The lamb loins were literally air-flown from Melbourne and I have to admit that I was a little hesitant dealing with them since they were so thin and I was afraid of overcooking it. I resorted to grinding lavender, rosemary, my himalayan pink salt, a dash of truffle oil and olive oil as a rub. The lamb loins comfortably set in that mixture before being panfried. I must say, it turned out a huge success. Tender Lamb loins served on a bed of potato foam with a warm onion and apricot sauce. Yummy. I didn't expect lavender to go so well with lamb. It heighted the sweeteness of the pink flesh.

The potato foam was a new experiment. Instead of the heavy creamy mashed potato usually served with roast meats, this was a fluffy foamy concoction that didn't detract from the richness you usually get (or don't) with conventional whipped potato. It was surprisingly even lighter than scrambled eggs. Had to make sure I kept little bits of potato intact for texture contrast. Inspired by Joel Robuchon.

As for the creme brulee, only one word. Heavenly. So good, I've decided to stop my bread and butter puddings and work on this.

Sunday Dinner
After that rich and heavy dinner, we decided to cleanse *right* and opt for a lighter dinner on Sunday. It unfortunately didn't manifest since Sis was going to have a potluck in office and I was tasked on creating a stew. Of course, we also opted for a salad dinner, with the stew as a side dish. We joked about cooking for the hungry ghouls who have yet to return haha. Imagine:
1.5kg of beef
15 tomatoes, plum, pomodoros and beef varieties
8 sun-dried tomatoes
8 large carrots
8 large onions
2 boxes of mushrooms
2 cans of beer
2 slices of wholemeal bread
2 packs of baby potatoes
1 bunch of celery
1 clove of smoked garlic
1 fennel
I somehow don't enjoy the idea of dumping all that into a pot and call it a stew. Properly stews involves browning the meat, carmelising the mire-poix into what I call, "onion jam", before adding liquids and stewing it for a good 3 hours. Ingredients go into the pot in a particular sequence because the moisture content of each individual vegetable is different.

Tangy Yuzu...

Then there was the honey glazed roast chicken salad with an orange & yuzu miso dressing which was a main. In case you haven't already realised, I love yuzu for its taste. It has so much more dimensions than the ordinary orange or the mandarin. At home, the salad is literally a meal on its own. There wasn't the opportunity to go for seconds. And we haven't even touched the stew.

Nothing like rich juicy grapes...

To round off the meal, there was nothing like good quality grapes. The Japanese Kyoho Grapes were a little out of range with the $25.90 price tags so we opted instead for the Korean Grapes which were more affordable instead. Nothing like the original but still, it was sweet and rich. Trust me, after eating good quality grapes, those costing $6.90 a kg are really hmm...tasteless.