Balsamic, Mint & Rosemary Lambchops with Quinoa Salad

Collaboration with The Meat Club
Dish 1 - Homemade Beef Burger 
Dish 2 - Apple Sage & Rosemary Pork Sausage
Dish 3 - Chorizo & Beef Sausage Meatballs in Tomato & Creamy Sauce with Fusilli Pasta


My last dish that I'm sharing is this gorgeous lamb chop imported directly from Australia! All the premium quality produce from The Meat Club arrive here in Singapore fresh and chilled and not frozen. Apparently when you freeze meat, the cellular structure of the protein is compromised, causing the meat to "bleed" when cooked and thus resulting in less tender and juicy texture. The meat produce from The Meat Club are specially vacuum packed which helps seal the freshness and quality.

The Meat Club actually has an interesting subscription service where if you opt for an Auto-Pilot service, your selection of meat will be delivered in line with their import cycle (every 28 days) ensuring that you get the freshest batch of produce with a longer shelf life monthly. That said, they do offer one-off, just in time delivery for meat as well. Visit their website to find out more!

Mentioned in some of my previous posts that I'm interested in western food and plating recently, so even before I started thinking about how to cook the lamb chops, I was already thinking about how to present the dish and the accompaniment :) But since I'm a noob in this area, it was rather challenging!

Should I serve the lamb chops with mashed potatos or pureed cauliflower or pumpkin, or roasted vegetables? Eventually I decided not to over-complicate and just go with a simple Quinoa Salad which is easy to put together.

As for the lamb chops, usually I would just season with salt and black pepper, pan-grill and eat with lots of mint sauce. But this time, I made a marinate using mint leaves, rosemary, garlic, caramelised balsamic vinegar, olive oil, sea salt, black pepper and lemon juice. Just blend all the ingredients, rub them on both sides of the lamb chops and let the meat marinate for thirty minutes to an hour.

Thereafter, pan-sear the lamb chops for about 2-3 mins each side and transfer to the oven to bake for 6-8 mins.

Balsamic, Mint & Rosemary Lambchops with Quinoa Salad
(serves 2)

Ingredients
Lamb chop

• 4pcs lamb chops
• 12g fresh mint leaves
• 4g fresh rosemary
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 tbsp caramelised balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• Juice from 1/2 lemon

Quinoa Salad

• 1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
• 1 cup water
• Bunch of rocket leaves
• 1/4pc carrot, shredded
• 30g cranberries
• 12 olives, chopped
• Caramelised balsamic vinegar, lemon juice

Steps

1. Add mint leaves, rosemary, garlic, vinegar, olive oil, seas salt, black pepper and lemon juice into a food processor or electric chopper, blend into a coarse paste.
2. Rub the marinate on both sides of the lamb chops and let the meat rest for 30-60mins.
3. To cook, heat a grill pan with olive oil on stove till very hot, add the lamb chops and grill for 2-3 mins each side.
4. Remove grill pan from stove and place it into the oven (pre-heated) and bake for 6-8 mins.
5. Once done, let the meat rest for a few mins before plating.
6. To cook quinoa, place water and quinoa into a pot and cook on medium low heat. Stir the quinoa occasionally. Once the water is almost absorbed by the quinoa, turn off the heat. The cooked quinoa looks "popped" open revealing the germ of the kernel.
7. To make salad, toss cooked quinoa, rocket leaves, shredded carrot, cranberries, chopped olives, lemon juice and caramelised balsamic vinegar together till well-mixed.
8. To serve, divide the quinoa salad onto the serving plates, rest the lamb chops on the salad, garnish with some mint leaves. cranberries and balsamic. Ready to serve.

I love how the dish turned out! The lamb chops were succulent and flavourful without any gamey smell and the quinoa salad was a nice pairing. I think I should do this more often!

With this dish, it concludes my collaboration with The Meat Club. Really appreciate the opportunity to try out the premium quality produce that the company offers. Do check out their website for exclusive promotions and details!

Wholegrain Burger & Salad

Updated as at 7 Jun with addition of Quinoa Salad.

2 weekends ago, I attended a Wholegrain Burgers & Salads Class conducted by Chef Mayura Mohta (author of The Wholefood Kitchen - Naturally Nourishing Meals for a Healthy Lifestyle) at Shermay's Cooking School. (For those unaware, Shermay's Cooking School is closing and shifting office from end June onwards).

In the recent months, I'm on an exercise and diet regime, hoping to lose some weight and eat more healthily. My knowledge with wholegrain/herb/spice ingredients and cooking is very limited and honestly I'm not sure whether I would enjoy eating these food. Rather than buying the ingredients and exploring recipes myself, I thought perhaps by attending an initiation class like this (with tasting), I could try for myself whether this category of food would actually appeal to my palate.

To my delight, Chef Mayura really convinced me that healthy wholegrain food like quinoa, millet and wild rice can actually taste yummy and not difficult to prepare! In a span of less than a week, I've already tried and adapted some of the recipes. Certainly a good start!

Will not be sharing exact recipes here due to copyright, and also I didn't follow the recipes exactly, just estimated and adapted everything to my personal taste.

The first recipe I tried was the Quinoa Beet burger. I always thought that quinoa is very difficult to cook but surprisingly easy, just cook in water till all the water is absorbed and you can see sprouts appearing, so cute!

In this burger, besides cooked quinoa, I also added beet, carrot, sweet potato; and spices/herbs included ginger, garlic, cumin powder, Gochugaru Korean Chilli Powder, tumeric powder, salt, parsley and spring onion. After mixing all the ingredients and shaping them into burger patties, they were then oven-baked. At this point, they were ready to eat, or they could be frozen for up to 2 weeks.

The Quinoa Beet burger was very flavourful with the spices/herbs added and sweet due to the beet, carrot and sweet potato. I pan-fried it (without oil) for a while, so the exterior was very crispy. Overall the texture of the burger had a lot of bite, due to the quinoa and root vegetables. I also paired the burger with a Avocado Yogurt dip and loved the combination!

Another recipe I attempted was the Potato Oat burger. Pretty straightforward and I believe would be accepted by kids too.

In this burger, I added potato, zucchini, rolled oats, instant oats (which is a binder, alternatively use an egg), feta cheese, sundried tomatoes, assorted seeds and nuts (pine nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds). I reserved a portion of this for my son, and for the remaining added spring onion, parsley, cumin powder, Gochugaru Korean Chilli powder, all-spice mix, ginger, garlic and salt. Likewise after mixing all the ingredients and shaping them into burger patties, they were then oven-baked. At this point, they were ready to eat, or they could be frozen for up to 2 weeks.

Love this burger! Very creamy and fragrant due to the addition of potato and oats. The feta cheese, sundried tomatoes and nuts/seeds added texture and taste to the burger. The kiddo ate one burger (sandwiched with burger buns) and he didn't even know zucchini was added! Haha, clever way to trick kids into eating more veg yah? For my version, I loved the addition of the spices and herbs which enhanced the overall taste. Paired the burger with beet hummus which was even better than eating it plain.

The beet hummus that I paired with the potato oat burger was made using beet, chickpeas, sesame seeds, lemon juice, garlic, dried parsley, cumin powder, black pepper and salt. Whereas the avocado yogurt was made with avocado, Greek yogurt, maple syrup, garlic, lemon juice, black pepper and salt. These two dips are very versatile, besides having them with burgers, they could also be eaten with chips or bread sticks.

One of the salad I learnt from the class was the Wild Rice Salad. Interestingly, wild rice isn't even a rice, it's actually seed of grass which is high in fibre, protein-rice and gluten-free!

The cooked wild rice takes a slightly longer time to cook then quinoa, is very chewy and earthy. I love it! This salad is mixed with cooked wild rice, celery, pomegranate, yellow bell pepper, spring onions, fresh parsley, fresh mint leaves, feta cheese, raisins and assorted nuts/seeds. The dressing paired during class was a pomegranate dressing made with pomegranate juice, garlic, salt, paprika powder, lemon juice and olive oil. I replaced the pomegranate juice with homemade strawberry jamr.

Totally love this salad, very flavourful, with lots of different textures and tastes. I made a large batch and finished it over 3-4 meals. Will definitely have this salad once or twice a month!

Update as at 7 Jun
Made Quinoa Salad and love it as well! Besides quinoa, added chickpeas, arugula leaves (rocket leaves), red bell pepper, carrot, sundried tomatoes, olives, fresh parsley, dried raisins, dried cranberries and assorted nuts/seeds like almond, cashew, pine, sunflower, pumpkin (the dried fruits and nuts/seeds came mixed in a pack). For the dressing, I used lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt, maple syrup and paprika.

The different textures as well as flavours worked really well together here. The dressing of lemon juice and maple syrup gave a very refreshing taste to the salad. The surprise for me was the arugula leaves. I hated the taste of it and would avoid it whenever I eat salad. But surprisingly the strong nutty flavour blended perfectly with the rest of the ingredients and I actually added more to the salad.

Another satisfying salad that I could add to my list now!

Salads learnt from the class:

• Mediterranean Quinoa Salad with Lemon Honey Dressing
• Millet Salad with Spicy Buttermilk Dressing
• Wild Rice Salad with Pomegranate Dressing

All three salads offer different textures and flavours, and I love them all! Next up, I'm going to try the Quinoa Salad and Millet Salad.

The burgers and salads were in fact so satiating (had them late afternoon) that I felt full without necessity for dinner! The class certainly expanded my horizon and changed my perception about wholegrains altogether. Wholegrains will certainly form part of my diet from now onwards!