this carrot dish is rather inventive in its flavor pairing, and in true Alison fashion, is unapologetically bold. I’ve said before that Alison commits wholeheartedly to flavor, and this recipe is no exception. There’s nothing subtle about it. 

The elements at play here are the subtle sweetness of the carrots. I prefer smaller carrots like the multicolored Le Petite bag from Trader Joes. They’re pre-peeled and trimmed so the preparation is simpler. The quartered carrots are tossed with maple syrup, thinly sliced citrus (I used a navel orange), red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper. The other element present is half a red onion, sliced into .5 inch chunks and lightly pickled in lemon juice a few minutes before roasting. The combination of these spicy, acidic and sweet flavors and textures make this not your average veggie side. 

As if this needed another dimension, a simple tahini sauce coats the serving platter before placing the carrots and onions on top. I’m not always in the mood for a strong sesame seed presence. However, I found myself reaching to dip some of my carrots into the sauce throughout the meal. The tahini’s nutty flavor and smooth texture added another welcome complexity. 

All in all, I found Alison’s signature boldness a perfect strategy for cooking this mild vegetable. There will be more of these carrots in my future.

53 recipes cooked, 172 to go.

Raw and Roasted Carrots and Fennel with Feta and Pistachios by Alison Roman

I’m not the kind of person who can casually snack on carrots without a dip. Something about a mouthful of raw carrot makes me contemplate gagging. I have to actively fight that reflux, and search for a glass of water

I don’t remember when I first had a roasted carrot, but I know it was a game changing experience. I’ve been known to roast a whole bag of carrots for lunch and eat any leftovers for dinner. Something about the softened, charred texture of a roasted carrot, with oily spices soaked into the carrot’s flesh. Sometimes I sprinkle crumbled feta cheese over them, or some lime juice. 

The genius of this admittedly simple recipe is carrots in TWO ways. Roasted, warm, tender carrots with ribbons of their raw selves - fresh and crunchy. Feta, cilantro, and lemon juice tie this all together. Oh, and scallions two ways, too. Some raw and sliced, and a few roasted with the carrots. It’s really that uncomplicated. 

The recipe calls for a fennel bulb to be roasted along with the carrots. I planned to do this, but when I reached for my fennel, I found that it had gone rancid. So I skipped the fennel, and actually didn’t miss it. Pistachios are also called for here, but I didn’t feel like shelling out for more nuts when I already have lots of perfectly good pepitas on hand. I toasted about a quarter cup of pepitas in a skillet to top this dish. It added just enough nutty crunch to contrast the brighter crunch of the raw carrots.  

This dish will go well with most anything, and it’s season agnostic. So go on, get yourself a bag of carrots and eat them two ways!

35 recipes cooked, 190 to go.