- 4 hours ago
Martha Stewart breaks down classic and creative options for the centerpiece of your Easter meal in this four recipe special. From traditional holiday ham, to two different cuts of lamb, to beautifully presented poached fish, you’re sure to find the perfect main course for your celebration in this selection of Martha’s favorite Easter entrees.
0:00 Glazed Ham
6:12 Roast Leg of Lamb
12:59 Poached Salmon
19:46 Rack of Lamb
0:00 Glazed Ham
6:12 Roast Leg of Lamb
12:59 Poached Salmon
19:46 Rack of Lamb
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00The centerpiece of many holiday tables is a glazed ham. This will become a highlight of your
00:06party. This is a smoked ham, which means that it gets its flavor from exposing the meat to the
00:12smoke from burning or smoldering plant materials, most often wood. Not only does the smoking process
00:18add flavor, it also cooks the ham so that when you get this ham home it is fully cooked. What
00:25you have to do is warm it and enhance it. When buying ham, allow a third to a half a
00:30pound per serving
00:31for bone in ham. This is a bone in ham. There's a bone from here all the way down to
00:36here and this
00:37is like this part of the pig. Transfer to a 325 degree oven and bake for one and a half
00:45hours and
00:46the way I do that is wrapped in parchment lined foil. This warms the meat without drying it out
00:58and I think this is a very, very important step. Don't just put that in the oven. It'll get
01:03a little dry around the edges. This way every slice of meat will have the same tenderness,
01:09the same delicious look and flavor. So put this on a rack in a pan. It just fits in. This
01:19is somewhere
01:20around 14 pounds. It is a beautiful ham. So get this into a 325 degree oven and bake for at
01:29least an
01:30hour and a half, maybe two. So here's the ham. I've let it cool just slightly so I could touch
01:37it. I'm
01:37going to lift it out of the rack and put it on a cutting board. Oh boy, it's heavy. Ah,
01:43there.
01:45Keep the foil around it. That'll keep the juices from running all over your counter.
01:52I remember our hams always came from an old polish butcher shop on the lower east side of New York
02:01and they have gone out of business. All their hams had the entire skin on the ham.
02:07So this was always removed with a sharp knife and I'm going to remove as much of that as possible.
02:14I like to keep a fraction of an inch of fat covering the entire meat of the ham because
02:23that is what we're going to cut into a crisscross diamond shape. And it does taste really good
02:31when it roasts with the brown sugar and cognac glaze. Now don't throw this away. This is very
02:38delectable to some people. My friend Lily uses this in her Chinese cooking. I like to make cracklings out of
02:48it.
02:48Now this ham will probably be devoured at a big Christmas party, but it is wonderful sliced and used in
02:58sandwiches
03:00after the party. And if perchance you do cut into the meat a little bit, take a taste. It's ready
03:08to enjoy.
03:13Really great ham. Okay, so this is ready to score and glaze. Now this takes a little time also,
03:21but we want to score on a diagonal making a diamond pattern. And I like doing this very close together,
03:31small diamonds, because when you ultimately carve the ham, everybody should get a little piece of the fat,
03:39a little piece of the glaze, a little piece of the meat. So there's kind of method to my madness.
03:46So do you see these are all cuts going one way. I'm only going maybe a sixteenth of an inch
03:52deep.
03:54Just enough to catch the glaze, flavor the exterior of the ham, and look real pretty.
04:02Doesn't look like much now, but when it's glazed, it looks infinitely better. When I was a caterer,
04:08this was one of my favorite and my customers' favorite things for the buffet table at a Christmas
04:15party. So now wipe your hands and make the glaze. For this size ham, you'd need about two cups of
04:23dark brown sugar and cognac to soften. There'll be a probably a half a cup of cognac. This is brandy.
04:32Some people would prefer maybe using rum, but I think brandy is the best thing. So you make a glaze
04:40kind of
04:41that consistency. And you spoon it on. Don't try to brush it on. I just put it sort of up
04:48on the top of the ham.
04:49It's going to drip down, permeate all those cuts, and you put this into the oven and let the first
04:58batch of glaze kind of cook into the ham. Then you spoon some more and some more and some more
05:08until you get a really beautiful thin, crunchy brown glaze all over the meat.
05:16So now this goes right into the oven. Doesn't look like much yet, but I promise you it will look
05:22fabulous. This goes right into the oven. 325. We may reduce the temperature in a little while. It's going
05:32to take around, oh, an hour to an hour and a half to get the look I want. So here
05:39is the glazed ham,
05:40and I've placed it on a serving platter. This is really almost a display platter because it would be
05:47easier to carve this ham on a big carving board. And I'm garnishing it for display with fresh watercress,
05:55fresh parsley. It's so beautiful. And you could just leave it green like this, or you can
06:02add a few little lady apples. Serving glazed ham is one of my very favorite holiday traditions. And
06:09the best part, there's always leftovers. When a leg of lamb is boned and then opened up, it's referred
06:15to as having been butterflied. Of course, you could grill it as it is, or you could take the opportunity
06:21to make it even more delicious by slathering it with a delectable preserved lemon and herb paste.
06:26Then you just need to roll it up and roast it just like I plan on doing. Preserved lemons,
06:33which are very essential to this particular recipe, are lemons that have been preserved in a salt lemon
06:39mixture for about 30 days. This is a preserved lemon. It's packed in a jar with salt. Lemons done like
06:47this have a silky texture and a very distinctive, unusual flavor. And they're very widely used in Moroccan
06:54cooking. The initial purpose of preserving lemons and salt and their own juice was to make lemons
06:59a winter fruit last all year long. Once you preserve the lemons, it is just the rind. This is
07:07the rind of one lemon. We're going to use this in our marinade. You can just cut it into smaller
07:13pieces
07:13and put into a food processor on a half a cup of rosemary leaves. Seems like a lot, but not
07:20for such a
07:21big piece of lamb as we have here. Two cloves of garlic and you can roughly cut these up just
07:28so that
07:29the food processor doesn't have to work so hard. And some leaves. These are beautiful mint leaves,
07:36a very nice accompaniment for lamb. You can again just coarsely cut these up and put these into the
07:43processor. And some salt, some pepper. And you can just grind it up a little bit and process with about
07:57a third of a cup of olive oil. It's almost like making a pesto. Now the lamb is exactly as
08:06I received
08:06it from the butcher. Beautifully prepared as a butterfly, but it really should be a little bit
08:13thinner. And you can do that yourself at home between two pieces of plastic wrap and use a meat
08:20tenderizer or a mallet. Don't use the prickly side that will tear through the plastic, but just use the
08:28smooth side. And pound until it's pretty much all the same thickness so that it will cook
08:38nice and even. And you can spread half of this mixture on one side of the lamb and half on
08:47the
08:47other. A most really fragrant mix. You can fill every little nook and cranny, but just half on this side.
08:56There. Now fold your meat in half. You want to fit it into a shallow pan.
09:05And another bit all over this side. And this you can just lift up
09:14and slide into your pan. And you've made very little mess. Use the rest, that last quarter of your
09:23marinade on this side. This will overnight really flavor the lamb. That is perfect. Use your plastic
09:35to cover over the lamb and refrigerate at least eight hours, preferably overnight. So here's our gorgeous
09:43marinated big hunk of lamb. It looks really good. We're getting ready to roll it. Though the cut can be
09:50very, very pricey, this leg of lamb, it is very straightforward to prepare, even for the novice
09:55home cook. And it is one of the most popular lamb cuts that we have. Now the lemon, we need
10:02just
10:04the peel. So I'm taking away that pulp for this. It's very nice to see the strips of lemon in
10:11the meat.
10:12Cut the strips quite thinly so that they are easily eaten. A big chunk will be a little strong there.
10:25So that's your lemon peel. So now put your lamb on a board
10:35and spread the lemon peel all over the inside. This is going to be rolled up. So put this all
10:42evenly spaced on the inside. Lamb takes a lot of seasoning very nicely. And salt and pepper in the
10:50roasting process is very important. Oh, for all cuts of lamb. Now roll up narrow end to big end.
11:01Tucking in any little loose pieces. And here you are going to behave like a butcher. You are going to
11:07be
11:07tying this roast together with butcher's twine. It's slippery. Now cut a piece of string about
11:17six feet long. And this is cotton butcher's twine. Everybody has a different method for
11:25tying a roast. Slide your string under and tie into a strong knot. Butchers can do this so quickly.
11:38There. Okay, so now we are going to blanket stitch your roast. Take the string underneath. Just take the
11:48whole bunch of string like this and pull it through. It is the blanket stitch that is one of the
11:57first
11:57embroidery stitches you learn when you are learning embroidery. There. Now you can go around this way
12:05under the whole roast. And tie this
12:10to the other side. So you have a perfect roast. As nice as the butcher would do it. And now
12:17get this
12:17into your roasting pan. A parchment liner in the pan. A rack for the meat. And put this whole roast
12:24into a preheated 450 degree oven for 25 minutes. Then add half a cup of water. Reduce the heat to
12:31400
12:32degrees and continue roasting 35 minutes or so. Let the lamb rest in the pan out of the oven for
12:40about
12:4030 minutes before you carve it. Snip off your trussing strings. And I'd slice the lamb approximately
12:49between an eighth and a quarter of an inch thick. And you can arrange as you wish. And there you
12:55have
12:56a really really gorgeous platter. Now here is an impressive sight. Poaching an entire whole salmon.
13:04And when poaching a large whole fish you need to place it in a cool liquid first. Then heat it
13:09slowly
13:09until liquid reaches 160 degrees. And then you poach it for approximately seven minutes per inch.
13:18Now take your scissors and cut off the fins that are on the bottom. And now this salmon comes from
13:24Seattle. And it is an Alaskan king salmon. Make sure that your fish monger has scaled the fish
13:32and taken out the gills. See how nice and clean it is in here. And also of course gutted the
13:39fish. Beautiful
13:40deep red flesh. I love salmon like this. And the dorsal fin. This one does not have a very large
13:47dorsal fin
13:47but cut that off. Leave the tail on because that's part of the presentation. And of course leave
13:54the head on too. I think we have one more fin. Right here.
14:06This is the granddaddy of all poachers. I've had this poacher I don't know for how long.
14:10Ever since I was catering and doing giant striped bass. And this poacher will hold four batches of
14:17the poaching liquid. So we've made the poaching liquid with the lemon, the carrots, the leeks,
14:22and the celery four times. The vegetables are on the bottom. Then goes the poaching rack. This is a
14:29very nice way because you can pick the fish out without the fish breaking. You have to have a rack
14:34in
14:34your poacher. And then put your beautiful fish right on the rack and cover with cold poaching liquid.
14:45Cold court bouillon. We've made this yesterday and chilled it.
14:51And you want to bring the liquid up to the top of the fish just so that it is fully
14:57submerged.
14:58Now turn your heat on. Sort of medium high. I'm using two burners. Now watch the poaching liquid.
15:04You can just use a thermometer like this submerged in the liquid. And that should read 160 degrees.
15:12Cover the fish with the cover of the pan. Look at this impressive cover. Very impressive.
15:19And the fish itself should read 130 degrees when done. So now about 40 minutes to come to 160 degree
15:29liquid. Then another 30 minutes, maybe a little less, to come to 130 degrees in the fish. Now put this
15:39thermometer right into the fish. And this will stay out. And I've set it for 129 degrees because it
15:46jumps to 131 for some reason. Won't stay at 130. So 129 is close enough. That's going to take all
15:53together about an hour and a quarter. So it's not so difficult to poach a whole fish. And the result
16:01is
16:02certainly absolutely worth it. If you put the fish in an added hot liquid, it would cook on the outside
16:09before it cooks on the inside. So that's why we are doing it this way, starting it in the cool
16:15liquid.
16:16So be very careful. Take your time and you will get the perfect fish. So the salmon is, I think,
16:24perfectly poached. It has sat in the court bouillon for one hour and it looks so lovely. And it's not
16:33so hot now that you can't handle it. So we're just taking it out of the court bouillon on the
16:39rack
16:39onto a parchment-covered sheet. You can move your giant poaching pot off to the side. I find it easier
16:49to peel it and get it ready for dressing while it's still warm. So be very, very gentle. Slide it
16:58off
16:58the tray like that. Now I'll move it over here and show you how to remove the skin. You can
17:08go down the
17:09back very carefully with the point of a knife and lift off the skin. See how it comes off?
17:17Very easily.
17:21And I would suggest, actually, for presentation, you can do one side. I think to make sure it stays
17:30well together, I am just going to do the top half.
17:35Mm. Because you can serve it all from this side and not flip it over on a buffet. You just
17:44remove
17:45the backbone. Peel the skin. There is a part of the backbone right here, too, and that dorsal fin,
17:53which you can pull out. Isn't that a beautiful fish? Alaskan king salmon like this is always
18:02caught wild. It is not farmed. It is a very oily, delicious fish. So beautifully succulent. Very,
18:12very good for you. And there. It's nicely clean. And so the salmon is very, very tender. To decorate,
18:22I have long cucumber slices and this will go around the salmon like this for decoration. Like that. I'm
18:31going to do stripes all the way down the back. And I'm going to serve it right on this lovely
18:38French
18:39breadboard. You can use big offset spatulas like this. There.
18:50And now to decorate. Take your cucumber slices. And this can be done on a mandolin. Just slice along the
18:59whole length of the cucumber. Make a beautiful collar. So pretty.
19:11And when you get down towards the tail end, cut the cucumber in shorter pieces.
19:18And this is what will go on your buffet with a lovely sauce.
19:25This is a watercress caper sour cream mayonnaise sauce. Very delicious. Some watercress. I love
19:33watercress. It has a nice pungent spiciness to it. And of course, you can line up some lemon wedges
19:42and everyone can have one with a serving of the salmon. A roasted rack of lamb is the ideal choice
19:48when
19:49you want to impress friends at your next dinner party. Searing the meat first caramelizes the exterior
19:55and then roasting in the oven guarantees that the interior will be flavorful and incredibly juicy.
20:01Now, when buying a rack of lamb, specify that you want the rack cut from the loin end. This is
20:08the meatiest
20:08part of the rack of lamb and where the eye, this is called the eye, is the largest. Check that
20:15the meat
20:16is deep red in color and with a firm fine grained texture and that the fat is pearly white, just
20:24like
20:25this. Now, this is called the shine bone. If you don't remove that or have it removed, and it's much
20:31easier
20:31if somebody else does this at the butcher shop, it will make carving almost impossible. Now, this has to
20:38be taken off at the butcher with a bandsaw and this is what it looks like when it is removed.
20:46Look how
20:46neat and clean this rack of lamb is. This comes from the same butcher shop and a full rack of
20:53lamb has
20:54eight ribs for four. Each rib consists of a nugget called the eye. This is the eye of the meat
21:02and this
21:02is what you love to eat. It's so good and this is the arching rib bone. Now, you can just
21:08roast it like
21:09this, but it doesn't look so pretty. A method called Frenching takes away all this between the ribs. It's
21:20fat, isn't grizzle, and actually a little tiny bit of meat. And this is called Frenching. It's not too
21:28hard to do. Your butcher can do it for you, but you can also do it yourself at home. And
21:35this will
21:36delineate each rib and make a very much prettier presentation. You'll see when it comes out of the
21:42oven what a gorgeous, gorgeous presentation it makes. And these are individual, so then when you're carving,
21:48you're going to carve right between each rib, making a very nice nugget of meat. And now the
21:56Frenching looks done, but it is not done because you still have to clean each of those bones. And I
22:04find the easiest way to do that is, well, first of all, cut this way to get rid of the
22:10fat. Take that fat
22:12off the top of the bone. See how much more comes off? You think it's done, but it's not. Now
22:20that the
22:21bones are all clean, the lamb is ready to brown. So rub some salt into the meat and some ground
22:31pepper
22:36on both sides. Okay, so right into hot olive oil. Now while it's browning, you can prepare the breadcrumb
22:48coating. Rather than the more traditional mustard and herb crust, this rack is coated with yogurt,
22:54which adds a subtle flavor and tang to the rack. So in a blender, put three quarters of a cup
23:03of parsley,
23:04a half a cup of mint leaves, a half a teaspoon of salt,
23:13three quarters of a cup of breadcrumbs,
23:18and the zest of one lemon.
23:24And that goes right into the blender jar. And a third of a cup of olive oil.
23:35Watch your lamb. It's already getting a very, very nice color. Yes. Okay, so just quickly pulse this.
23:57Okay, that should be enough.
24:02So now scrape this out into your bowl and it's ready to coat the rack of lamb.
24:14So, so tasty. Okay, so our lamb is pretty brown.
24:24Very nice.
24:27So now this is rested for 10 minutes.
24:31One tablespoon, a big tablespoon of yogurt. Don't use blueberry, strawberry, or peach. Use
24:40plain yogurt. I like the nice thick Greek style yogurt. Unflavored. You can use low fat or regular.
24:49It doesn't matter. But this is only to help the breadcrumb mixture adhere to the lamb.
24:56Very tasty and pretty. And now pack on that beautiful green bread crummy, herby, olive oily mixture.
25:10So there. Doesn't that look delicious? So now put this in your 400 degree preheated oven and roast until
25:18an instant read thermometer registers 125 degrees. But that should take anywhere from 18 to 24 minutes.
25:27Set your timer.
25:31Well, here it is fresh out of the oven. It has to rest for approximately 10 minutes just so that
25:37the juices
25:40stay in the meat when you carve. Remove this very carefully after 10 minutes to a carving board and slice
25:49place into individual chops. This is very, very pretty. And you can arrange it on a tray.
25:55All the different chops right on a tray. Should slice nicely right through.
26:03Beautiful.
26:07The meat is perfectly cooked. Look at the pretty color.
26:13The crust adheres nicely to the meat.
26:22Garnish with fresh mint.
26:25And serve with my favorite, mint jelly. Now I would serve rack of lamb like this with
26:33scalloped potatoes, with a puree of butternut squash. Your guests and your family will love it.
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