Curry Elvis Cooks - Fusion Cuisine Recipes and Food Philosophy

NOTE: This is the main course of a single fusion-cuisine meal (Mexican, East Indian, Chinese, and French) that I served for friends two summers past. The starter and side dishes are here:

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1-2 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 pieces of lamb chops cut from a rack, bone in, frozen. Do not thaw.
• 1-2 tbsp curry powder
• 2 tbsp haldi (turmeric)
• Mirin/rice wine or any white cooking wine

Equipment

• Carbon-steel or stainless-steel frying pan with oven-safe handle (i.e., no plastic handles!). The pan should be large enough to hold two pieces of lamb chops and the length of bone
• Tongs (the strong metal kind, not the salad sort)
• Oven mitts

Preparation

• Pre-heat your oven to about 350 F and maintain.
• Turn your stove element to high and add butter to the frying pan. When butter starts melting, add cooking oil so that the butter doesn’t burn.
• When butter has completely melted and mingled with the oil, about 1/2 minute, add the two pieces of frozen lamb. (Because the pieces are frozen, the outside will not burn before the inside gets cooked.) Be very careful. You may get some oil spatter if the lamb has thawed. It's best to remove the lamb directly from the freezer just when you get to this step. You may need to reduce the heat to medium high.
• Cook about 3 minutes on the first side, repeat for the second side.
• Add a couple of splashes of wine to the pan, making sure that the wine gets under the chops as well.
• Turn off the stove and put the (oven-safe) frying pan in the oven and leave for 5-10 minutes, depending on whether you like lamb medium or well-done. Keep in mind that these usually are pretty small chops.
• Turn off the oven and remove carefully with oven mitts and tongs.

Presentation
Serve with roasted potatoes and tomato corn salsa (recipe links at the top of this post).

(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://curryelviscooks.blogspot.com