Simple Lamb Chops With Roasted Peach and Shaved Fennel Salad

Dan    Mains, Recipes     awesome, delicious, fennel, fresh, lamb, meat, recipes, salad, summer

What you’ll need…

Fennel Salad:

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1/3 cup white wine vinegar

1/3 cup water

1 TBSP sugar

2 TSP salt

1 bulb fennel (very thinly sliced)

2 peaches (halved and stoned)

1/4 red onion (thinly sliced)

1/2 cup feta (loosely crumbled)

zest of one lemon (and juice of one half)

1/2 cup fresh mint (coarsely chopped)

olive oil

salt and pepper

Lamb chops:

4 lamb chops

1/2 yellow onion (sliced)

1 cup shiraz

salt and pepper

Before we talk about anything else, I just realized that this recipe has no garlic in it. That breaks my heart a bit. Oh well, it happens…I’ve been in love with shaved fennel salads for awhile now, most specifically because of one that I frequently order here in Calgary at Charcut Roast House. Consider this an ode to them.  Since I’m not a huge fan of mint jelly with my lamb, I opted for some fresh mint in the salad, and as for the roasted peaches, well, it is summer after all. I made this dinner inside, but it might be a little extra summery if you grilled both the lamb and the peaches. Just saying…

Start things off by preheating your oven to 425 degrees. In a small pot combine the water, two types of vinegar, sugar, salt and let it come to a boil, about 4-5 minutes. Place the fennel (I used my highly under-used mandolin for this, so in-lieu, just slice as thin as possible) in a medium-sized bowl and pour the boiling liquid over top of it. Using a spoon, toss the mixture a few times, and then let sit for 5 minutes. This is a simple ‘technique’ I have come to call ‘quick half pickling’. I like doing it to the fennel, because I find it softens it a bit, but not too much, and gives it a bit of a tangy bite. After 5 minutes, discard the liquid from the bowl and set the fennel aside.

Next, drizzle some olive oil on the peach halves and pop them in the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until they have started to caramelize on top. In the meantime, you can add the remaining salad ingredients to the bowl of fennel, drizzle with olive oil, and toss until evenly combined. Add some ground black pepper, have a taste, and add salt if needed. Once the peaches are appropriately roasted, let them sit to cool down a bit before adding them to the salad. Feel free to slice them up or keep the halves intact. (leave oven on for the lamb chops!)

The lamb chops will be pretty straight-forward. Season each side of the meat with some salt and pepper. Then, in a medium-sized pan, sear each side of the meat on high heat, approximately 1 minute per side. Transfer to prepared baking dish, and place in your (still) preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until desired ‘done-ness’ has been achieved. While the chops are in the oven, add the onion to the pan and deglaze with the wine. Stirring occasionally, let the mixture reduce by two thirds, about 5 minutes, then remove from heat.

Once everything is ready to plate, top each lamb chop with some of the red wine reduction, along with a helping of the fennel salad on the side. Enjoy folks!

Serves 4

Total cook time…35-40 min

If you’re wondering why there is not a picture of the lamb chop in the recipe photo…

It’s always a sad day when a food blogger forgets his/her camera elsewhere, which was the case on the summer evening that I chose to cook this pretty little number up. I did take a picture via iPhone’s application Instagram, but felt like it just didn’t cut it…Well, it’s not bad…for an iPhone 3G. Anyway, here is that photo! Happy eating!

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