I'm pretty sure this is the best thing I have EVER made in my life! Jake would argue and say that it's my beef stew, but he doesn't like lamb, so we can't get his opinion on the matter- now can we?
I would also like to throw out there that as of this moment (I mean, this meal) lamb is my favorite meat. hands down. Mom's go-to-meal for Easter was traditionally lamb, I looked forward to it every year. I think it had something to do with the mint jelly...
the ingredients:
2 tbsp. Mint Jelly
1 tbsp. White Wine Vinegar
1 tbsp. Stone-Ground Mustard
1/4 c. Chicken Stock*
1 tbsp. Vegetable Oil
6 Lamp Chops**
*I used low-sodium
**I used 3, since I'm cooking for one right now.
the first 4 ingredients are for the sauce- it smelled really harsh since vinegar has such a pungent odor to it. and to be honest, it looks kind of gross seeing green jelly float around with mustard seeds... but TRUSTMEONTHIS- it's the best-tasting sauce ever, you will never go back to plain mint jelly again!
lets also point out that I made a reduction! I actually reduced stuff down to half it's starting size and made a sauce. hell yeah.
I never cook with vegetable oil, unless its called for in my baking. the recipe told you to heat the oil on high and cook the chops 3 minutes on each side for medium-well. I nearly smoked my damn house out! Vegetable oil gets EXTREMELY HOT! hotter than Olive Oil can (because it will burn and turn gross), I thought I was going to burn my chops, so I hurriedly flipped them over and started cooking on the other side, while I reduced the heat down to medium-high. I'm not a medium-well-person, I'm a kill-it-well-person. I don't want it to look like the meat on my plate will be able to walk off of it because it's bleeding so much; I followed their instructions since I'm not at all familiar with cooking lamb. the chops weren't cooked to my liking. they were so red on the inside I didn't think the heat evenly distributed thru. I placed them back in the pan with the sauce and cooked them for an extra 3 minutes. let me tell you, the authors need to add this step into their recipe because this actually helped to thicken the sauce a little more and it made a little bit of a glaze on my perfectly browned chops.
this meal was finger-licking good. I felt like an animal pulling the meat off the bones.
I went back for seconds.
the ingredients:
2 c. fresh peas or 10 oz. frozen
1 tsp. Unsalted Butter
1/4 small Red Onion
1/4 tsp. Kosher Salt
1 tbsp. Fresh Mint or 1 tsp. dried
2 tsp. Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
you would think hearing "mint" in the title means it would be over bearing in a recipe, but I assure you it isn't. you sweat the onions down in butter, saute the peas and add the olive oil and mint at the last second. this method wilts the leaves down, so you just get a hint of the mint in the background of each bite. very delightful, and despite butter being in the recipe- it didn't taste heavy.
I remembered the last of my ingredients to finish of the marinade for my olives and Feta. I'll be posting that recipe tomorrow once I get to taste it. while I was at Borders getting my Regretsy book and Owl mug... I got side-tracked once again by the cookbooks section and had both the Joy of Cooking and Mastering the Art of French Cooking in my hands. I nearly bought the damn things!!! then I brought myself back down to Earth and realized I could get them for less at Barnes & Noble (I have a membership and plus I find Borders to be rather expensive.) oh, don't mention that I still have 8 cookbooks I haven't opened...
what is with all of the delicious smelling pretzel places in malls?! gosh. it took everything in my power to keep walking. gluttonous.
No comments:
Post a Comment