I’ve had my eye on this Catalan Lamb Chops with Apricots and Sage recipe for a while. Lamb is a favorite of mine, and I don’t get to eat it very often. My husband doesn’t like lamb, and marriage is about compromise. Well, that and I just can’t be mean and make him something he hates. But that doesn’t mean I have to make food he likes for my weekday lunches. So this week I decided to treat myself and give this recipe a try just because. Lamb chops braised in a sauce made with apricots, rosemary, and sage sounded too good to pass up. Literally no other reason than that.
These beautifully seasoned, fork-tender shoulder lamb chops are simmered in a heady sauce redolent of vermouth, apricots, sage, tomatoes, and cinnamon. It was inspired by a dish from Spain’s Mediterranean coast. The aromatic combination of ingredients harkens back to the Moorish culture that imparted many lush flavors to the international stew pot. Serve the chops on a bed of wide noodles or mashed potatoes.
The Ingredients
The list of ingredients for these Catalan lamb chops wasn’t too long, and most of the items were easy to find. I had a few things on hand like flour, salt, and pepper, but I had to buy most of the ingredients.
I ordered my groceries online this week, and Whole Foods decided to send me the biggest onion I have ever seen. It was the size of a grapefruit! The recipe calls for a large onion, but this was way beyond that, so I only used half.
The only item I couldn’t find locally was the Glace d'Agneau Gold® Roasted Lamb Stock. Publix and Whole Foods don’t stock lamb stock at all, so I had to order it from Amazon. Thankfully, they had it for just over $5 and delivered it the next day.
The Process
The instructions for this recipe were well written and easy to follow. I had my Catalan lamb chops prepped in 20 minutes (that includes everything from steps 1-2). However, there were a couple of things that weren’t explicitly listed.
I wasn’t sure of was how much flour to use in step 1. The instructions say to coat the lamb chops in flour, but an exact amount of flour wasn’t listed. I added 1/4 cup to a large plastic bag (gallon size) and shook each lamb chop until coated. That worked nicely.
The instructions also say to brown the lamb chops, but times weren’t listed. I chose to brown each side for 3 minutes. The meat was a golden brown, but the bone did blacken a bit where it touched the pan. I think I could have reduced the heat a bit, but it didn’t affect the taste.
Other than that, making these Catalan lamb chops went very smoothly. I baked the chops for 1 1/2 hours in my 12-inch cast iron pan, and the meat was falling off the bone when I removed them from the pan. The sauce was a bit thin for my liking, so I boiled it on the stove for 6 minutes while the lamb rested.
Here is how long it took to make this recipe:
- 20 minutes to prep
- 90 minutes to cook
- 6 minutes to thicken the sauce
- 1 hour 56 minutes total
