Lamb Chops with Basil Chimichurri
So lamb is one of Jennifer’s favorites things in the world. Lamb chops, frenched and served lollipop style. I have only made lamb chops one other time and I am pretty sure I overcooked them last time. These were perfectly done, medium rare, seared in my cast iron after a 2 hour soak in the sous vide. Served with a roasted mixed veggie blend that included carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, and sun chokes. I also found some nice dandelion greens and created a simple citrus dressing to top it off.
I did some meal prep this week but they were repeats of some I have done in the past. Its been a pretty busy few weeks and I didn’t find time to do research on what I wanted to make this week so I’m blogging our Sunday dinner instead. Its still low carb and a really great recipe to try out.
Here is the recipe I generally followed.
Main Dish (Lamb)
We stopped at the grocery store on Saturday and they had a good deal on some racks of lamb so I grabbed a few and thought it would make a great Sunday dinner meal.
The first step was to clean up the racks of lamb. They were not cleaned of silver skin or frenched yet. This took some time; do it ahead of time if you can manage. I didn’t get mine perfect but just good enough to make sure the fat cap and tough tendons didn’t get in the way of eating them. An impossible chewy piece of meat will derail an entire dish. Here is a decent video on the general process to get this done.
Pro Tip: Have your local purveyor do the frenching for you. If you ask the person behind the counter if they can do this for you its going to save you a bunch of time and frustration if your not skilled at this.
Once I had a nicely frenched rack of lamb I placed them in a vacuum bag and sealed them with some minced garlic. I cooked them in my Sous Vide for 2 hours at 133 degrees Fahrenheit. I then removed them from the bags and browned as much of the surface of the meat in a cast iron skillet using clarified butter. I had to roll them around as to try and get every surface that I possible could. A little salt then I let them rest a few minutes under a tarp of aluminum foil before I sliced them into single bones and plated.
I followed the Chimichurri recipe almost exact. If you like pesto sauces, this reminded me alto of a basil pesto without the nuts. I put my version through a food processor and it came out perfectly.
Sides
I had some mixed veggies in the freezer (not very inventive but it works in a pinch), so thawed them and chopped some sun chokes up with them and roasted them in the oven for about 35 minutes. I finished them with some salt, pepper, and a little butter for taste. I used this as my bed for the chops covered with Chimichurri.
I also cleaned and rough chopped some dandelion greens. These greens are very bitter so I made a sweet, citrus dressing to go with them. I rarely measure ingredients but I’ll provide my list below. Whisk them all together and dress the greens. They remind me a lot of arugula, but you can use any lettuce green you wish.
- 1 lemon juiced
- Sweeter, I used splenda
- Olive Oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Minced Garlic
Conclusion
This dish was amazing. If you don’t have a Sous Vide, you can easily pan sear these and finish them in the oven just as easy. Just make sure you watch your temp for lamb doneness. Overdone lamb does not make for happy tasters. I don’t cook lamb very often as it is sometimes difficult to find in my part of the woods. The lamb was clearly the start in this show. Give them the attention they need and find shortcuts for the accompaniments unless you have the time.