Easter Weekend officially started on 21 March and ends today Easter Monday 24 March. As everyone knows, I broke Lent and had chocolate way before Easter Sunday so really, I couldn’t very much celebrate by tucking into chocolate as I felt too guilty and naughty already. However, it didn’t actually faze me from getting into the festive mood with Easter Lunch! It’s really all about the feasting. Easter calls for easter eggs, hot cross buns, the Easter Bunny and simnel cake. It too, with the advent of spring, presents us with lamb - a lovely, fragrant, sweet-smelling meat which is a high source of high-quality protein, vitamins and minerals. Lamb, a feature of Easter, was sacrificed at Jewish Passover. For Christians, it came to symbolize Christ’s death on the cross and hence, is very apt for having it on the day we celebrate Christ’s resurrection.

You’d be glad to know that lamb, as compared to other red meats, has very little marbling of internal fat. With most of its fat on the outside edges of the meat (kinda like really good lean back bacon), it’s so easy to trim off excess fat. Apart from its low-calorie potential, lamb meat is high in CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) which possesses antioxidant activity. This acid is produced naturally in the stomachs of herbivores. And unfortunately, cannot be found in our own bodies since we do not produce it. Conclusion? Lamb is great!

Ben & I went to the butcher’s 3 days ago and purchased a couple of lovely double lamb chops. They were really tender and this dish really came together in terms of flavour and fragrance. Have to say I might have piled it up with garlic and rosemary too, which I believe are one of the best ingredients that go with lamb.

Oven-baked Lamb Chops, Roasted Root Vegetables with Rosemary Onion Sauce

Ingredients

lamb chops for 2
clove of garlic
olive oil
rosemary
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt
For the roasted vegetables:
1 large parsnip, peeled
2 carrots, peeled
1 large sweet potato, peeled
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
New Zealand honey
fine herbs
olive oil
For the onion sauce:
25g salted butter
some plain flour
half an onion, peeled and finely chopped
1/4 cup milk (I used whole milk for extra goodness)
175ml stock (chicken or vegetable is best)
2 tbs double cream
freshly ground black pepper

Start work about an hour before. This is so simple to do and once you get started, it really is just a chuck it aside then whack it in the oven type of meal.
To marinade the vegetables, crush the garlic cloves and put it in some olive oil in a bowl. This will flavour the oil which will be used to coat the vegetables. Add some honey and mix it in. Chop the root vegetables into nice chunks then coat them in your honey-oil mixture. Add the herbs, a bit more olive oil and leave aside to marinade.
On to the lamb. Finely chop the clove of garlic. Using either fresh rosemary or dried rosemary leaves, crush these leaves in a bowl. Add some olive oil to your baking dish and throw in your garlic and rosemary. Put your lamb chops in and coat well. Season with salt and pepper. Leave aside for the flavours to set in for about an hour.

Preheat oven to 200d Celsius.
Root vegetables go into the oven about 15min before the lamb chops. Put it in the bottom layer. After 15min, shift it to the top layer in the oven and slide the lamb chops beneath that. Leave to bake for 30-40min. Do a quick check about half way through. Once the vegetables start to go crisp and brown about the edges, shift it to the bottom layer and move the lamb chops to the top layer. About 10min before taking the meat and vegetables out of the oven, get to work on the sauce.
Melt some butter in a saucepan. Once melted, let the chopped onions sweat in this lovely hot butter. Remember this should be done on low heat. Add the stock bit by bit, followed by flour, all the while stirring constantly. You should be aiming to liquefy the sauce with stock and then thickening it with flour. You have to judge this carefully to reach the consistency you’re aiming for. Once the sauce is thickening up well, add the milk and stir carefully. The sauce should have become a lovely white thick sauce by now - the heat should have started to weld the flavours together and if you smell it, be careful not to swoon! Finally, add some grated pepper in and 2 generous tablespoons of good double cream. MMMM.

Dish up and spoon out the sauce over the lamb chops. Serve lamb chops slightly pink and tender or well-cooked. Either way, this is delicious.