Un menu pour amateurs d’ail

There are corners of France very dear to me, and this menu contains flavors of three of them–the light entrée dish with courgettes is some-how Parisian; the honest and simple lamb dish, Provençal; and of course the potatoes with their tarragon and cream, Normand. Then there is the flavor of a foreign province, far from France but close to my heart–Hawaii, where I first discovered the macadamia nut, used in this menu for an ice cream.

With the stuffed courgettes you have a first course that is tasty and green at the same time, and yet not too filling to precede the hearty lamb. I have included hard-boiled eggs as well as some cream cheese to give a pleasing texture to the squash stuffing, which in this version contains a purée of the scooped-out zucchini and onions. As for the lamb stew, this was first inspired by my friend Richard Olney, a cook with ingenious ideas, who braises his lamb shanks in a very large quantity of garlic that later becomes the sauce. My idea was to choose a cut of lamb that would be elegant for a dinner party and also easy to eat only with a fork (always useful for a buffet). The aillade, then, makes use of a shoulder of lamb, one of the nicest cuts of that animal, I think, as it has a rich flavor and rather gelatinous quality that makes it especially succulent when braised. The cut-up pieces of lamb are cooked in a rich broth with four bulbs (several dozen cloves) of unpeeled garlic, which at the end of the cooking are strained and puréed to bind the sauce with a lovely softened flavor. So don’t panic at so much garlic; when it is properly cooked it is never overpowering. The aillade is a wonderful dish to do ahead and reheat, as it can only gain in flavor when it rests for a while. To accompany the meat I know of no better dish than a potato gratin, which in this case is delicately flavored with tarragon rather than with the usual cheese and hint of garlic.