Lambchops & Artichoke

From the lunch section of Breakfast Lunch Tea - The Many Meals of Rose Bakery, I made the recipe for Braised Artichoke, Lemon and Lamb Chops recipe for dinner. I used baby artichokes and New Zealand shoulder lamb chops that were on sale, and served it all on a bed of brown and wild rice.

Braised Artichoke, Lemon and Lamb Chops from Breakfast Lunch Tea

Serves 6
- juice of 2 lemons (for prepping artichokes)
- 12-14 medium globe artichokes
- 4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil (plus more for frying lamb)
- 3 onions diced
- 1 celery heart finely sliced (I omitted this)
- 3 carrots, diced
- 1 tsp salt
- pinch of black pepper
- grated zest of a lemon
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 3 cups veg or chicken stock
- 1 tsp sugar (I omitted this)
- 1 tsp of thyme (my addition for the lamb)

Prep artichokes (fill a bowl with water and lemon juice, cut off artichoke stalks and remove tips and outer leaves, slice in half and discard chokes if there are any, then place artichokes in the bowl).

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and cook the onions until softened. Add carrots, seasoning and lemon zest. Cook for about 15 minutes. Then add garlic and artichoke hearts, and pour in the stock to cover everything. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the liquid has reduced by half. Taste and see if sugar needs to be added.

Season the lamb chops (salt, pepper and thyme) and fry them in oil or grilled until they are cooked through, but still slightly pink inside--about 5 minutes each side.

Serve with artichokes on the side.

Mini Burgers Pt. II

Ok, I'm obsessed. I made them again last night, this time with more coriander in the lamb patties. I paired the burgers this time with some Irish Porter cheese instead of swiss, but I think I prefer the swiss after all. I also tossed together a light herb salad with baby spinach, baby arugula, rosemary and pea shoots in a basic vinaigrette. I think the spiciness of the pea shoots and rosemary complimented the lamb burgers better. I also think I'm just trying to evoke summertime when right now, the long-range weather forecast for Vancouver says rain and below-average temperatures until at least mid-June. Le sigh.

Mini Burgers

May was a particularly bad month for cooking...too many birthday meals out, too many late nights at work spent scarfing down microwaveables. Ugh.

Last night I had some company over and finally made a meal that wasn't a one-pot dish. Mini lamb burgers with a pear & goat cheese salad, along with shoestring fries and lemon garlic aioli dip.

For the mini burgers, I picked up some of Safeway's artisan dinner rolls and cut out the middle when slicing to remove extraneous bread. Ground lamb spiced with cumin (I love cumin), coriander, turmeric, salt and pepper. I was too cautious with the coriander this time; next time I'll be more generous with the spices. Oh, and breadcrumbs of course. Fried the mini-patties with olive oil, top with tomato, swiss cheese, baby lettuce, mustard. The side salads were boxed greens with buttery Packham pears, Saltspring Island truffled goat cheese, and a basic vinaigrette.

The fries were McCain's frozen "Xtracrispy" shoestring fries. Yes, I know! All my previous attempts at frying/roasting fries from scratch yielded mix results, so I figured this would save me some time and grief that night. Well shiver me timers, these were actually very good and very crispy. It was also the only frozen kind that I could find without any hydrogenated oils.

As for the lemon garlic aioli, it's one of those super easy dips that anyone can make in 5 minutes. Mayo, clove of garlic, chopped fresh parsley and a generous squeeze of lemon juice. I personally never use a garlic press; I have a little ceramic grater that I use for garlic and ginger. This dip is impossible to mess up, and it's so good I always tend to make extra so I can dip veggies and pita chips for snacking.