Lamb Chop Lollipop with Ratatouille

Provence...

I first met Provence through Van Gogh's amazing paintings long time ago, then, in 2008 summer, I visited Bouches du Rhône (Arles, St.Rémy de Provence - where you can visit the actual places in Van Gogh's painting -, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille...), and Var area (St. Tropez, Nice...) alongside of Mediterranean sea. The beautiful sceneries reflect all of the colors from Van Gogh's painting under the bright sunshine of southern France.

The foods were bright as well. Italian influenced Mediterranean flavor with various herbs, garlic, tomato, and olives. Rich flavor-packed lambs and sea food dishes... Even the wine has the distinctive aroma and spice notes.

I was fortunate enough to learn more about the vibrant Provençal foods through my internship at restaurant Allegretti. (The Provençal restaurant is closed (sad). Please see my past post about Celebrate Flatiron Chefs 2010, one of fun memory during the internship.) My main job was making dices out of piles of vegetables to make ratatouille. Although ratatouille is a very homey rustic Provençal dish, chef Allegretti elevated the dish by cooking each of the vegetables individually so each can retain the unique flavor and texture.

Of course, the following ratatouille is not the restaurant version, but more a home style with small dices. :) I paired the ratatouille with cute preparation of lamb chop, lamb chop lollipop! It will go well with the cute small dices of vegetables, in terms of flavors and look.

Lamb Chop Lollipop with Ratatouille
(Yield: 4 servings / Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes)

Ingredients:

Lamb chops
+ one rack of lamb (8 lamb chops in a row)
+ a few sprigs of thyme
+ four garlic cloves, crushed
+ 2 Tbsp of unsalted butter
+ grape seed oil (or any vegetable oil with high smoking point)
+ salt and pepper


Ratatouille
+ 1 Italian eggplant
+ 1 yellow zucchini
+ 1 green zucchini
+ 1/2 large onion (or one small-medium onion)
+ 1 red bell pepper
+ 1 green bell pepper
+ 2 large tomatoes
+ 3 garlic cloves, minced
+ 1 Tbsp tomato paste
+ several basil leaves
+ salt and pepper
+ olive oil



Procedures:

Ratatouille can be made a few hours before, and be reheated right before serving.

Ratatouille
1. Cut all the vegetables into 0.3" x 0.3" dice.
- Eggplant and zucchinis: Please do not use the core part where you can see seeds.
- Bell peppers and tomatoes: Remove the seeds before making dices.


Clockwise from top left: onion, tomato, green bell pepper, yellow zucchini, red bell pepper, green zucchini, and eggplant in center.

2. First sauté eggplants with enough olive oil and a bit of salt over high heat - almost closed to roasting. When it is cooked, take them out of the pan.


3. Over medium heat, sweat minced garlic with olive oil.


4. Add onions and sweat onions until translucent.


5. Add zucchinis and cook until cooked.* Season very lightly with salt.**


* If someone asked me "how long should I cook it?", the right answer is always "until it is cooked". You need to use your five senses: first look - vegetable should either have color or shrink down in size. / Smell - vegetable release sweet smell when it is cooked. / Taste - definitely tastes sweeter when the vegetable is cooked. / Touch - when you taste it, you can see if it is too crisp (undercooked) or too mushy (overcooked). / Hearing - listen to the sounds from the pan as you cook.

** If you season in each of steps, the vegetables release more flavor. As we are going to season in each step, please be careful not to season too much. Please remember that you can always add more salt at the end, but you cannot take out the already added salt!

6. Add bell peppers and continue cooking. Season very lightly with salt. When every vegetable is cooked enough, add cooked eggplant (from #2), and tomato paste and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Cool down the vegetable.


7. When the vegetables are cooled to room temperature, combine diced tomatoes and chiffonade basil into the vegetables.


8. Cool down and store until being used.



Lamb chops
1. First, preheat the oven at 370°F (~187°C).

2. Clean the lamb chop. Remove excessive fat from the lamb, but leave a thin layer of fat for flavor and to avoid over cooking.* Cut the rack of lamb into portion in which one portion has two chops (bones).

3. I made a lollipop shape by leaving only one bone in one portion. I carved out one of the bones carefully, so you can have only one bone with a thick meat from two chops. Also, I removed most of the fat and meat from the side of the bone, so you can have round meat with a stick of bone, a lollipop-like shape.

This is 100% cosmetic procedure, and optional. If you follow this step, please tie the bone and meat tightly with cooking twine so the meat can stay in a round shape while cooking. Also, wrap the bones with cooking foil to avoid the bones having any dark burned stains while cooking.



* If you trim all the fat from the chop, it can be overcooked and dried out easily during cooking. Please remember that what keeps the meat moist is not water but FAT!

4. Season the lamb chop with salt and pepper generously. In a sauté pan, over high heat, cook the lamb chop with grape seed oil (lay the lamb chops when the oil is really hot!). Sear one side for about a minute and roll the chop by holding the bones with a cooking tong to make sure the side of lamb chop is seared and browned as well.


5. Turn off the heat. Remove all the oil and fat from the pan. Flip the chop and place thymes, crushed garlic, and drop of butter over the seared side of the lamb chop. Slide the pan into preheated oven; cook about 8-10 minutes until the inside is pink and juicy. It should register at 130°F (~55°C) degrees internal temperature.


6. While the lamb chops are in the oven, reheat the ratatouille.

7. When lamb chop lollipops are cooked, take them out from the oven and rest for about 3 minutes. Remove the cooking twine and cooking foil from the chop and serve with ratatouille.


Enjoy~