Winging It

This class just proved what I had already learned at Lazlo's. When things aren't right, you figure it out quick and you fix it. My group was responsible for the grilled leg of lamb gyros, pita bread, mango chutney, and quinoa tabbouleh. Class did not start well. After grabbing our supplies for the day, we opened the lamb because it was the most time sensitive item we had in terms of plating our dishes. Unfortunately, it was not a 4-5 lb. boneless leg. Instead, it was 5 lbs. of lamb that had been cut up into chunks the size of stew meat. We all stood there for a couple of minutes trying to figure out what was up. Finally, knowing that we still had to make the gyros, we ran the meat down to the protein fabrication lab and ran it through the grinder. The only thing different that we did from the recipe was to add more spices because we had now sort of made sausage. After combining it all, we formed it into some logs, skewered it, and put it into the tandoor oven. While this was cooking, I made the mango chutney and quinoa tabbouleh. One of the other guys in my group made the pita bread as I had made it a couple of classes before. This time we decided to grill the pitas. In the end, the quinoa was excellent. I had never had it before. The most important thing to know about quinoa is that it contains a healthy dose of protein and amino acids. It is not a grain as it is not a member of the grass family. The mango chutney was good as well, and most importantly, the gyros turned out great. Nothing like adapting to what you have been given to make the most of what is going on. Plus, it's good to hear Chef say good things about what we did. I actually kind of preferred the pita bread on the grill. Maybe that's just the Nebraskan in me. Not really sure about that but I am sure that today was a good day. The last picture is the majority of the quinoa tabbouleh with some tomato and tzatziki. The other pictures are of the grilled pita and the plates that were served.