The Cottage Smallholder

Sheep and lambs grazing

D generally cooks on a Friday. It used to be steak. Now it’s something a bit more economical. On Thursday I found a chunky pack of lamb loin chops in the fridge reserved for his chef spot. They’re cheaper than steak but still a big Friday night treat.

When I pushed open the cottage front door he was busy with string and chops.
“Don’t look. It’s a surprise dish.”
My antenna has 20/20 surround vision. He was tying the chops together with string. The effect resembled an eccentric rack of lamb with chunkier chops.

The result was absolutely delicious and well worth trying at home. The chops were as succulent as a rack of lamb but far tastier as the herbs and garlic infused each cutlet.

“Why exactly did you go down the string route?” I was intrigued by the Heath Robinson treatment.
“The rack of lamb was £7.00 for a mini rack of five slim cutlets. On the shelf below, these loin chops were chunkier and just over £5.00. No contest when I remembered that we had string at home.”

I’m so pleased that I live with a man that wants to play with food.

Danny’s simple and succulent herb infused lamb chop recipe
Ingredients:

• 4 or 5 lamb loin chops (loin are best but you can try it with any lamb or mutton chops)
• half tsp of garlic granules or powder
• half tsp of ground black pepper
• half tsp of mixed herbs
• Dozen leaves of rosemary (3 leaves per chop) – or rosemary powder if you can find it (rosemary is not essential but is very good with lamb).
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 2 tbsp of Balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp of raspberry vinegar or something sweet like port, or use a tsp of sugar.
• 1 tbsp of chilli sherry (this is totally optional. Don’t worry if you do not have it).

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 210 or 190 fan (gas mark 6) – takes about 15 minutes to reach the temp
2. Mix the garlic, pepper and mixed herbs together in a saucer.
3. Strip the leaves off the rosemary, or add the rosemary powder to the saucer.
4. Stand the chops upright in an oven-proof dish, with the bones at the bottom.Starting from the rightmost chop, appy two pinches of the powdered mix from the saucer and rub it around evenly on the inside left of each chop: Then apply 3 rosemary leaves. The idea is to coat one inside surface of each chop so that the coating is shared by its neighbour when they are pressed together. Rub any leftover powdered mix to the outside of the leftmost and rightmost chop just to add a bit of flavour to the end chops.
5. Gently tie the chops together. Loop a piece of string around the waist of your rack of chops. No need to tie it tightly. Just enough to keep them pressed together while cooking.
6. Pour the olive oil and whatever other liquids you have (any or all of the Balsamic vinegar, raspberry vinegar, chilli sherry) into the base of the dish.
7. Make sure that the chops are standing up with their bony ends sitting in the dish. Pop the dish in the oven for 25 minutes (30 if you like your chops less pink).
8. Meanwhile cook your veggies. Creamed potato is good plus some carrot and broccoli.
9. After the chops are cooked, take them out of the oven and let them rest for 10 minutes under a towel or something that will not let them grow too cool. Remove the string and serve them onto plates. Pour over some of the juices from the dish that they were cooked in.