Lamb Chops Over Polenta and Asparagus

We have some of lamb chops, everybody’s favorite. And we are going to marinade this and first, what we are going to do, we have some polenta and we are going to do asparagus mushrooms with a balsamic lime juice. So very simple, this asparagus, what we did we already cut them on a bias cut, they’re uncooked. The mushrooms that we have here is we have some shitake oyster mushrooms and the honji meji. Now, you can see these are cooked. The only thing we did is we just sautéed them with a little bit oil, a little bit of corn oil and set them aside. But this does, it makes it easier when we actually going to serve the dish so just sauté them in a pan. Again, they are already cooked and they are fine, ready to go. And then for the polenta, I have chicken stock, cream, a little bit of saffron, and parmesan cheese. And I’ll add our chicken stock—and then we add cream. And the reason why we add cream as well is it really gives the polenta real nice creamy consistency. So, what I want to do is we are going to bring this all to a boil. Now saffron, this is completely optional. If you do not want to use saffron, the only reason why I use it is it gives it a nice yellow color, and it also helps with the flavor. So, we are going to spring a little bit saffron in there and we are going to bring that to a boil, alright. While this is cooking, let us go do our lamb. What we have here was a rosemary. And I want to do some extra virgin olive oil. And I am going to pour over the lamb chops and we just want to take them, I’d just turn them. This is what I kind of like soak in the lamb chops. Now this you can do it ahead of time. If you want to do the day before, it is fine, you know, the longer it marinades, it is easier to do it. So, it is just very simple, very easy, turn them over. That is it, alright. Then we are going to sprinkle some rosemary on them. And we are going to do salt and a black pepper. Now again, this meat when you season it, if you are going to leave it in the rosemary and oil, you can leave it for a day. Do not put your salt into it. I just salt before you’re actually going to sear the meat because what happens if you leave a salt in it, it will cook the meat. It will have a lot of juices come out of the lamb. So, when you sear it, it will be hard to get a medium rare lamb and the lemon also actually be cooked. So, as we’re going to sauté it right now, we are going to go ahead and season it all the way. Nice ground black pepper. Again, it is so nice to use a fresh ground pepper. And let me go and turn them over, let us do the other side. And if you want to do thyme, any other herb, it is fine. It is not a big deal, you can do that. It is not a problem. I like rosemary because, you know, rosemary and lamb always goes very well together. And you use a whisk. What we’re going to do is turn this down, turn it down to medium heat and we are going to go ahead and let’s turn the polenta now. What you’re going to see with the polenta, what is going to happen is it’s going to bloom. We call it blooming, this is going to like to expand and what you’re going to do is keep stirring it until it is more like the whole pot. You can see the difference between the creamy, you still see the cream is in top but you want to make sure it’s expanded completely into your cream and chicken stock here. We add a little bit more. Now, be very careful with this two. We’ll keep on adding all of a sudden it’s real tight. You do not want to do that. If that happens, you can just add a little bit more chicken stock and a little bit more of cream to it. So, that is fine right there. We are going to turn in low medium heat. So, while that is getting ready, let us go back to our lamb chops. Nice and hot, what we have here, just add our corn oil again. Now, if you do not want to add it, it is fine because since we have oil already on to your lamb chops, it is fine if you do not want to do that. Make sure every now and then, just give it a stir. Do not leave it alone because what will happen if you leave it alone, the bottom will scorch and the polenta will not cook all the way through. So, we’re just going to keep stirring it, keep stirring it a little bit. So alright, then again make sure your pan is smoking hot because you want to sear the meat, you want to seal it, you want to keep the juice and everything inside. So, you can see and it’s easy to test. If you can’t see it, you can just take the meat, not yet. You can always listen to it, you can like really, really nice and hard. That is what we want to hear. So, what we do too is we have another pan, we’re going to actually sear the mushrooms in and do our sauce. Alright, pan is ready. So, let us go ahead, we’re going to put our lamb chops in. And now, I use my hands but you want to use this because it is really hot after a while. And you can smell the rosemary, when you put it in the pan, don’t’ turn it right away. Leave it, let it sit, let it syrup before you turn it around because you want to get a nice, golden brown color on the lamb and then we’ll turn it around. Let’s put this one in here. Again, do not try—any lamb and chop them as well, what will happen it will cool down the pan and the lamb would sweat instead of actually searing. You can see now, the consistency is getting real thick. So, what I am going to do is I’m going to add a little bit more cream to the polenta and just stir that in and make sure it is cooked. Now, this is not your regular instant polenta, this polenta does take 15 minutes to 20 minutes to cook. Alright guys, we are back. We are running a little bit out of time. So, what I did, hot pan, the mushrooms we threw it in, we are having our asparagus over here. Also just a little corn oil, salt pepper, we’re sautéing that. So, what we are going to do, here, I have some what we call demi-glaze. I’m just going to add some demi-glaze to it. If you don’t have demi-glaze, you could probably buy it in a store. What are we going to do is deglaze this. This is our sauce, little bit balsamic, here we go because this is going to go over the lamb chops. So then, what I am going to do, go ahead, add some butter to this. The butter will help thicken up the sauce a little bit. And we have some butter into our asparagus. Now, if you do not want to do butter, be my guest, put a little bit of olive oil, very, very good. So, we got that, our polenta, nice and creamy. And you see the nice color on it, nice and yellow. And then what I am going to do is I’m going to take our asparagus, put our asparagus right here on the center. And you see how nice and beautiful green is it. And you didn’t have to cook it in water, it is fine, just like that. And then we have our lamb chops. I am just going to go and arrange it around here. And a very easy, very, very simple dish. And now, what we’re going to do, I’m just going to spoon the mushrooms and the sauce on each lamb chop. Just like that, just stir this until finally over. And there we go. And you could take a little bit of the sauce and just throw it over the plate.