Monday, September 19, 2011

Lamb Chops with Smoked Paprika Oil, Cumin, and Arugula

When I was greeted from vacation with a giant cheese platter that included Manchego, the first thing I thought of was that I had a recipe that used Manchego. As luck would have it, it also uses paprika and I just happen to have some nice paprika souvenirs from Budapest. The additional inclusions of lamb, cumin, and arugula were just bonuses really. This lamb dish was every bit as delicious as I had hoped. It's quick and easy enough for a weeknight meal (although not exactly a budget meal!), yet elegant enough for company. I scaled the recipe in half and also went a bit light on the meat, so I scaled back the cumin to 1 tsp because I feared it would overpower the dish, but I think I would've been fine with more. Just cover the meat well with it. I didn't measure the arugula and just used big handfuls for the plates, likely going a bit heavy on the arugula. The original recipe is included below.

Lamb Chops with Smoked Paprika Oil, Cumin, and Arugula (from Radically Simple)

Ingredients
1/2 cup olive oil, divided
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1 small clove garlic, minced
4 thick shoulder lamb chops, about 280g each
4 tsp ground cumin
60g arugula
2 tbsp lemon juice
shards of Manchego cheese
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat broiler.
2. Stir together 1/4 cup olive oil, paprika, and garlic. Add salt to balance flavours.
3. Season chops with cumin, salt and pepper. Place on broiler pan.
4. Broil 3 minutes on each side, until rare.
5. Put arugula in bowl. Drizzle with remaining 1/4 cup olive oil and lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Divide arugula between 4 plates. Top with a lamb chop. Drizzle with paprika oil and garnish with cheese.

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