Lamb Chops with Mint Chimichurri and Balsamic Mashed Potatoes

Recipes 1-3 for the month of March 2012

In one meal I knocke3d out 3 new recipes. It's true and it was all done within an hour! This is the first time I have ever made mashed potatoes in my life. Normally I leave that to my mom or girlfriend but with this not being thanksgiving and my girlfriend not existing it was up to me to step up. My favorite part of this meal is by far the Chimichurri sauce. Holy smokes this stuff is great and really easy to make! It took about 5 minutes to make and it was far and away the best part of the meal. The recipe I based this on called for a little less mint and parsley, but I didn't like the consistency of the sauce so I kept adding more and more mint and parsley to the food processor. The key is to taste the sauce as you go. It's the only way you'll know for sure.

Recipe #1 Chimichurri Sauce

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh mint

1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley

Olive Oil

2 tablespoons chicken broth

1.5 tablespoons of white vinegar

2 teaspoons minced shallots

Pinch or two of crushed red pepper

2 garlic cloves minced

salt and pepper

Directions:

Combine mint, parsley, oil, broth, vinegar, shallots, red pepper, garlic, salt, and black pepper in a food processor; process until blended.

Finished Product:

Seriously, that's the only step! It's genius in it's simplicity! I wanted to lick the bowl when I was done. Has anyone ever put this on top of a burger? I might have to try that. Or a hot dog?! I will totally put this on top of a hot dog inside a potato bread bun. This needs to happen asap.

5 out of 5 stars!

Recipe #2 Lamb Chops

Ingredients:

2 Lamb chops
Cooking spray or butter

salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper

2. Heat pan and add cooking spray or butter or both.

3. Once the pan is hot add the meat; cook for 5 minutes on each side.

4. Set meat aside for at least 5 minutes to settle.

 Finished Product:

I don't cook lamb all that often, but this was pretty great. I'd say lamb is my third favorite meat. Cow is in 1st, Chicken is 2nd, Lamb 3rd, Pig 4th and Pigeon 5th. I had pigeon in Egypt. It was boney but as delicious as revenge has ever tasted! Take that stupid bird! How weird is it that we call some meats by the name of the animal and others we don't? Cow is a fun word to say too. How about we make some cow tonight? Sure, honey!

Anyway, not a lot of meat on these here bones! The chimichurri sauce made this dish lip smacking good. I can't imagine having lamb any other way.

3 out of 5 stars! Not the best, but I plan on perfecting this one on a BBQ in my new apartment.

Ingredients:

1 pound Yukon gold potato, peeled

1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

2 tablespoons of butter

Tablespoon of Olive oil

salt and pepper

Tablespoon of good balsamic vinegar

Directions:

Cut potato into 1-inch pieces.

Place potato in a medium saucepan; cover with water.

Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until potato is tender.

Drain well, and mash potato with a potato masher.

Stir in buttermilk, butter, and salt. Drizzle with olive oil.

Finally, drizzle mashed potatoes with some quality balsalmic vinegar.

Finished Product:

 I never make mashed potatoes because it sounds like a hell of a lot of work, but when I saw this recipe I thought it was pretty simple. And it was! No need for a hand mixer or anything! The balsamic vinegar is something I heard about in Italy and I always wanted to try it out. It's a good addition, but next time I will omit it. I just love mashed potatoes too much to mess with a classic.

3 out of 5 stars!