PEPPER-CRUSTED LAMB CHOPS

Treppenwitz writes lovingly of steak in his most recent post, and illustrates it with a beautiful photograph of meat on the grill.
[Here: http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2008/06/the-israeli-lov.html ]

I like a nice piece of animal flesh. But since the American beef industry got caught lying repeatedly about spongiform bovine encephalitis ('Texan Brain', for short), I have generally avoided beef. Ate some nice grilled moo over at Spiros' parents house last month, and a lovely little cut of Niman ranch at a new restaurant in my neighborhood this past weekend. That's the only beef in about four years.


While I like beef, I love lamb.

I really really really love lamb.


So, because of that deep-seated lust for luscious little lambkins, their fatty cutlets glistening and steaming on a platter, sensuously reclining in juicy baby-baa 'come-hither you big carnivore' sexiness, invitingly smoking, tempting me by looking adorable and sending forth rich meaty aromas, AND to snark the self-righteous veggie chowderhead who invaded Treppenwitz's blog with blinkered missionary waffling about avocados, here's a recipe.


PEPPER-CRUSTED LAMB CHOPS

Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon coarsely cracked black pepper.
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander.
1/2 teaspoon salt.
Generous pinch of cayenne, medium pinch of ground cumin, smaller pinch of cinnamon powder.
4 small lamb chops, about a pound of meat in total.
Olive oil.


Rub the chops with the spices and a little oil, making sure that they are well coated.

Add a splash of oil to the cast-iron fry-pan, and heat till smoking. Put the chops in the pan and cook on high heat until the outside is nicely browned - the inside should be at the stage of reddish rosiness at this point - use a knife to find out.
Remove to a plate.

Deglaze the smoking pan with a generous splash (half cup, more or less) of red wine (see below). Add a small jigger soy-sauce, and simmer till syrupy. Pour through a tea-strainer to filter out the pepper-bits that stayed behind. Drizzle and nap the chops, and strew some finely chopped scallion and cilantro over.

Serve with warm crusty bread, and a little bit of apricot preserve jazzed up with cayenne on the side. Or serve over rice, with sliced tomato, and some chard.

Drink the rest of the bottle of red wine (see above) while preparing and eating the chops. One's cooking skills are more fluid and inspired when tiddly.