One of my favorite quick weeknight meals involves lamb chops and couscous. Tonight, I made just that. We got some lamb loin chops from a local vendor at our farmers market, and I marinated them in lemon juice and olive oil, spiked with garlic and oregano. It's simple to sear them off and cook them stove-top for a few minutes on each side, then use the marinade plus some white wine and stock to make a quick pan sauce. Israeli couscous provides a wonderful baby pasta to go with the lamb and to absorb the wonderful sauce. Cooked in stock, it's full of flavor. We paired it with the remnants of the Chanson Bourgogne from Sunday night, and sadly, the wine had lost a lot of its early charm. There was still good earthy complexity, but it lost a lot of the subtle fruit notes that made it such a beauty upon opening, in spite of using the vacuum preservation and all. Still, not a bad wine, and a the earthy notes worked nicely with the lamb.
This is a meal I like a lot, and one of Julie's favorites. But it also provides a certain conundrum for me. I like to be creative when I cook, try new things. So preparing the lamb chops more or less the same way each time drives me nuts on one level. On the other hand, it's a dish I absolutely love, and lamb chops are not something we're having every other day. Sometimes there are just these classic approaches to food that just work so beautifully, it's hard to tamper with it. Stay tuned--we have another set of market lamb chops in the freezer right now, so we'll see what I do with those. Will I do the safe thing, or be adventurous?
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