Four chops were marinated in some olive oil to which was added a good handful of roughly chopped mint and a few cloves of crushed garlic. Covered and left for an hour or so.
Meanwhile The Woo was preparing some scrummy jacket potatoes and I cracked on with my creamy, minty leeks.
For the jackets we used some large Vivaldi potatoes. These are lovely and creamy and you always get a good crispy skin. She roasted them in a hot oven until the insides were soft. Left to cool for a bit and then the insides were scooped out and mixed with about a quarter of a pat of unsalted butter, a grated yellow pepper, a grated yellow scotch bonnet, a good handful of grated mature cheddar and some seasoning. The mixture was returned to the skins ad into the same hot oven for 20 minutes. They're done when the top starts to go golden brown. How brown is a matter of taste!
For the creamed leeks I sliced up half a dozen baby leeks and gently softened them in a good knob of butter, some olive oil and a healthy pinch each of sea salt and white pepper. About half way through the cooking I added a couple of handfuls of chopped mint to enhance the minty, garlic taste of the chops. The couple of tablespoons of cream were added a few minutes before serving, stirred through and heated on a very low gas until just bubbling gently. I think the most important 'no no' with leeks is to cook them too hard or too fast. Does that make it a 'hard and fast' rule, do you think? Any sign of a burnt edge makes the finished dish taste really bitter.
The chops were bunged in a smoking hot, oven proof frying pan for about 45 seconds each side and then into the oven with the jackets for about two minutes. We like our lamb really, really pink as you can tell. Leave in the oven for about four minutes if you like your meat only a little pink and for about five or six minutes for well done. Any more than that and you'll be eating rubber!
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