This week’s single recipe is Part 4 and the conclusion of our action-packed franchise, “Pork, Lamb And Other Things That Aren't Remotely ‘The Other White Meat.’”
BROILED OR BARBECUED BONELESS LAMB CHOPS: Serves four otherwise worldly individuals who never realized until tonight that there were such things as boneless lambs.
But seriously: If, like me, you grew up in a household where no one trusted meat unless it was so overcooked it looked good with spats, maybe you shared a similar childhood impairment — the inability to distinguish broiled inexpensive lamb chops from inexpensive broiled steaks. (Inexpensive broiled pork chops would have gone similarly undifferentiated had it not been for the telltale side dish of applesauce.)
This recipe should clear up some of your confusion (at least about lamb chops and steaks; ending your chronic bafflement about where our laps go when we stand up and why mirrors don't reverse us from top to bottom would require, as you know, a much longer cookbook). These lamb chops taste like lamb chops.
Ingredients
1 16-oz. bottle of your favorite Italian salad dressing or 1 12 oz. of olive oil, 4 oz. of red-wine vinegar, 1/4 tsp. of sugar, mixed
4 boneless lamb chops, at least 1/2 lb. each, trimmed fillet mignon-style (in thick rectangles) rosemary
garlic powder, puree of garlic or 2 cloves fresh garlic
seasoned salt
pepper
curry powder
tarragon leaves
1. Marinate the chops, after piercing them, in the commercial salad dressing or your own marinade concoction in a sealed container in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours (overnight is even better).
2. About an hour before you plan to prepare the chops, remove them from the fridge and open the container. The dressing may need to liquidize. Heat the broiler or fire up your coals.
3. Pour the marinade back over the chops, then shake and spread it all over them. Add the seasonings.
4. Broil or barbecue the chops about 5 to 7 minutes per side, depending on their thickness. Again, turning them more than once, about every 3 minutes, helps ensure they'll be done evenly. Spoon more of the dressing onto the top of each chop each time, right after you turn it.
5. Slice into the center of each of the chops to test its doneness (unless you're absolutely convinced that every inch of your broiler or barbecue projects the exact same amount of heat).
Side Dishes: As with lamb roast, white rice with a little curry powder and soy sauce or garlic mashed potatoes are terrific supporting players; a green Greek salad of lettuce, tomatoes, onion slices, olives and cucumbers in a simple vinaigrette — in fact, a fresh version of the kind you used (and possibly made) for the lamb marinade — offers a pure and flavorful complement to the meal.
Cool Presentation Award: Since your guests may still be surprised that a lamb chop can look like an expensive steak, don't slice the chops; instead, sliver some lightly browned 'Shrooms With A View (please see the chapter, "Soups, Salads, Potatoes, Vegetables and Cool Snacks") atop the chops, and serve, as optional dressings for the meat, some chilled, stirred plain yogurt and some mint or apple-mint jelly.
A Glossary of Useful, Common and Completely Obvious Cooking Terms with which You Can Dazzle Your Enemies and Irritate Your Friends
This Week: Mold to Muffin
Mold - Something you can use to make a gelatin dessert or something you may find on a gelatin dessert. See Defrosting. Muffin - The formal name of the president of the Junior League. Mushroom - The amount of space you must allot in order to shout instructions to your Iditarod dogsled team.
Mutton - The end result of flipping the ignition switch on each member of your Iditarod dogsled team.
Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 in
Permalink
| A Godengo Technology | Email Marketing powered by StreamSend
