Recipe: Lamb Chops With Lemon And Olives

This delicious recipe, sourced from Real Simple magazine, is easy to make and is guaranteed to be a mouth-watering treat for dinner guests.

The Arniston Bay Shiraz 2007 is ideal when paired with this meal. This wine – with its intense purple colour – contains scents of wild strawberry, mocha, and caramel with touches of sage and rosemary. The flavors burst through with intense blueberry and strawberry jam notes wrapped around rich French oak and finishing with touches of chocolate and sweetened cranberries.

Recipe: Lamb Chops With Lemon And Olives

Serves 4

Hands-on time 20 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

1 kilogram lamb chops or knuckles (if using chops, ask your butcher to cut them in half if you like)
½ cup flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, sliced
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 cups dry white wine (the delicious, good-value-for-money Arniston Bay Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2008 is a good option)
2 cups chicken stock
juice and zest of half a lemon
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon chopped thyme leaves
10 black olives
2 baby fennel bulbs, halved

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Coat the lamb with the flour and shake off the excess. In a frying pan over high heat, heat the oil and brown the lamb well.

Remove the lamb with a slotted spoon and place in a large casserole dish. Fry the onions and garlic until golden and add to the casserole dish. Pour over the wine, stock, lemon juice and zest, bay leaves, thyme and olives. Cover tightly (use foil if your dish doesn’t have a lid) and bake for 1 hour. Add the fennel and bake for a further 40 minutes. Serve with soft polenta or mash.

From: Real Simple Magazine