Four lamb chops from the counter at Sainsbury's, a teaspoon of freshly ground cumin seeds, half a teaspoon each of (rather ancient) ground coriander and ground paprika, a handful of large cherry-type tomatoes from our organic box, a handful of mushrooms from the same, a smallish onion, a large garlic clove, olive oil, salt and pepper
I thought I should record this one for posterity and my future memory purposes. It was a properly delicious dinner. Inspired, as always, by a few other people's recipes, but also keen to try out our new Neff oven, I did the following ...
Chop the onion into wedges (top to tail); mix with the whole tomatoes and mushrooms; add the spices, garlic, a good glug of olive oil, salt and pepper and stir the whole lot around. Add the lamb chops (coating them in the spices and oil) and give them an extra grinding of salt and pepper. Stick the whole thing in the (nice new Neff) oven at 200 degrees C. After 20 minutes, take it out, move everything around, turn the chops over and rest them on the top (so they get nicely exposed to the heat). Back in the oven for another ten minutes.
I ate it with some rather stale white bread (a mistake, though necessary to mop up the considerable and delicious juices) and a glass of cold Kronenberg (spot on). Now some people would say I over-cooked the lamb. It was just past pink in the middle (but nowhere near brown and tough). And the spices probably need replacing. But nonetheless the outside of the lamb was gooey and golden; the tomatoes were just short of turning into a sauce; the onions were golden and sweet ... and the whole thing was really, really good. Don't know whether the picture (blurred as it is) quite does it justice. Still, Catherine ate the rest a day or two later and reported good things about it.
You just cant beat the quality of a decent old strat, they just play like a glove.
Posted by: USA Fender Stratocaster | April 11, 2008 at 11:52 PM