This meal started with some locally raised lamb chops I couldn't resist buying at the local Organic Market. It's a modification of a rosemary lamb chop recipe I came across on a site called Cooking for Engineers. It was the most detailed recipe I've ever seen. After skimming the steps, thinking about how I would do it a little differently and figuring what I could substitute in the ingredient list, I decided this was how I was going to cook my prized chops. I didn't have all the proper ingredients, but I had enough to improvise. The recipe called for orange juice, pineapple juice and fresh rosemary. I instead used Mango-Peach V8 splash, the juice of 1 orange and dried herbes de provence. I also added a little beef/lamb stock I had in the freezer, more garlic than the recipe called for and the juice of a quarter of a meyer lemon at the end. The result was one of the first lamb dishes I've fixed that my husband, who doesn't really care for lamb, actually liked.
Glazed Lamb Chops: (Serves 2-3)
-about a cup and a half of juice (Whatever is citrusy and available.)
-1 small onion, chopped
-4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped
-1/2 tsp or so of salt
-1/2 tsp or so of pepper
-tablespoon or so of herbes de provence
-6 lamb chops (could use steak or pork chops)
-couple splashes of oil (used grapeseed, but any type would do.)
-about a third cup of lamb or beef or whatever type of stock you have, or just use water.*
-good sized wedge of lemon (whatever type you have)
Mix everything except lemon, lamb, stock and oil, to form the marinade. Pour about 2/3 of marinade over lamb, in a plastic bag, and stick in fridge for 1-4 hours. Reserve the rest of the mixture. Heat skillet and add oil, just enough to keep meat from sticking. Sear meat. Remove meat from pan and set aside. Pour any extra oil out of pan. Pour the reserved marinade mixture into the pan along with stock. Whisk to get the good bits off the bottom of the pan and let it cook down until nice and saucy. Add meat back to pan when sauce is just about done, to let the meat heat back up. Be sure to pour in any juices from the plate the meat was resting on. Remove from heat when sauce is right and squeeze lemon juice into sauce. Stir just a little. Adjust salt and pepper if needed. Plate meat and spoon sauce over it, making sure to get all the nice bits of onion and garlic on there as well.
This was served with steamed asparagus dressed with butter and lemon and bread with garlic herb butter.
*(I'm not sure how much I used, as I added this as an afterthought. The stock was still frozen in a plastic container and the asparagus was going in the microwave, so I just popped the block of frozen stock out of the container and plopped it into the hot pan. I let it melt down a little until it looked like enough and then put the rest of the block of frozen stock back into the container and back into the freezer. I also added some extra water, maybe a third of a cup or more, to make the sauce cook longer to make sure the onions were tender.)
