Priscilla Satkoff

Baby Racks of Lamb with a Pumpkin Seed Crust

This dish is a perfect illustration of how the right wine can match Mexican food. In fact, it’s hard for me to even think of rack of lamb without a red wine to go with it. The pumpkin seed crust is much more flavorful than the typical bread crumb coating for lamb, and the crunchy texture is more interesting, too.

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

Pasilla-Tomatillo Sauce

8 pasilla chiles, seeded, deveined, and toasted

4 large garlic cloves, crushed

1 1/2 cups water

1 cup Roasted Tomatillo Sauce

Fine sea salt

1/4 cup canola oil

Four 8-ounce baby racks of lamb, bones frenched

Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/2 cup honey, heated until liquid

1 cup shelled pumpkin seeds (pepitas), toasted and pulsed in a food processor until coarsely chopped

Instructions:

To make the sauce: Purée the chiles, garlic, and water in a blender. Strain through a sieve into a medium saucepan. Stir in the Roasted Tomatillo Sauce and bring to a boil over medium heat. Season with salt. Set aside. (The sauce can be made up to 1 day ahead, cooled, covered, and refrigerated. Reheat before serving.)
Position a rack in the top third of the oven and preheat the oven to 450°F.
Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Season the lamb racks to taste with salt and pepper. Add the racks to the skillet, meaty side down, and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Stand the racks on end and brown one end and then the other, about 1 minute per end. Place on a rack in a roasting pan and transfer to the oven. Roast for about 15 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of a rack reads 130°F for medium-rare.
Remove from the oven, tent loosely with aluminum foil, and let stand for 8 to 10 minutes so the juices can settle. Heat the honey in a small saucepan or in a microwave oven just until liquid. Brush the honey over the lamb and coat with the crushed pumpkin seeds.
To serve, spoon some of the Pasilla-Tomatillo Sauce in the center of each of 4 dinner plates. Cut each rack in half crosswise and arrange the halves on the plates. Serve hot.

Wine Note: A Cabernet Sauvignon with moderate tannins complements this dish superbly. Try one from California such as Souverain or Chateau St. Jean. Columbia Crest from Washington is equally delicious.

This recipe was originally published in The Salpicon Cookbook by Priscilla Satkoff and Vincent Satkoff (Ballantine) and is available for purchase HERE

To learn more about Priscilla Satkoff click here.

Salmon with Red Papaya–Tequila Sauce

Salmon is such a versatile fish that it goes well even with sweet flavors, like this fruity red sauce the color of a Pacific sunset. Red papaya (also called Mexican papaya) not only has a more intense color than the golden variety, its flavor and size are pumped up a bit as well. You will find it during its springtime season at Latino markets and well-stocked produce stores, but if you can find only the familiar golden papaya, go ahead and use it. The dish also includes a grapefruit and corn salsa, a wonderful sweet and savory combination enhanced by a coarse salt such as fleur de sel.

SALMON WITH RED PAPAYA TEQUILA SAUCE
Makes: 6 servings

Ingredients

Red Papaya–Tequila Sauce
1 pound ripe red papaya, peeled, seeded, and chopped (about 3 cups)
1/3 cup plus 1 TBSP high-quality silver tequila
2 TBSP fresh lime juice

Grapefruit-Corn Salsa
2 ears corn, kernels cut off (1 cup)
1 pink grapefruit, peeled and segmented
1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and cut into 1/2-inch dice
¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves
3 scallions, white part only, thinly sliced
3 fresh chiles de árbol or 1 serrano chile, seeded, deveined, and minced
2 TBSP fresh lime juice
1½ TBSP extra-virgin olive oil
Six 6- to 7-ounce salmon fillets, preferable sockeye
Olive oil for brushing
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup Four-Chile Sauce
3 radishes, very thinly sliced, for garnish
Fleur de sel, sel de Guerande, or kosher salt

Instructions

Prepare a hot fire in a charcoal grill, or preheat a gas grill to high.
To make the sauce: Purée the papaya, tequila, and lime juice in a blender until smooth. (The sauce can be made up to 1 day ahead, covered, and refrigerated. Remove from the refrigerator 1 hour before serving.)
Heat a heavy medium skillet, preferably cast iron, over high heat. Add the corn kernels and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly toasted, about 3 minutes. Let cool
To make the salsa: Combine the grapefruit, cooled corn, avocado, cilantro, scallions, chiles, lime juice, and oil in a medium bowl. Set aside. (The salsa can be made up to 2 hours ahead, covered, and stored at room temperature.)
Lightly brush the salmon on both sides with the oil and season with salt and pepper. Lightly oil the grill grids. Cook the salmon until seared with grill marks on the bottom, about 2 minutes. Turn and cook until grill-marked on the other side and still slightly translucent in the center, about 2 minutes more. Do not overcook the salmon. Transfer to a platter.
For each serving, spread about 1/3 cup Red Papaya–Tequila sauce in the center of a dinner plate. Top with a salmon fillet and about 1/2 cup of the grapefruit-corn salsa. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of the four-chile sauce around the plate and garnish with the sliced radishes. (You may have extra salsa, which you can serve in bowls alongside.) Sprinkle the salsa with salt. Serve immediately.

Wine Notes: The richness of the salmon requires an equally rich, yet not heavily oaked wine. Try an Alsatian Gewürztraminer (Zind-Humbrecht, Weinbach, or Hugel) or a California Viognier (Miner, Alban, or Terre Rouge).

This recipe was originally published in The Salpicon Cookbook by Priscilla Satkoff with Vincent Satkoff (Chronicle Books) and is available for purchase here.