by Paul Cormier, Salamanders of Kemptville
One of the specials we served at Salamanders for Valentine’s Day 2024 was lamb chops. Canadians have always had a love-hate relationship with lamb, and particularly with mutton. It seems that during the last couple of world wars, our troops were fed fairly economical meat, which at the time happened to be mutton. Many a veteran returned from Europe with the taste of Lanolin still in their mouths. This set the stage for families avoiding such great dishes as leg of lamb and lamb chops. Fortunately, the lamb we get today, whether from Down Under or from local producers, is very high quality and the cooking of lamb dishes is supremely easy. Today’s recipe is Baked Rosemary Lamb Chops.
Baked Rosemary Lamb Chops
Main Ingredient
- 3 lamb chops ¾ inches thick per person you are serving (check Costco for these)
Rub Ingredients
- cup olive oil, enough to cover all of the chops
- 1 teaspoon of black pepper
- 2 tablespoons of crushed rosemary leaves
Preparation
- Preheat your oven to 375 F
- Combine the olive oil, pepper and rosemary
- Paint each of the chops generously with the mixture using a basting brush
- Place in a suitably sized roasting pan lined with a grille
- Bake the chops to medium rare (please don’t overcook)
- Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before bringing to the table
It doesn’t get any easier than that. By the way, a lot of online recipes call for garlic on your chops. It’s up to you, but I wouldn’t use garlic in your coating as I find that it overcomes the delicate flavour of the chop. As with leg of lamb, you can accompany your chops with wild rice. Another great vegetable to serve with your chops is cauliflower florets with a homemade cheese sauce. As per the Beth’s leg of lamb recipe of March 2023, you can prepare a cheese sauce by placing ¼ cup of processed cheese in a saucepan and letting it melt at low heat. Then, grate in some nippy cheddar cheese (also to melt), 3 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese, 3 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, and a couple or three shakes of Tabasco sauce. Bring the cheese sauce to the table piping hot, preferably in a gravy boat. Serve the cauliflower as is and let your guests spoon or pour the cheese sauce. Now, let’s discuss mint sauce, which is usually recommended for accompanying lamb. If you are planning on using it, I recommend getting the real stuff and not mint jelly. Mint sauce will be quite liquid and have mint leaves floating around in the bottle. As an alternative, however, you might wish to take a trip to Mrs. McGarrigle’s in Merrickville and select a nice light fruit chutney. Don’t forget to pick up the Grahame’s Bakery buns.
Your menu, then, is: Baked Rosemary Lamb Chops, wild rice and cauliflower with cheese sauce, with a basket of warm buns. Your wine selection might be the same as for leg of lamb: for white, an unoaked Chardonnay; for red, maybe a Baco Noir. I hope you will try this simple and tasty dish.
Please let me know if you did and how it turned out at pcormier@ranaprocess.com.
