Lamb Chops & Herbs

My guess is, when people think of lamb chops, they most often think of lamb rib chops. Rib chops have the rib bone with a relatively small attached segment of meat. They are often "frenched;" that is, the thinnest part of the rib bone is scraped clean of the fat and any meat. Rib chops are tender and delicious, but they are also expensive. Lamb generally tends to be more plentiful in the spring, and because of that, you might well find the best prices for various cuts of lamb at that time. Somewhat less expensive are lamb loin chops, which are much meatier than rib chops. Excellent served with rice. 

 

Ingredients (2 servings):

 

4 lamb chops

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (divided use)

3 tablespoons lemon juice

strip of lemon peel, about 2 inches long by 1/2 inch wide

5 garlic cloves, minced

3 tablespoons chopped mint leaves

1 tablespoon chopped rosemary 

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/3 cup water 

In a dish or shallow bowl where the chops can fit together to marinate, mix together 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, chopped mint leaves, chopped rosemary and ground black pepper. Place the lamb chops into the marinade mixture and turn to coat them, or spoon some of the mixture onto the tops of the chops. Cover with some plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator to marinate for one or two hours, then remove from the refrigerator, leave covered and marinate a further 30 minutes at room temperature. Heat the 2 remaining tablespoons extra virgin olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Sprinkle the lamb chops with salt on both sides and add them to the skillet so they fit and reserve the marinade. Let the chops cook for about 3 minutes until the first side is browned, the turn the lamb chops and cook another 3 minutes, or until the second side is browned and the internal temperature is 130 to 135 F for medium, or 145 F for well done. Remove the skillet from the heat and let the lamb chops sit for 5 minutes. Remove the lamb chops to a platter and put the skillet back on the burner over medium heat. Add the lemon peel and marinade to the cooking juices in the skillet. Saute for about 1 minute, then add 1/3 cup water, stirring to mix, while scraping up any little bits from the bottom of the skillet. Let the mixture come to a simmer for 1 minute, then remove it from the heat.    

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Seat-This word is related to "sit," "set,"^ "settle,"^^ and "saddle," all words from the Germanic roots of English, and it is more distantly related to "sedate," a word borrowed from Latin, and to "siege" and "assess," Latin-derived words borrowed via French. "Seat" goes back to Indo European "sed," which meant "to sit." This gave Old Germanic "sitjanan," meaning "to sit," which produced the Old Germanic noun "sæt" (the 'æ' combination is called an 'ash,' as in "The a told the e after they were combined, 'We just made an ash out of ourselves.' "), "a place where one sits;" thus "seemingly" also by extension, "a place where one is established," as Old English had "sæt," meaning "ambush," a concealed place where one sits and waits to attack," sæte," which meant "house;" that is, "an established place to live," and this meaning extended further to "a place from which one rules," as in, "The archbishopric's seat is about 100 miles from here," or, "The county seat of Crawford County, Pennsylvania is Meadville." "Setl," a relative of "seat," became the main word for "a seat, a place to sit," but the Old Norse noun "sæti,"  which meant "a seat," seems to have combined with the Old English form, emphasizing "seat" ("a place for sitting"), or came into English as a direct borrowing from Old Norse and replaced "setl." Over time, the meaning has expanded to also mean, "seat of one's pants or other clothing covering one's behind" and "backside," but with the old meaning of authority expanded to things like "a seat on city council," "a seat in the legislature," and "seat belt," which was originally a term for "a belt used to strap one into the seat of an airplane," which later expanded to cars and some carnival rides. Note: The old forms of "sit, set and settle" are all so close in meanings and derivation from Germanic, that it can be tough sorting them out; and as such, the modern relatives in the other Germanic languages are tough to pinpoint. German has "Sitz" (seat) and "Gesäß"^^^ (backside, buttocks), Low German has "Sitt" (seat, place to sit), Icelandic "sæti" (seat), Danish has "sæde" (seat), Dutch has "zit" (seat), Norwegian had "sete" (seat, also buttocks), Swedish has "sittplats" (seat, seating, pew), "säte" (seat, but also residence, buttocks).       

 

^ This is for the verb "set," but also for the noun that means "the act of setting;" as in "sunset." There is also the noun "set," which is unrelated to the above form, and it means "part of a group of similar objects or objects in common purpose," as in, "I own a set of four tea cups from the 1700s," or "Our neighbors gave us a nice set of salt and pepper shakers when we moved here."  

^^ This is only for the verb "settle" (and the noun, see further above), meaning "to live, or to come to live, in a place," while the meaning "to make an agreement about something," as in, "The company decided to settle the lawsuit out of court," is likely from a different Germanic word that came to be spelled the same way as the other word "settle."   

^^^ In some High German dialects long ago, a sound shift took place that changed "t" to "s" or double "s." That shift prevailed and, thus, it is very much in evidence in modern times, as for example, whereas English has "kettle," standard German as "Kessel," English has "vat," but German has "Fass," English has white, but German has "weiss."