When I told my husband we had another red this week, he immediately went online and started hunting up a lambchop recipe. Lamb hasn’t been something I’ve been into until Sean showed me that it doesn’t suck. He also went and found a crazy, labor intensive, Afghan rice that I simplified to something that could actually be done in one evening, as opposed to taking all night to make. I would also like to make an aside here, and say that How to Train Your Dragon 2 evokes way more feels than I think should be necessary. So if this gets ranty or rambly, it’s just the feels. Anyway, the lamb needs to marinate for an hour, so know that ahead of time!

Lambchops

• 8 lambchops
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• olive oil
• 2 tsp chopped rosemary
• 1 tbsp minced shallot
• 1/2 cup apple cider
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp honey
• salt/pepper

Marinate the lambchops in a shallow dish with the olive oil, rosemary, and garlic. They should marinate for about an hour, flipping them over halfway.

To cook, heat oil in a pan and cook each chop on each side until brown and crispy. Cook them however long you like, my husband likes his medium and I like mine well-done. Juicy meat freaks me out, sorry not sorry.

While the lamb hangs out, add shallots into the pan and stir until soft. Add the apple cider and scrape up all the brown bits. Then add your cider and honey. Bring it to a boil and then reduce your heat and let it simmer. We simply added the glaze over the chops on our plates.

Afghan Rice

• Basmati Rice (1 cup)
• olive oil
• half an onion, thin sliced
• garlic, minced, 2 cloves
• half a cinnamon stick
• 4 cardamom pods
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 3 whole cloves
• 2-3 cups stock or water
• shredded carrots
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/4 cup raisins
• salt/pepper
• sliced and toasted almonds
• garam masala (a spice blend)

Cook the basmati rice in the required amount of water/stock. While that’s cooking, cook your onions in oil until translucent. Add in the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, cumin seeds, and whole cloves. Stir it together, then add a cup of stock and any salt/pepper. Let it simmer for a few minutes, and then drain the onion mixture, removing the cinnamon stick and cloves, and reserving the stock from it.

Cook your shredded carrots in the same pan with oil until soft, and then add sugar and stir until slightly caramelized. Add the stock that you saved from the onion mixture, and let it simmer for a little bit longer. Add your raisins, ground cardamom, salt and let it combine. Add your onion mixture back in, along with your rice (when it’s done). Add a little of the garam masala spice blend, and mix altogether.

We served all of this with carrots that had been roasted in the oven with olive oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary.

Syrah

Another red wine for you! This particular one is from South America, which usually produces Shiraz. According to Jen over at 52 Weeks of Wine, it just depends on what story the producers want to tell if they call it a Syrah over a Shiraz. Anyway, this one smelled so good, like leather and red fruit. It wasn’t super bold, but bold enough that it definitely needed food. It had distinct flavors of cigar and licorice, which may be why it wasn’t my favorite. Guys, I’m sorry but these reds are killing me. I had a glass of this and my heads pounding and my cat is asleep on my chest and it’s hard to type.