My Slightly Silly World: Orange Zest Lamb Chops

Friday, January 14, 2011

Orange Zest Lamb Chops

If you are like me, or like anybody whose dinner focus usually revolves around some kind of meat, you get tired of chicken, pork, fish, and beef. I must clarify that I am never tired of bacon or steak. When feeling overwhelmed with what to make for dinner, you should definitely consider lamb. Lamb is decadent in taste, but easy to prepare and if the lamb is raised right, (free roaming/frolicking little lamb) it is pretty healthy too.

Last year this little household bought a whole lamb from a local lamb farm in Tracy and we've been enjoying lamb ever since. Frank's Basque Family Farm delivered the meat to our house as part of it's wonderful service. If you aren't sure about purchasing a whole lamb, they have smaller packages available. Here's the website for more information http://franksbasquefamilyfarm.com/Home_Page.html .

My lamb chop recipe came about because these were the ingredients I had in my pantry. It just happened to turn out amazing. Often lemon, mint, rosemary, or thyme are used when making lamb, to cut the very rich flavor of the meat. I did not have lemon so I gave orange a try. You can use orange or lemon in this recipe and your results will be magnificent.

Ingredients:

8 lamb rib chops or 4 lamb loin chops- I used rib chops which are not as easy to find as loin chops. Either will work just fine.

The zest of 1 orange and it's juice

1-1.5 tablespoons of fresh rosemary

1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

salt

pepper

Directions:

Set oven to broil

Zest the orange using a microplane. This is the fun part, I feel very Ina Garten-esque when I use my microplane.

Chop up a tablespoon or so of rosemary. Rosemary can be very strong so be careful not to go hog wild (or lamb wild?), but it's fresh taste helps to balance the richness of the lamb... so a little rosemary crazy with lamb is okay.

Place chops on a shallow baking sheet.

Drizzle each side of chops with olive oil.

Sprinkle both sides of chops with rosemary. Add salt and pepper to taste. Spread the little bits of orange zesty goodness on each side. Squeeze the juice of the orange over the top of the chops.

Place on top rack of oven. Broil each side of lamb rib chops for approx 5 minutes each. For regular lamb chops up the time to 6-7 minutes per side. This will result in a browned outside and a slightly pink middle.