Lamb in a Balsamic Honey Reduction on a Sweet Potato Mash

French cutlet - recomended if you can find it

Lamb Chop also works, but is a slightly tougher cut

If you would have asked me last year to cook a lamb dish, I would have laughed and said no-effin way. Last year if you would have asked me to even try a lamb dish, I would have most certainly turn it down... or possibly nibbled at a small bite depending how much I liked you. However, I have seen the light, and have learn to not only tolerate, but in enjoy the game-ier meats such as lamb. I had lamb a few times in Armenia, cooked to perfection, and I was instantly won over. This is my first attempt at ever making a lamb dish, and among the first of my red meat dishes.

Ingredients:

Lamb chop (I would have used a French cutlet, which is a separated rack and a much nicer cut... but alas it is impossible to find such a cut in St. John’s... I’ve tried).
** edit I found rack of lamb and remade this recipe, amazing!
Rosemary infused olive oil
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Balsamic vinegar
Dry red wine
Honey (must note that I have the most phenomenal, raw, Armenian honey, so you should really be jealous).

Directions:

Massage in a liberal amount of rosemary infused olive oil (you can buy olive oil already with rosemary in it, or you can simply put a table spoon of rosemary in some olive oil and let it sit for a day or two) into the piece of lamb and season with salt and pepper. Next drizzle some olive oil into a pan on high heat. Drop the lamb in the pan and let it sizzle away until there is some good colour on both sides (two minutes on each side should do it, but let the colour be the judge). After this make a tinfoil boat and place the lamb inside and add more olive oil. Wrap it up and place it in the oven to finish for about 12 minutes at 350 degrees. With the juices left over in the pan, add a table spoon of water and add a little bit of red wine, a few dashes of balsamic vinegar and a spoonful of honey. Mix and let reduce over heat and let thicken a bit. When the lamb is out of the oven there will be leftover juices in the bottom of the tinfoil boat, add a few spoonfuls to the reduction sauce to bring the sweet sauce back to savory-town. Serve on top of a simple sweet potato mash and enjoy! :)

Rory <3

Welcome :)

I have been meaning to get this blog up and running for quite some time, and now it's finally here! I grew up around great food my entire life, from the spicy Italian food and homemade pasta's representing my fathers side of the family, to the hearty and starchy stews, 'meat and potato' dishes, and the traditional Irish influenced Nova Scotia meals found in my mothers family. I also have found a taste for travel but since my university student budget dosn't allow for a lot of plane tickets I have developed a interest in trying as many ethnic foods as I can locally instead... all of which have greatly influenced the things I cook and the ingredients I use. Recently I did have the chance to spend a month and a half in Armenia, and so you will surely see some Armenian cuisine within this blog!

I always enjoyed helping my mom make pasta and bread, or helping my dad make make-shift pies as a kid...and cooking food with my cousin Sammy became the main event of our slumber parties (and it still is!). However, it wasn't until I moved out of Nova Scotia that I really began to cook. In the past couple of years I have began to cook more and more, and my taste buds have grown with my skill. I have gone from a strict vegitarian to cooking my very first lamb dish, and from using dried spices to using as much fresh herbs as my student budget will allot for!

This blog is going to be a place to document my culinary sucesses and failures, and will be a great way to share my recipes with my friends everywhere :) Enjoy, and if you have any recipe requests let me know :)

So welcome to my (Shoebox) kitchen!


If you didn't gather from the name of my blog, yes, my kitchen is very tiny!


Please note the abundance of Armenian wine, my Armenian copper coffee pot, and the amazing bright coloured spices, including an insane amount of saffron, which I got for 1500 drams at the Spice Bazaar in Yerevan. Travel makes everything taste better.


And yes, those are chocolate covered peanutbutter balls, recipe soon to come.

Rory<3