Shopping while hungry – Recipe: rosemary and mint Lamb chomps with ared wine jus.

 I am a firm believer that going to a supermarket while hungry is a terrible idea. However I really couldn’t decide what to cook last night (and the cupboard was pretty bare, so to speak) so I risked it. Usually when I try this I end up coming back with a  lotof things that I would never usually buy (bags of cookies and various other bakery products are the norm) but last night I was pretty good.

What I did end up buying were some nice looking lamb chops. Theidea being I was hungry and I wanted something that I could cook quicklywithout too much effort while watching the football (Kiev vs Stoke) on my laptop. To go with this I decided I would throw in some herbs, as it was lamb I purchased fresh Rosemary and Mint. As an accompaniment I decided to keep it simple, Vivaldi potatoes (they were on offer) and Chataney carrots (they weren’t but I have developed a liking for them recently). I also had some other veg lying round at home to supplement this.

I made a quick marinade for the lamb (for 4 smallish chops),this consisted of

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 stalks of rosemary – Stripped and finely chopped

2 stalks of mint – finely chopped

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon of red wine

2 teaspoons of runny honey

1 clove of garlic

Sea salt and Black pepper

I left the lamb chops to sit in this for about 30 minutes stirring it occasionally as there wasn’t really enough marinade to cover all ofthe chops. (feel free to leave this longer but I was hungry)

Just before putting the lamb under the grill I put the potatoes on to boil on  a medium heat (these take 16-20 mins) after 7 or 8 minutes I put the rest of the veg (in this casetenderstem broccoli, fine beans and carrots) on my jerry rigged steamed (read: colander resting above the potatoes with the pan lid on top)

 I grilled the lamb under a moderate heat on a normal grill pan, I placed half a red onion which I had cut into hunks and brushed with olive oil under the grill rack while thelamb was cooking. The lamb took about 6 minutes per side to cook (when turning drizzle more of the marinade over the chops). After about 10 minutes of cooking I took the lamb out from under the grill at which point I poured a mug full of boiling water into the tray before pouring all of the mixture (red onion plus the fat from the chops) into a frying pan to make the sauce. I added a couple more tablespoons of wine and a lamb stock cube to this before simmering for 8 minutes (while I finished cooking the chops and serving the vegand everything else).

Anyway, coupled with the relatively reliable 2010 McGuigan’s Merlot the whole thing tasted really good.