A Fiery Way with Lamb

I have never really been a huge fan of lamb chops, which always seemed to have too much fat and bone to meat ratio. Also, by the time the fat is cooked to an edible stage, the meat is often dry and tough. So, this idea of Nigel's (more of an idea than a recipe in the book) of marinading them and grilling them in a spicy thick tomato sauce sounded very appealing. And indeed, it was delicious. I decided to use ground coriander and cumin rather than whole seeds (but did leave the fennel and mustard seeds whole), and also blitzed the onion, chilli, garlic, ginger and fresh tomato into a kind of masala paste. The resulting 'slurry' for want of a better word is then fried and reduced to thicken even more, and when cooled, the chops are then marinated in it (with fresh coriander leaf added when cool). Ten minutes under a hot grill, with lots of the paste still adhering, and we had juicy, fragrant chops with a crisp frill of fat - lovely! Served them with Nigel's spiced potatoes (see the February entry for the recipe) and plain broccoli as a contrast. Really nice, with a hearty Californian Petite Syrah from Lodi. Hubby wants me to say that it would be a really good marinade for chicken too, perhaps for a whole spatchcocked one, or for whole quail if one is feeling decadent! I agree and will make it again photo courtesy of Cook-the-books