These lamb chops were sooo good. I probably should have made them for Easter but I had actually forgotten I had these little gems in the freezer. 😮 I’m sure glad I found them. Don’t they look mouthwateringly good?
I love lamb. It’s one of my favorite meats. I like leg of lamb, lamb rib chops, lamb loin chops, lamb saddle roasts, rack of lamb, lamb shoulder roasts, lamb shanks, etc. I like it marinated or with a mustard crust, an herb crust or simply drizzled with a little olive oil and simply seasoned with salt and pepper. I like it grilled, roasted, braised, made into stews (vindaloo is one of my all-time favorite dishes), etc. I just love it. Baby Lady, not so much. 😦 Like many people she doesn’t like the gamey bite to it. As a result, I don’t fix lamb very often but I sure love it when I do. 🙂
One of my favorite cuts of lamb is the lamb loin chop. The lamb loin and lamb saddle are the same. It’s the portion of the lamb just behind the rib, in front of the sirloin on the back above the flank. This is where you find the most tender and expensive cuts. Now, the lamb loin chop is the lamb’s answer to a Porterhouse steak. It has the top loin muscle on one side of the bone and the tenderloin muscle on the other side. If the lamb loin chop is cut from the saddle whereby it incorporates the loin roasts from both sides of the lamb (it will have 2 of the top loin, 2 of the tenderloin, and 2 of the T-Bone) it is called a “double loin chop” or “English chop.” Lamb loin chops are prized for their tenderness and subtle flavor. They also are bigger than rib chops, and are the biggest lamb chop that does not have bands of connective tissue separating the meat. They are usually grilled or broiled, although they can be roasted, as well. They cook best if they are thick, i.e. 1.5 to 2 inches thick. Inasmuch as I have been neglecting my sous vide studies and experimenting, I decided to do these tasty little lamb loin chops sous vide and the result was absolutely delightful. This is what I did.
Ingredients
For the Lamb
- 2 lamb loin chops
- olive oil
- sea salt
- Richard’s Special Seasoning (recipe found here)
For the Red Wine Demi-glace
- 1/2 cup dry red wine, I used a nice cabernet sauvignon
- 1/2 cup of lamb demi-glace
For the broccoli
- 1 large broccoli crown cut into small florets, roughly 4 cups of florets
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- sea salt, to taste
- fresh ground black pepper, to taste
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
Instruction
For the Lamb Chops
Now during part of this process the wonderful Baby Lady wasn’t present so I lost her remarkable camera skills in the early stages. So, you will just have to suffer through my feeble attempts of capturing pour and seasoning shots. 😛
Dry and lightly oil the chops on both sides. This will better enable to Richard’s Special Seasoning to adhere to the chops.
Season both sides with sea salt and Richard’s Special Seasoning.
Place the chops in a vacuum bag and put bag in chamber vacuum sealer.
Vacuum Seal for 30 seconds
Place the sealed bag in the water
preheated to 55 C/131 F
Now, 55 C/131 F is ever so slightly on the rare side. I like my loin chops medium rare which is an ideal temperature of 57 C/135 F. Sous vide cooking, however, does not give you browning or the crust on meats (the Maillard reaction) we all like. As such, once we get the chop cooked to perfection, we are going to sear it over high heat. Because the chops are small, you run the risk of overcooking your perfectly cooked chop, so I undercooked it slightly.
Cook the chops at 55 C/131 F for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, remove the chops from the water, open the vacuum sealed bag and place the chops on a paper towel to dry them off.
Pour 1 – 2 Tbsp olive oil in a small skillet and place over high heat.
When the oil is hot, add the loin chops
Cook over high heat for roughly 30 seconds to 1 minute to get a good sear. Then turn.
Cook another 30 seconds to 1 minute. Remove from heat and plate.
For the Red Wine Demi-glace
While you are cooking the meat sous vide, you have a lot of time on your hands. So, once you put the lamb into the water, pour 1/2 cup of good dry red wine into a saucepan.
Place on stove over medium-low heat. Add lamb demi-glace
Now, as all of you who frequently read our blog know, we make and keep lots of stocks on hand. They freeze incredibly well and will last for a long time in the freezer. I made this lamb demi-glace almost 1 year ago when Knothead came to town for his 21st birthday and I didn’t document the stock or the demi-glace process. If you are curious, it’s essentially the same process for making the Hearty Beef Stock, except using lamb bones, and the demi-glace for the bordelaise sauce in Grilled Lamb Loin Chops with Bordelaise Sauce and Celeriac Mash, except you stop with the demi-glace.
Reduce this mixture to a point where you have 1/3 cup. Yep. That’s it – 1/3 cup. This is an unbelievably rich, flavorful sauce. Cover and set aside until ready to plate.
For the Broccoli
Right before you put the chops in the water, put the broccoli florets in a bowl covered with plastic wrap. Place in a microwave oven and cook 2-1/2 minutes on high power in 30 second increments. Keep wrapped until ready to finish the dish, right before you put the chops in the skillet.
I generally refuse to use microwaves except to heat water or reheat leftovers. Nevertheless, microwaves actually do a very nice job par cooking vegetables. Keeping the plastic wrap on the bowl allows the broccoli to gently steam. If you don’t want to “nuke” your food, then par boil the broccoli and shock to prevent overcooking. Also, if you want to preserve the pretty green color, add 1/2 tsp baking soda to the water. 😀
When you’re ready to sear the chops, add olive oil to a sauté pan over medium high heat.
Add broccoli florets
Season with salt & pepper
Saute over medium high heat for 3 minutes, tossing occasionally – Baby Lady made it back. 🙂
Remember, the broccoli has been par cooked so all you are essentially doing is heating it through and coatng it with the oil. Now, add the chopped garlic.
Cook another minute, cover and set aside until ready to plate.
To Plate
Get a plate, place a scoop of rice on the side of the plate and position the lamb chops on the rice, tilted at an angle.
Drizzle with the Red Wine Demi-glace
Spoon some broccoli on the plate.
Serve & enjoy.
REMCooks 
Reblogged this on teachkitchenskillsand more and commented:
Nice going!
Thanks. 🙂
Very nice Richard. I had not realised you too were a sous vide practitioner. Love the sauce.
Richard doesn’t use his sous-vide very often because it warms up his kitchen too much. Wish we’d had that problem this winter… 😉
The lack of insulation on the Lexan tub causes the heat to radiate into the surrounding area thereby raising the ambient temperature in the kitchen. It also causes the circulator to work a little harder to hold a steady temperature. The fact that it’s a 12 x 18 tub helps in that regard but you would be surprised how much heat is given off in the surrounding area. I am working on an aesthetically pleasing way to insulate the tub. The clear lexan is nice to shoot photos but there is a give and take. I would prefer less increase of the ambient temperature of the surrounding area; however, it aint happening anytime soon. Hopefully, I will have it figured out by the time we start cranking out 100 F this summer.
Thanks, Conor. I’ve been toying with sous vide for about 1 year. It’s an interesting technique and I am by no means a true practioner, like Stefan. I am merely a neophyte learning a new technique with a relatively new kitchen toy. This was the first time I have done red meat in it. I have done pork belly, pork loin, lobster, nairagi, shrimp, octopus (an absolute disaster), monkfish, white asparagus and recently swordfish. I’ve even made lemon curd and creme anglaise in it. The lamb was pretty neat and I was very pleased with the outcome. The sauce was stellar although the fond in the pan from browning the meat would have added a nice touch, as Stefan pointed out.
My butcher has offered me as many bones as I want. Perhaps I should go and buy a big, big pot and make up some of that fine reduced stock. If it keeps so well, there is little downside.
We have 2 large side-by-side refrigerator freezers. I almost always have 2 gallons of stock in the freezer, not to mention bones to make more stock. 🙂 If you have the stock, you will always have a use for it. If you make the demi-glace it saves space, makes tremendous sauces and you can always thin it if you want stock. If your butcher is willing to give you as many bones as you want, you need to take him up on it. You also need a 12 – 14 qt pot. 🙂
Thanks Richard. A plan forms…
Hi Richard, I only just noticed you mentioned sous-vide octopus as a disaster. It makes me wonder what went wrong, because I’ve only had great results with octopus cooked sous-vide: very tender and flavorful. In fact, I have some octopus going now at 85C/185F.
Yah, Stefan, I really had a disaster with the octopus sous vide. https://remcooks.com/2012/06/05/sous-vide-the-good-and-the-not-so-good/
I have never figured out why it was such a disaster but it irked me so badly I haven’t tried it again. I probably should. I cooked it at 77 C/171 F for 4-1/2 hours. The shrinkage was unbelievable. I generally slow roast it in my oven at 250 F for 1-1/2 hours. Then I marinate it overnight and grill it the next day. The slow roasting doesn’t have near the shrinkage as the sous vide and the sous vide was dry and wholly lacking in flavor. Really upset me because I bought the octopus from a Florida seafood market and had it flown to DFW, so it was really pricey. Huge disappointment. Nevertheless, I still play with the sous vide and there will definitely be one sous vide meal while you are here. I’m just trying to figure out what. Looking forward to your visit. 🙂
I always get a lot of shrinkage too, but it is very tender juicy and flavorful. There is a place in Amsterdam that sells octopus legs for a really nice price ($5/lb if I remember correctly), so even with a lot of shrinkage it is still affordable. We are also looking forward to visiting you guys! First Ireland though 🙂
Very nice, Richard! Great to see more sous-vide from you 🙂
I love lamb, too, and I like the idea of using a thick slice of lamb saddle and cooking it this way. I usually prepare rack of lamb, but it would be a nice change to be able to serve it with such a great brown crust. That crust adds texture and a lot of flavor. Lamb chops here are usually sliced to 1/2 inch or less, which would lead to overcooked lamb if I were to brown it like you did. I think I’ll go get some lamb tomorrow to try this!
I will probably deglaze the pan used for browning the lamb with red wine and add that to the sauce.
Thanks, Stefan. It is fun to play with. I had never done a red meat sous vide so this was the perfect opportunity. I think this would be a stellar treatment for thick English chops and would love to give that a try. I have a lamb shank I also intend to do sous vide sometime in the near further. I agree with you about deglazing the pan but inasmuch as Baby Lady doesn’t eat lamb I was fixing 2 dishes simultaneously and didn’t want things to get cold with me adding another, last minute step.
Red meat is one of my favorites sous-vide, especially tough cuts that are cooked sous-vide for 48 hours at 57C/135F. You should definitely try brisket or short ribs, it is divine!
Hi Richard! I’ve nominated you for the Versatile Blogger award.
http://chefmimiblog.com/2013/04/05/awards/
You don’t have to do anything at all – personally I’m just choosing one blog per award, and that’s still a lot of work!!!
But honestly, what you do as a cook is quite versatile and impressive – especially for someone with a day job!
Thanks, Mimi. You’re so kind and I’m so honored you have nominated me for this award. It is greatly appreciated.
Your lamb looks wonderful! We have been thinking of purchasing a vacuum sealer…and now you showed me one more way to use it! Thanks for sharing!
Hi, Laila. Thanks for dropping by and your very nice compliment. The vacuum sealer is one of the most used tools in our kitchen. It’s great for leftovers and creating easy lunches. It helps keep foods in the freezer from getting freezer burns. It is indispensable for sous vide cooking. The chamber vacuum sealer allows us to store liquids, stews, soups, etc. which we like. We heartily recommend a vacuum sealer for anyone who cooks. Thanks again for dropping by and we hope to see you around,
Wow, Richard! That’s a beautiful plate that you created and presented. I can only imagine how good those chops were, especially when accompanied with your red wine demi-glace. Well done!
Thanks, John. I thoroughly enjoyed this meal. The sous vide method worked beautifully and the meat was medium rare all the way through.
I don’t have all your wonderful cooking toys so I can’t prepare you sous vide lamb. What I can do is tell you that it looks delicious and I’m sure it was.
Thanks, Karen. It was very good. 🙂
what a fancy way of cooking technique..
gamey flavour of lamb is best serve with reduce wine sauce, tothing possbly better…
great plating too,
Thanks. 🙂
that looks great! my mom used to make a delicious roasted freshly slaughtered lamb every year for Easter, but unfortunately I haven’t been very good at keeping the tradition.
I love lamb. 🙂 Too bad Baby Lady doesn’t. 😦
Tender chops, crisp caramelised crust & a rich red sauce, a definite pull-all-the-tricks-out five star meal! I prefer my meat, my lamb, my fish and even veg under. Call it Chet’s training but it’s mostly preferable with almost all form of protein (and most light veg) to retain those juices and bite. We’re a lamb nation here in Australia so yes, when you say lamb, my ears piqué up!
Thanks, Alice, for your thoughts and nice compliment. I thoroughly enjoyed making and eating this dish. 🙂
Oh my gosh… I wish I had a sous vide! I’ve been reading about the technique for a while now and it looks like it produces mouth-wateringly tender results 🙂 These chops look amazing. I love lamb also… it’s my favourite red meat, especially when slow-cooked. Yum! Thanks for sharing your method with us.
Thanks, Laura, for the very nice compliment. Sous vide is an interesting technique that has its benefits and limitations. I’m still just a newbie with sous vide but it is fun and produces perfectly cooked proteins. Right now, my only problem with it is infusing flavors into the protein while it is cooking. I cooked a bone-in chicken breast in a garlic salsa. The chicken was cooked perfectly but none of the garlic salsa was infused into the meat at 4 hours of cooking. I’m sure it is just my technique but I was seriously stunned. So my trials and errors continue. If you want to know about sous vide, you really need to check out Stefan’s Gourmet Blog, http://stefangourmet.com, as he does a fair amount of sous vide cooking. He also loves Italian food and cooks it regularly. His site is a real pleasure to read.
Oh my goodness this one looks so good!!! 😋😋😋 I’m gonna try to cook it for supper one day!! Thank you for the recipe 😊😊
You forgot about lamb burgers!!!