Taking it slow and sweet: braised shoulder lamb chops with fruit

There is no question that we are moving into winter, ragazzi.  Why is that?  Well, when Annalena comes back from market SENZA POMODORI even though they are available (that is "without tomatoes" for those of you who have not picked up our native tongue here), it is decidedly winter.  Yes, we are moving into the phase of darker, slower cooking, with deeper, stronger, more "comfortable" flavors.  It seems to be a prelude to Thanksgiving time (by the way, if any of you have GOOD EASY recipes for gravy which do not involve synthetic products, let Annalena know), that we crave slower cooked dishes.  All of a sudden, it doesn't seem to matter that the greens are dark green instead of bright green, or that they're soft, instead of crisp.

Make no mistake about it, Annalena does love her salads, and will continue to serve them forth, but the obsession with baby greens is over for the time being.  Different greens, different techniques, different tastes.

And so it goes with cooking magazines.  Farewell to the issues on grilling.  It's already past the  "your Thanksgiving for 35 people made SIMPLE!"  headlines.    Now, Annalena is collecting recipes on root vegetables, braises, and so forth.

And that is how she came to this one.  See, Annalena is not  a systematic recipe collector.  No, no no.  Essentially, she piles up the recipes she wants, until she looks at them in horror and says "OH MY GOD.  They MUST be organized."  Then there is a flurry, a promise to never fall behind again, and organization.

In the process of the last exercise along these lines, Annalena pulled out "recipes to cook NOW" as she always does.  This is one such recipe (we will have another next).  It combines two ingredients that work remarkably well together:  lamb, and dried fruit.  Indeed, the careful reader will find a recipe for a lamb shoulder stew with apricots on this blog.  One might consider this the little brother of that dish.  Annalena thinks of it as the weekday alternative, which in fact it was.  You can have this dish on the table in less than an hour.  It DOES take close to that, however.  On the other hand, it also refrigerates beautifully. So, ragazzi, if you know that, for example, you are going to be pressed for time on Thursday, but you have an hour on Tuesday night, collect your ingredients, cook a mess of these chops, put em aside, and it is like living off of interest.

Annalena thinks.  She is not there.  Anyway, here we go.  You need four pretty good sized shoulder lamb chops.  At least a half pound each.  You can go bigger, but you must keep in mind that all of these guys are going into one pan, and it is difficult to get a mass of chops into even the biggest of pans.    Salt them and pepper them, and put them to the side while you gather your other ingredients.

These are a tablespoon of coriander seeds, which you will grind in your spice grinder (which should be an old coffee bean grinder).  You also need 8 peeled cloves of garlic, which you shall half  (this is about a bulb of garlic), and around ten sprigs of thyme.  You don't have to be crazy about counting these out:  just grab a bunch of them from the bunch you have. 

Now, the key ingredients:  a cup of zinfandel wine.  Other wines will work, but zinfandel is best, because it has so much fruit in it, and...
you also need half a cup each of dried cherries and apricots.  The apricots will need to be cut into pieces, so if you find them that way, bravissimo.  Finalmente, two cups of beef stock.

OK, here we go.    Put a few tablespoons of olive oil in a pan, and while it's heating, at medium heat, rub that coriander all over your lamb chops.    Put the chops into the oil with the garlic and the thyme (it will be a tight fit).  Turn the chops after three minutes, and brown the other side, and don't worry about the garlic and thyme.  You want them to cook.

Be careful on the next step, perhaps even pulling the pan off of the heat and holding it away from your face.  Add the wine and dried fruit, and then bring this all to a boil.  (Lamb fat sputters terribly.  You want to move this away from your flame and face because, as happened with Annalena, the fat may sputter with some wine, and the alcohol will flame the entire pan.  No big issue if you're careful, but you can avoid it.  ).  Increase the heat and cook for about five minutes.  Now, add the broth, lower the heat, cover the pan, and go away for a half hour.  Actually, come back in fifteen minutes and turn the chops over.

After thirty minutes, take the chops out, and increase the heat.  Boil the liquid until it's reduced to a few tablespoons.  This will not take long. 


Now, you can serve this as it is: just put the chops back into the sauce, or pour the sauce over them; however, if you do that, you have a good quantity of lamb fat in your dish.  If that doesn't bother you, groovy.  If it does, then you want to make this ahead of time, and let the fat cool, and coagulate, so you can get rid of it.     That is in fact what Annalena did.  And the chops were terrific.

So, ragazzi, give this a try.  You could vary the fruit, but think before you do:  think of the flavor of the cherries, and of the apricots, and try to replicate.   And do not forget to serve the rest of that wine with your meal. 

Keep warm, ragazzi.