Grilled Lamb Chops with poblano cream sauce over pan-fried polenta and grilled sweet onions

So I have been pretty bad about providing new posts recently. In an odd twist I have actually been somewhat diligent with my work, and since it has required reading pdf files and typing up notes by the time I am done I really have had no desire to stare at this little glowing screen any longer. But never fear, I am always thinking of new ideas and my payback for your patience is a dish of epic time killing proportions and serious flavor. It was created on the fly, but the result was so good it really doesn’t need muck tinkering (and I am usually very critical of my own creations).

Putting together this dish is truly a test of your procrastination skills and intuition of timing in cooking. It will take at least two hour to make depending on how much you spread out each step (with help you could do it in less). But that makes it perfect for when you really need to get away from your work. Trust me your mind won’t wonder from the task at hand, you won’t nag yourself to get back to being productive, and if you are making this for someone else I guarantee that they won’t call you out on your procrastination.

The mix of flavors that this dish produces is truly outstanding. The warm creamy texture of the corn polenta makes a wonderful base for the flavors that will pile up on top of it, and it does an excellent job of rounding out the dish. The hearty and slightly smoky flavor of the grilled lamb combined with the sweet pop of the onion mix perfectly with the slightly spicy and layered flavor of the poblano cream sauce. As an added bonus the hidden layer of sage brown butter just adds to the overall richness of the dish. It is a great dish to take outside on a pleasant late summer’s evening and enjoy the rewards of the work it takes to make. I served this dish with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon, and while I am pretty new to trying to pair wines with my cooking creations, I personally thought it complemented the flavors nicely.

Each step in itself isn’t so difficult, but each one takes some time and working on getting everything to come together at just the right moment is a bit of a challenge (I had the grill going and 3 of my four burners, right up to the moment I was plating the food). So if you have people you trust to watch over one parts of the process, it might be wise to work as a team the first time you make this just to get the timing down, but if not I will do my best to give hints on how to time it well.

What you need for two large servings (2 chops each) or 4 small (1 chop each):
1 head of garlic (to roast)
2 medium poblano peppers (to roast)
4 lamb chops
1 sweet onion
A few tablespoons of whipping cream
A few tablespoons of white wine (I used some left-over Grenache blanc)
Polenta (here I cheated just a bit and used a tube of Trade Joe’s polenta)
4-8 fresh sage leaves
Salt
Pepper
Smoked paprika
Ground cumin
Butter
Olive oil

The first thing you need to do is roast up the garlic and peppers for the sauce.
For the roasted garlic, preheat the oven to 350
Take the head of garlic and cut of the top (non root end) in such a way that you expose most of the cloves)

In a small baking pan (I actually use a pie pan) place the garlic on a piece of aluminum foil and drizzle with olive oil and a pinch of salt.
Make a tent out of the foil around the garlic sealing the crease as best you can. (If you have a garlic roaster it makes life a bit easier, but by no means is it a necessary kitchen gadget)
Place in the oven and bake for 35-40 min.
This process will fill your kitchen with the wonder smell of garlic (and if you are anything like me will make you extremely hungry!)

One way to know when your garlic is roasted to sweet perfection is when the garlic smell starts to have sweet undertones. This way you don’t have to unpack your garlic only to find out that you have to repack it and stick it back in the oven a bit longer.

While the garlic is roasting in the oven, I roasted my peppers on the stove top using handy little stove roaster that I own. If you don’t have a roaster, you can do this either on the grill or in the oven under the broiler. (If you are using the broiler, I recommend roasting the garlic first and then doing the peppers).

Basically the goal of roasting the peppers is to char 70 to 90% of the skin. Using my roaster I just rotate sides every minute or so, and then look for the areas than need a bit more charring.
Once the skin in charred, place the peppers in a plastic bag and tie it shut, let the peppers sit for 5 to 10 minutes. (By doing this the steam from the hot peppers loosens the skin to make them easier to peel).

Once the peppers have cooled some, peel the peppers, do you best to avoid using any water in the process as it washes away some of the flavor.
After the peppers are peel, slice them open removing the seeds, core, and ribs.
Then slice the peppers into small strips.
Once you have the garlic and peppers roasted you can turn your attention to making the sauce.

Poblano cream sauce:

In a sauce pan, heat a few teaspoons of olive oil then add the pepper strips and around 5 cloves of the roasted garlic (they should slide out their casing fairly easily).
Sauté for one or two minutes, then add the white wine.
Right after the wine add:
~ 1 teaspoon salt
~ 1 teaspoon black pepper
~ 1 teaspoon ground cumin

Let the wine simmer down to about half its original volume.
Add the cream
Bring to a simmer and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

Transfer the sauce to a blender and blend until smooth. Check the taste, sometimes the peppers can have a bitter aftertaste, if this is the case add a pinch of sugar to counter the bitter (or use a small amount of agave nectar).
Set the sauce aside.


You can broil, or pan-sear your lamb, but for this dish I like the smoky undertones that using a charcoal grill provides (I use natural mesquite charcoal).
While your grill is getting hot, bring your lamb to room temperature and season with salt, pepper and a small amount of smoked paprika (or hot paprika) on both sides.
Also, slice the sweet onion into half-inch thick slices.

Once the grill is hot, things will get pretty hectic as you try to bring everything together.

Place the lamb over the hottest part of the grill (in this case we are not going for a slow cook, but a good quick sear on each side, I like my lamb on the rare side so it doesn’t take too long to cook).
At the same time put a little olive oil and salt on the onion slices (I used two rounds and had some a bit left over) and place them on the grill as well.

Once the lamb has been on the grill for about a minute transfer your pepper cream sauce back to a sauce pan on the stove on low heat to warm.

Then, in a medium sauce pan heat enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Slice the polenta into ½ inch thick slices and place in pan (cook for about 4 minutes on each side)
While the polenta is cooking and the pepper sauce is warming, check on the lamb. Flip the chops after about 4 minutes.
Once you have flipped the lamb it is time to make the sage brown butter sauce.

By the time you have carefully crisped the sage and browned the butter, your polenta should be ready to plate, and you can start to put together your finished dish. Check the lamb, it should be about four minutes since you flipped the lamb and it should be ready to come off the grill, likewise your onions should be tender and have some char marks.

First plate the polenta (I used four circles of polenta forming a square in the center of the plate).
Then plate the lamb chops on top of the polenta
Place the grilled onions around the lamb chops
Then drizzle the brown butter equally on the top of each lamb chop (this is a subtle step but adds a wonderful rich flavor, normally I would just add some ground sage on the lamb before cooking, but this is a great touch that makes this dish particularly special).
Now drizzle the pepper cream sauce over the top of the lamb and around the plate (for fun I made a design with the sauce on the outer edge of the plate)
For a final touch place the crispy sage on top of the lamb.

This process will dirty a ton of dishes, so I suggest setting up the rule that the one who cooks doesn’t do the dishes (unless of course you are just rewarding yourself, then you are out of luck, in that case just drink a bit more wine and worry about the dishes later). It is rich and filling and highly rewarding. It is one where you can have fun plating it and making it look restaurant quality, or just make a mess of it so that you are sure you get all the flavors in as many bites as possible.



Be creative! Procrastinate to the fullest and take an evening to enjoy life through food!