The smoking lamb chops of Whitechapel curry houses are legendary because they are so delicious. And as many of the better places are bring your own, you can eat them while drinking delicious beers. Wanting to recreate that at home, I cooked these lamb chops after brining them in Dunkelweizen and curry spices, where the brine makes them incredibly tender (like I said here, brining is a very good thing when Cooking with Beer…) – something important when you don’t have a searing flame grill to cook them on and you don’t want to chew on spicy boot soles. I used Dunkelweizen here because it has a sweetly toasty malt depth and also some complementary spices for those used on the lamb.
Serves 4
1 bottle of
Dunkelweizen (dark lager or Saison also work)
3 tablespoons of
salt
3 tablespoons of
sugar
1 whole chilli
1 onion,
quartered
5 cloves of
garlic
1 tablespoon of
curry powder
1 teaspoon whole
coriander seeds
Dry rub: 2
teaspoons of coriander seeds, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, ½ teaspoon of fennel
seeds. Warm these in a dry pan then grind into a fine powder. Add ½ teaspoon
turmeric, ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper, a pinch of cinnamon and lots of salt and
black pepper.
In a large plastic container with a lid, make the brine by mixing the beer with the salt and sugar and stirring until it’s all combined. Add the other ingredients and then top up the container with cold water. Put the lid on and place in the fridge for 8-24 hours. When ready to cook, remove from the brine and dry on kitchen towel. Cover in the dry rub and leave for 1 hour. Grill or fry on a high heat for 5-10 minutes (or until cooked to your liking).
These are a
brilliant beer snack or starter and I wouldn’t bother serving them with
anything other than a cold glass of good beer. Dunkelweizen is clearly a good
match here, or go for a good Oatmeal Stout with a nice nutty, liquorice depth
as that’s great with the spices and meat char.
The meat for this was provided by Simply Beef and Lamb.
Look for the Quality Standard Mark in independent butchers and selected
supermarkets to be sure that the beef or lamb is quality assured and
responsibly produced by people dedicated to producing great food.
Beer with cuzza. I always go balls out and order a big fuck off bottle of Cobra or Kingfisher and go in hard while yamming the poppadoms. But then everyone orders a second round and it ends up not getting drunk cos you get bloated out mad quick.
ReplyDeleteCan't imagine anyone would want anything other than a lager with cuzza tho Mark, i reckon you're flogging a dead horse here
Lager and curry is great. But these are curried grilled chops so they can handle something different - if you just did lamb chops on the grill, or in the oven, then you'd likely choose something more interesting than a lager, right?
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