Lamb with mint sauce a nod to St. Pat’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day, aka the Feast of St. Patrick, is devoted not only to “the wearing o’ the green,” but the eating of the green. Both customs nod to the color of the shamrock, one of the great totems of Ireland, of which Patrick is the patron saint.
Like the shamrock, mint is green, which helps to explain why recipes for lamb with a sweet-and-sour mint sauce abound in Ireland (and throughout the British Isles). My version of the sauce isn’t sweet — I’m no fan of sweet in my savory — but it is bright green, deeply flavorful and refreshing, a tangy complement to some thin and crispy lamb chops.
The lamb chops available in our supermarkets usually come from America or New Zealand. American chops tend to be larger and milder in flavor, but either kind would be delicious here. I call for these rib chops to be pounded, which creates more surface area, which means a more delicious crust on the chops once they’ve been seared in the skillet. The easiest way to pound them (or any thin piece of meat) is to sprinkle the chops liberally with water on both sides, put them into a ziplock bag or between two pieces of plastic wrap, and then pound them with a meat pounder or rolling pin until they’re uniformly inch thick. (The water keeps them from sticking to
the plastic and shredding.)
If you don’t want to spring for rib chops — they can be a tad pricey — use shoulder chops instead.