Serious Potential Has Been Found!

While perusing The Guide, I noticed that I have paid little attention to the lamb chapter.  To remedy this, I selected the Tuscan-Style Rib Chops With Panzanella on page 199.  Before work, I managed to swing down to Findlay Market, as I know from experience that some of their lamb cuts are sparse on Sundays.  In fact, in today's paper there was an article about how Findlay's foot traffic has been steadily increasing as of late, particularly on Saturdays.  In order to not miss out on what I needed, I woke up a little early, drove down to Findlay, acquired what I needed, and then headed off to work.

The recipe calls for "rib lamb chops, about 3/4 inch thick each, trimmed of nearly all fat."  The butcher didn't have that exactly, but recommended that I use the rack of lamb as a very close alternative.  Here it is, before I did my personal hack job of trimming it of fat.

In reality, I don't think I did all that bad of a job.  The key is to use the tip of the knife to skewer into the fat layer, and let the knife to the work from there.

Here are my lamb "lollipops!"

I followed the direction for making the dressing, which is super easy.

You have to divide the dressing into three parts.  The first and smallest (lower left bowl) is the dressing for the salad.  The second (lower right bowl) is for basting/marinating the lollipops.  The last (big bowl up top) is for brushing the eggplant and bread (and for dipping extra bread into while waiting for The Forge to reach the "surface of the sun" setting).

Instead of brushing on the marinade, I simply dredged the lamb lollipops into it.

In just half an hour, these little babies would be ready to grill!

The eggplant and bread were brushed with the goodness, and taken out to The Forge for quick cooking.

Looks good so far!

Everything was cut up, including the tomatoes and basil.  The reserved dressing was added in, everything was tossed, and I had a panzanella (usually done with day-old bread, but grilling fresh bread achieves something very close).

Mmmm....meat lollipops.

Presentation doesn't have to be pretty when you're eating alone.  I plated up some of the panzanella and then just piled on the rib chops.

I like this recipe for giving me the confidence to work with a cut-up rack of lamb.  This recipe is a little bland, but the meat was cooked perfectly and overall fun to eat.  For now, however, let's just say that I have some big plans for this technique.  As for the panzanella, it is tasty and all, but not something that I will go looking for again.  I think everyone should try this recipe, if anything to learn how to use this cut of meat.  It is easy, and I think highly adaptable.