Here now, in answer to William Blake’s poetic question “Little Lamb who made thee,” we offer a map of where to find the best sheepish dishes in NYC and its vicinity. What about Keens’s famous mutton chop, you ask? It’s really lamb. Lacking tenderness, mutton demands extensive cooking, and is rarely allowed to stand on its own. Mutton, which comes from an older sheep, is a harder sell, with a more assertive nature that goes well with stronger stews and curries. comes from Australia or New Zealand, where it has been bred to be milder, with a texture like well-marbled steak.īut luckily, we have lots of immigrants and descendants of immigrants who consider lamb, which is the meat of sheep that are one year or younger, the tastiest of meats, preferring more flavor to less.

* My addition.America has never embraced the sheep the way it has the cow, the pig, and the chicken, and many still avoid it. Remove chops from oven and let rest for at least 5 minutes before serving. Place in preheated oven and cook another 4 to 5 minutes for medium rare. Remove the chops to a sheet pan and schmear generously with the pistachio tapenade. The chops should be beautifully caramelized on both sides. If the pan begins to smoke, lower the heat. When the oil is hot but not smoking, add the lamb chops and cook for about 2 minutes on each side to brown. Coat a large saute pan generously with olive oil and bring to medium-high heat. Allow them to sit for 10 to 15 minutes before cooking.

Cut 6 even chops.Ĭook your chops: Season your six lamb chops generously on either side with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Counting from either end, remove the 2nd and 7th bones this will create 6 even chops that are thicker than a normal lamb chop. If using a rack of ribs: Remove 2 rib bones from the 8 rib rack to make it a 6-rib rack. Add the zest and pulse 1 more time, drizzling in more oil if necessary. While the machine is running, slowly drizzle in olive oil until the mixture becomes a paste.

To make the pistachio tapenade: In a food processor combine the pistachios, olives, capers, garlic, herbs and puree. What, you don’t do that too?ġ/2 cup pitted green (what I used) or Cerignola (what Burrell recommends) olivesġ tablespoon freshly chopped oregano leaves (nixed because mine had gone bad)Ģ tablespoons freshly chopped parsley leaves Chops are browned for two minutes on each side in a pan, slathered with the tapenade and baked for five minutes to utter lamb perfection - the whole dish can literally be pulled off in 30 minutes, leaving time for the important stuff, like sitting in the grass, and pondering how your thighs got so awesome. That’s love, right?įortunately, this recipe has a little fun with them, smearing them, once browned, with a olive-pistachio-lemon zest and garlic tapenade that you can whiz up in no time in a food processor. In fact, I think my enjoyment of lamb chops - versus dabbling in ribs or a vague appreciation of steak - is pretty much the only thing that makes me a “real” meat eater these days, which I define as liking the taste of something so much, you’d even enjoy it plainly, just salt and pepper on a grill. Related, reason three is that, I only recently discovered that I like, nay, love lamb chops. The second was that these chops are entirely in the kitchen and I had no idea you could make great lamb chops without a grill. There were three big sells on this recipe for me, the first being Anne Burrell: I love everything she cooks. But when I was going through my (very, very, very long) list of Recipes I Want To Try last week, these lamb chops jumped out at me, promising to at least temporarily break me out of my asparagus - hashed! ribboned! tossed with pasta for one! - rut.

With a fridge bursting (literally if you can find room for a jar of mayo in there, you’d be my hero) with spinach and scallions, radishes, real baby carrots, sugar snaps, shelling peas and tiny freshly-dug red potatoes rolling off the top, I can hardly imagine why I’d need to roast a chicken. In fact, I have apparently only made four dishes on the site this year that include meat, and two were briskets for big dinner parties. One thing I am realizing about going a long time without eating meat (15 years) followed by a relatively short time eating as a moderately enthusiastic meat eater (5 years and change) is that it doesn’t always occur to you to include it in meals.

Lamb chop dinner near me