Always a New First - Lamb

I've eaten lamb before, mostly while living in China (either in Hot Pot or at the barbeque restaurant). I was at the store this past weekend, browsing the butcher's display. Some lamb loin chops caught my eye, so I bought three. It ended up being three meals worth of food, which is perfect. I ate the leftovers for lunch the past two days. I also went to the farmer's market. While the farmer's market in Portland is nice, it doesn't live up to my childhood farmer's market. There aren't nearly as many vendors. The prices aren't as low. And some of the produce is seriously sketchy. Oh, and one stand didn't live up to their posted prices, which seriously annoyed me. But, I ended up with some sweet corn (not sweet enough), green beans (haven't eaten them yet), wild blueberries (I've had better), and yellow zucchini (small ones! I was happy about that).

Loving the challenge of something new, I dug out my various resource cookbooks and did some research on lamb and cooking it. I decided to cook it stovetop, using tips from a recent Cook's Illustrated article about barbequed porkchops inside. I also decided to use garlic and cumin to flavor it. So, after spending the afternoon at the Eastern Promenade reading and enjoying the weather, I walked the three miles home and started my dinner.

I rubbed the lamb chops with chopped garlic, cumin seeds and oil. I covered them tightly (as in against the meat, not over the plate) with plastic wrap and let them sit at room temperature for about 1/2 an hour. I took out some yellow squash, a small white eggplant, and an orange bell pepper and prepared them. I washed everything, trimmed the eggplant and squash and sliced into lengths. I seeded the bell pepper and sliced it. The eggplant got salted and put in a drainer for a while. I heated some olive oil with garlic and red pepper flakes and let that cool. Near the time for cooking, I brought the oven to about 350 degrees. I rinsed the eggplant, then laid it with the other vegetables and brushed all with the cooled spicy garlic oil. That went in the oven and I heated a cast iron pan over medium heat until hot. I added a little oil, then the lamb chops and cooked them about 5 minutes on the first side. I flipped them (they were browned on the first side) and let them cook on the other side until the thermometer read 130 degrees. I took the chops off the heat, put on a plate and let them rest. Once the vegetables were slightly tender, I removed them from the oven. I ate one chop with some of the vegetables. It was fabulous! I had a leftover lamb chop today for lunch with some leftover cream of mushroom soup. Very good together! I was definitely happy with this new cooking venture.