I will apologise to any vegetarians now if you find this post offensive. Or maybe not! My name is Peter and I'm a lamboholic! Yep! That's right. It's an addiction. It's become so expensive to buy this stuff right now that I couldn't resist these beautiful lamb cutlets when I saw them at the butchers the other day. Priced at $2.50 each I was warned before I made my purchase. Funny how life has become. Your own butcher warns you before you hand over the money!....LOL I almost felt like we were making a clandestine transaction!
In all seriousness, they were bloody delicious. I prepared these quite simply by sprinkling over some salt and pepper liberally and using some Greek oregano. I used a grill pan to seal them off in the initial cooking and then finished them off in a very hot oven till they were really tender. Simplicity personified. Nothing more. Nothing less. I just don't understand people who say that lamb tastes "gamey" or it smells funny. Maybe they've been scarred by bad experiences of eating tough cuts of this meat. All it needs is a herb that will work with it. When I was growing up we always had lamb with oregano. Now I pair it with rosemary, thyme or marjoram. Sometimes I use balsamic vinegar, other times lemon juice. And don't forget the garlic. These two should be married...that's how suited they are.
When I gave in to my expensive craving the other day I wanted to enjoy the lamb with some Greek "horta". "Horta" are leafy greens Greeks eat, usually boiled or blanched that are doused with lashings of oilve oil and lemon juice a.k.a "ladolemono". They are picked in the wild and they come in a number of varieties. There are "vlita" which I believe are Amaranth, there's radicchio and others which are very similar to spinach or silver beet. I'm hopeless at research because my mother is the one usually cooking these up. Anyway, I couldn't find any "horta" so I opted on getting some silver beet and blanching it lightly and dressing it with lots of extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice.
Pin itThe rest of my lamb feast included some pumpkin. I just sliced the pumpkin up in mini crescent shapes and drizzled some olive oil and honey and sprinkled a little cumin. I baked them in a hot oven for about 40-45 mins and they were crisp around the edges and soft in the centre. So all in all, I had a complete meal of balanced deliciousness. A nice strong red finished this mini feast off and I was set...
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