I bought some beautiful lamb loin chops at the store the other day and decided to put the mint plant on our deck to some use. This recipe is super simple, flavorful, and is a great addition to our meat rotation. These lamb chops go great with rice on the side.
Oven-Roasted Minted Lamb Loin Chops Recipe
1/4 cup olive oil 10 fresh mint leaves 6 lamb loin chops (1 1/4" thick) Salt and pepper
Finely chop the mint leaves. Put the lamb chops in a large Ziploc bag and pour the olive oil over them, then add the chopped mint, seal the bag, and move the lamb chops around inside the bag to fully coat them. Let the lamb chops marinate in the bag for at least 30 minutes at room temperature before roasting (1 hour preferably).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat a large cast iron skillet to High heat on the stove top and add the lamb chops in a single layer. Generously salt and pepper them. Sear them for about 3 minutes, then flip them over to sear the other side for about 3 minutes. Turn off the stove top and use a large spoon to remove the excess oil from the skillet before moving it to the oven. Transfer the skillet to the oven, uncovered, and roast the lamb chops for 10 minutes for medium-rare or 15 minutes for medium. Let the lamb chops rest for 5 minutes before serving. Serves 2-3 people as a main course.
Like many Americans my age, I was raised with a jar of mint jelly in the fridge, and it never, ever, came out unless there was lamb around. In fact, if someone caught you making a PB&J with mint jelly back then, it was straight to the insane asylum. Nope, mint jelly was to be served only with lamb – and lamb only with mint jelly.
We’ve come a long way since then, and now, anything goes. Except for peanut butter and mint jelly sandwiches. That’s still considered crazy. But as far as mint sauces go, I love experimenting with new ideas, especially around Easter time, and I really liked how this came out.
As I mention, next time we’ll add our mint right before we serve, so to preserve that bright green color, but besides that, I really enjoyed the combination. Once it was properly seasoned, that is. I added more of everything; lemon juice, salt, cayenne, and mint, before it was just right. The ingredient amounts below have been properly adjusted.
Regarding the cooking method: I usually sear my racks in a very hot frying pan, then add the mustard/crumb mixture, and roast until we reach 125 F., internal temp. This time I tried an alternative method, where you sear it in a hot oven, then add the crumbs, and continue roasting until done. Which is a better method for the home cook? Probably the first one.
The good news is; if you watch any of our older rack of lamb videos, you see this method in all its glory. In fact, this “Pistachio Crusted Rack of Lamb” would not only show you our preferred technique, but would also go amazingly well with this sauce. I really hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 2 large or 4 smaller portions:
1 whole (8 bone) rack of lamb seasoned very generously with salt, freshly ground black pepper, and cayenne
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoons finely minced green onions
1/4 cup fine plain bread crumbs
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
For the *sauce:
2 cups fresh strawberries
zest of one lemon
juice from 2 lemons
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup freshly sliced mint leaves (add right before you serve!)
salt and cayenne pepper to taste
* Only do final seasoning when the sauce has cooled. When tasting the sauce, keep in mind it’s going to be used as a condiment, and not eaten plain, which means it needs to be very well-seasoned. This is why it’s better to taste on a cracker or piece of bread, instead of off the spoon. Other great additions to this sauce are things like balsamic vinegar, hot/sweet peppers, cracked black pepper, as well as other “sweet” herbs, like tarragon and basil.
You could roast an expensive leg of lamb for Easter, which would be lovely, but why not consider the lesser known, and just as delicious shoulder roast? This underrated cut is less expensive, very flavorful, and much less stressful.
We usually prepare the leg medium-rare to medium for maximum enjoyment, which requires a little more finesse than a shoulder roast, which we’re going to cook long and slow, until very tender. As long as you let the meat braise until it's falling off the bone, there's no way this isn't going to be great.
Obviously, we’re talking about a completely different texture than roasted lamb, but if you like things like shredded beef, and pulled pork, you will be down with this. As I mentioned in the video, I wanted you to focus on the super easy technique, and not necessarily the ingredients I used.
Honey, vinegar, and mint are classic with lamb, but any other sweet/sour approach should work nicely. You could even cheat, and use your favorite barbecue sauce (you know my favorite), which would be perfect with this rich, succulent cut, as well. I hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 4 large portions (about 3 sliders per person):
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 1/2 pound bone-in lamb shoulder roast
salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 onion, cut in large dice 4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons freshly sliced mint
- 325 F. for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until very tender
With the grilling season starting up again, I thought I'd share one of my favorite simple marinades that pairs perfectly with beautiful, juicy grilled lamb chops. My family is slowly coming around to eating more lamb, which is one of my absolute favorite things to grill. This simple marinade is one of the reasons we are enjoying more lamb nowadays. A couple of hours marinading is enough to infuse great flavor into these chops.
It also works very well with boneless leg of lamb, which I marinate for a a few hours before tying the lamb back into shape with butcher string before open roasting it in the oven. I sometimes add rosemary to the marinade when cooking it this way: it's a really delicious way to enjoy roast lamb.
I've served the chops here with some family favorite Lemon Herb Roast Potatoes and Lemon Mint Tzatziki. We also had a small Greek salad on the side to complete an exceptionally delicious meal.
Garlic Balsamic Lamb Chops
Recipe by Barry C. Parsons
Garlic Balsamic Lamb Chops - a very simple marinade that pairs very well with the flavor of grilled lamb. Serve with Lemon Herb Roast Potatoes, Lemon Mint Tzatziki and a Greek side salad for an exceptionally delicious meal.
Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 10 minutes Total time: 2 hours including marinating time Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients
2 poundslamb chops
2 tbspolive oil
4 clovesminced garlic
2 tspsmoked paprika
2 tsp honey
1/2 tspsalt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp dry thyme
4 tbsp balsamic vinegarbalsamic vinegar
Cooking Directions
Whisk all of the marinade ingredients together.
Pour over the lamb chops in a large Ziploc bag.
Marinate in the fridge for a couple of hours.
Take the chops out of the fridge for a half hour or so before grilling to bring them closer to room temperature. This will make it easier to cook to the proper internal temperature without over cooking the outside of the meat.
Grill over medium high heat or under the broiler. I use a meat thermometer to test the internal temperature of the chops, taking them to 145 degrees F for medium rare. Well done is 170 degrees F, so don't ever go over that internal temperature.
Let the chops rest under a loose tent of aluminum foil for 5 minutes before serving.
Tzatziki sauce is a sauce that is traditionally made with yogurt, cucumber, and garlic that pairs very well with lamb, grilled meats, falafel, and on gyros. I can't eat garlic, so we don't eat Greek food very often. Luckily, Richard came up with a tzatziki sauce recipe that uses fresh mint to flavor the sauce in lieu of garlic (thank you!). This tzatziki sauce is fabulous with my Lamb Burgers Recipe or Minted Lamb Morsels. Pictured above is a lamb burger gyro with grilled flatbread, lamb burger, tomato, lettuce, and Richard's Garlic-Free Tzatziki Sauce. So good!
Garlic-Free Tzatziki Sauce Recipe
2 - 6 oz. containers of plain Greek yogurt 1 medium cucumber 2 tbsp minced fresh mint leaves (about 15 leaves) Juice from 1/2 a lemon 1/2 tsp sea salt 1/4 tsp pepper
Add the yogurt to a medium-sized mixing bowl. Peel, de-seed, and dice up the cucumber into small cubes. Mince about 15 fresh mint leaves. Add the cucumber and mint to the bowl. Next, add the juice of 1/2 a lemon (no seeds), the sea salt, and the pepper and use a small whisk to mix it all together until the yogurt is smooth. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 2 hours before serving. Makes about 2 cups of tzatziki sauce. Serve the sauce with lamb, grilled meat, gyros, falafel, grilled pita, fresh tomatoes, rice, or anything else you want a fresh-tasting cucumber sauce to accompany. The sauce can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Cheese Stuffed Lamb Burgers with Lemon Mint Tzatziki
When I dropped by the St. John’s Farmer’s Market last Saturday, I had a brief chat with Adam Blanchard, the owner and talented cheese maker at Five Brothers Artisan Cheese. Adam has had great success over the past year since the launch of his local cheese making company. A number of good local restaurants have embraced his products and contributed to their popularity, no doubt. Adam always has several varieties of his cheeses on offer at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings and I purchased some of his goat’s milk cheddar which was quite delicious with some crusty bread and olives as my Saturday lunch.
The texture of this cheese was akin to a softer, creamier version of feta, so if you are not lucky enough to get your hands on any of Five Brothers wonderful cheese, substitute a good quality feta in this recipe, which is what I have used previously in these burgers. Sometimes softer cheeses can be difficult to use in stuffed burgers, often oozing out of the burger on the grill but I really like the way this cheese stayed intact, warmed and took on a whole new dimension of delicate texture. It was delicious with the mildly flavored lamb which got a flavor boost from fresh garden herbs, minced garlic and chopped sundried tomatoes incorporated into the burgers. I then seasoned the outside of the burgers with smoked paprika before they hit the grill.
With so many flavor components already in play with these burgers, the only condiment that I served with them was some of my favorite Lemon Mint Tzatziki that I normally serve with Chicken Souvlaki. This was one awesome burger. For those of you lucky enough to be in the St. John’s are be sure to check out Five Brothers Artisan Cheese at the St. John’s Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.
Makes 4 burgers
Mix together:
2 lbs ground lean fresh lamb
1 ½ tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 ½ tbsp chopped fresh oregano
1 ½ tbsp chopped fresh thyme
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
Form into 8 individual burger patties. On four of the patties, place about
2 ounces feta cheese or goat cheddar
Place the remaining four patties over the cheese and pinch the edges together to seal. Season the outside with a good dusting of
Smoked paprika
Grill over medium high heat for 4-5 minutes per side or longer if you prefer well-done. Serve on toasted buns with Lemon Mint Tzatziki.
Lemon Mint Tzatziki
(Half this recipe is enough but it also makes for a great veggie dip and will last a few days in the fridge if you make the whole batch)
3 cups Greek yogurt, drained.
Draining the yogurt removes much of the liquid and produces an end product about the consistency of thick sour cream. To drain the yogurt, line a colander with several layers of cheesecloth (or in a pinch, several large coffee filters) Pour the yogurt into the colander and place it in a large bowl or in the sink for an hour or two. this should produce about 2 cups of thick yogurt.
6 inch piece of English cucumber
Peel the piece of cucumber and remove the seeds and pulp at the center with a teaspoon, then dice the outside flesh of the cucumber into small cubes of 1/8 inch or less.
Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of kosher salt over the diced cucumber and toss together well. Let this rest for about a half hour , stirring occasionally. This process removes some of the liquid from the cucumber so that it will not water down the consistency of your finished tzatziki. Drain all of the liquid off the diced cucumber before adding it to the drained yogurt along with
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint
2 cloves minced garlic
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
pinch salt and pepper to season
Mix well, cover and store in the fridge for at least a half hour before serving.
We eat lamb every couple of weeks to mix up our proteins and have a special treat. We especially like these lamb burgers with the fresh mint from our deck. We eat our lamb burgers without a bun and with some dijon mustard on the side, although you can certainly eat them with your favorite toppings on a bun. Goat cheese, carmelized onions, and dijon mustard would be especially good on them. The lamb burger pictured is served with Cooked Lentils with Avocado Topping - a fantastic, protein-rich, gluten-free meal!
Lamb Burgers Recipe
1 lb fresh ground lamb 10 fresh mint leaves 1 tbsp olive oil Salt and pepper
Stack the mint leaves and mince them into very small pieces. Put the ground lamb in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil over the lamb. Add the minced mint to the bowl. Remove your rings and use your hands to mix everything together. Divide the ground lamb into 4 equal pieces. Roll the pieces into balls and use the palms of your hands to flatten them into thin, round burgers.
Heat a grill pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray to High heat. Add the lamb burgers. Salt and pepper to taste. Grill them for 5-6 minutes per side for a medium-well burger. Eat them by themselves with some dijon mustard, or put them on a bun with toppings like goat cheese, carmelized onions, and mustard. Makes 4, 1/4 lb lamb burgers.
You know I love lamb, as evidenced by the various chops, shanks, legs, and shoulders I've featured in the past. These are among the most popular meat recipes on the blog, so it seems many share my love. Here we have a brand new cut to celebrate, the lamb breast.
This is not common in your regular supermarkets. There's an inverse relationship between the size of the parking lot, and the chances you'll find breast of lamb in the meat case. However, a visit to a real butcher (look for lots of tats and facial hair) should be rewarded with some slabs of this bony, fatty, but richly flavored meat.
Since I hadn't cooked this in ages, I decided to play it safe, and use a time-tested Mediterranean-inspired spice rub, and it could not have worked more perfectly. The exotic spices made the rich meat seem even more decadent, all of which was nicely balanced by the vinegar sauce's astringency.
A bright green chimichurri sauce on a well-marbled piece of meat is one of the best things ever, and this dish definitely borrows from that playbook. It's not like you'd want to eat a spoon of the condiment right out of the bowl, but slathered over the glistening meat, it's a thing of beauty.
I hope that if you are a fan of lamb, and you haven't tried lamb breast yet, that you give it a try soon. Enjoy!
I want to wish everyone who celebrates, a Happy Easter tomorrow! No fresh new holiday-appropriate video to post today, but since lamb is such a classic Easter dish, I wanted to share some of my favorite lamb recipes from posts past.
All of these would make for a lovely Easter dinner tomorrow. For dessert I'd go with hollow chocolate rabbits and marshmallow peeps. Enjoy!
I can’t believe tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day! Seems like just yesterday I was shoveling snow at my mother's house. Anyway, it's too late to do any new Irish-inspired recipes, so I'll do the next best thing and post links to these three delicious videos (click on the recipe captions, and away you go).
By the way, any Irish drinking jokes you may hear in these clips were only meant to offend my Irish friends and family members, and not the general Irish-American community. Having said that, most of them will be too drunk to care tomorrow, so I guess it really doesn’t matter. Erin go Bragh!
We eat lamb once every couple of weeks or so. It's a nice change from chicken, beef, or fish. We have a mint plant on our deck, and I wanted a good use for the mint leaves, so I came up with this dish. The fresh mint really adds a nice flavor to the lamb. This lamb goes especially great served with wild rice, or Roasted Cauliflower, or Cooked Lentils with Avocado Topping.
Minted Lamb Morsels Recipe
3/4 to 1 lb boneless lamb leg Olive oil 10 fresh mint leaves Salt and pepper
Mince the fresh mint leaves. Cut the raw lamb meat into small bite-sized pieces, removing all of the fat. Put the lamb pieces and the mint into a medium-size mixing bowl and drizzle a little olive oil over it. Mix together the lamb, mint, and olive oil. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate until you're ready to cook it.
Spray a large non-stick skillet with cooking spray, heat it to High heat, and add the minted lamb. Add salt and pepper to taste, and saute the lamb until all of the pieces are cooked through and browned. This will take about 6 minutes. Serves 2 adults (and one small child).
For those of you that aren’t hip (like me…I don’t have an iPod which automatically makes me not hip), a “mash-up” usually refers to a DJ taking two different songs and mixing and “mashing” them together to produce a new musical creation. My personal favorite, the Jay Z/Linkin Park mash-up MTV did a few years ago. If you haven’t heard any of that, and you’re under 60 years old (Hi, Mom), then check it out, it’s great stuff. Big Pimpin for real. Anyway, in that same spirit of combining two great things to make a new even greater thing, I present today’s video recipe clip.
I love classic Greek “Moussaka.” Layers of lamb and eggplant, exotically spiced and topped with a rich, almost custard-like sauce. I also love a good Shepherd’s Pie, what’s not to like about a pie made out of ground meat and mashed potatoes? So, I thought I would try a Shepherd’s Pie using the flavor components of the Greek “Moussaka.” Did it work? Damn right! It was really good, and next to a green salad, made for a very satisfying supper on a foggy San Francisco night.
A few suggestions before you watch the clip. The potato topping I do is relatively bland since I was topping a very highly seasoned meat base. You should use my spice amounts below as a rough guide, and add the cumin, cinnamon and hot pepper in increments until you have something that tastes right to you. The lamb and eggplant mixture is NOT subtlety spiced in this dish, and the ingredient amounts reflect that fact. This dish should explode with exotic and aromatic flavor. To me that’s what makes the “crispy and browned on the top, but moist and tender underneath” potato topping such a great contrast. And don’t forget the fresh mint. As you hear me say in the clip, I used chocolate mint, which you can find at the better garden centers (or order the seeds online – it’s an amazing herb), but plain supper market mint will work beautifully. Enjoy!
Ingredients: 2 lbs ground lamb 2 eggplant 1/3 cup tomato paste 1/2 onion 4 cloves garlic 3 russet potatoes 1/2 cup milk 1/2 grated parmesan cheese 1/2 stick butter salt to taste 1 egg fresh mint 2 tbl olive oil Spice Mix: 2 bay leaves 3 tbl ground cumin 1 tbl cinnamon 1 tsp cayenne 1 tbl black pepper 1 tbl salt (at least, taste and adjust) 2 tbl herb de provance (or Italian or Greek dried herb mix) 1 tbl paprika 1 tsp red pepper flakes *Baked at 400F for 20-25 minutes until golden brown
Growing up, one of my favorite “special occasion” meals was grilled lamb chops, and of course the always present, bright green, jar of mint jelly. What a great combination! Now, this just wasn’t my Mom’s secret combo, every restaurant we ever dined at, that served lamb chops would always serve the same green (artificially colored of course) jelly, just like at home. So, you can image my surprise and confusion, when arriving in San Francisco to start my culinary career, discovering that there was no green mint jelly.
I remember talking about a lamb special that was going on the menu of a Café I was working, and the Chef and a few of us cooks were throwing around ideas for a sauce. I said something like, “what about a classic green mint jelly?” Wow, they all looked at me like we were at a heavy metal music convention and I just suggested throwing on some Bee Gees. Apparently green jelly was something only housewives still served with lamb and we were way too culinarily advanced to consider such a clichéd pairing. How embarrassing! I learned that day that it’s not enough that certain foods taste good together, but you also have to consider the fashion of the times.
By the way, if you still use the green jelly right out of the jar – stand proud! There’s nothing wrong with you. But, in certain circles (like the entire state of California) you just can’t pull out a jar of mint jelly, so today’s clip is a fine solution to avoid any embarrassment with the food snobs among us (they're everywhere). You’ll see me do a new take on the classic mint jelly, and turn an old cliché into a great, and flavorful, and socially acceptable sauce. Also, I’m grilling lamb shoulder chops, which are a nice, and much cheaper, alternative to the more popular lamb loin chops.
Ingredients: 2 lamb shoulder chops (8 oz each) 3 sprigs rosemary 4 cloves garlic 2 tbl pomegranate juice olive oil salt and pepper
For the Sauce: 1/2 cup orange marmalade 1 tbl white wine vinegar 1 tbl water 1/2 bunch fresh mint 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
