When L. attended the French Lycée in Tokyo, mutton was a mandatory dish at lunch about once a month. This has left him with an indelible hatred for all things sheep despite being reminded - and shown photographic evidence - that, when we lived in London, lamb chops were his absolute favorite thing. I have several photos of his pudgy little two and a half year old self grasping a chop in each hand and grinning away at the camera with a mouth smeared with mint sauce and lamb jus. Since he is wearing different outfits in each of the photos, I am able to point out (as only a mother can) that this was not an isolated incident.
Since L. decided that dinner was not of interest to him this evening, and since I concluded that I feed him to a high enough standard most of the time, we determined that cereal might be the way to go for him. I amended the planned dinner to accommodate one and had delicious lamb rib chops with gorgeous mint sauce which I ate with, not to sound too much like Nigel Slater, leaves that had been slightly wilted by the heat of the lamb and flavored with the pan juices from the meat and the vinegar of the mint sauce.
Any mint will work in this recipe; I happened to have a lovely bunch of flowering blue licorice from the market which I used instead, and threw in the petals for good measure. Blue licorice tastes like a cross between mint and licorice and I thought it would taste very nice with the lamb, which it did.
Cereal indeed!
Makes enough mint sauce generously for 10 lamb ribs.
1/2 bunch mint, leaves only, roughly chopped (more finely than I did as mine clumped and real mint sauce will pour happily over all the lamb)
Pinch of salt
1 tsp granulated sugar
2 Tbsps vinegar (I used cider vinegar, the BBC suggests white wine vinegar)
2 Tbsps boiling water
Place the chopped mint, sugar and salt in a bowl.
Add the water, stir once to combine, set aside to cool.
As soon as the water has cooled (usually by the time you have cooked and rested the ribs), add the vinegar to the mint mixture.
Taste and adjust to your liking. Spoon over your ribs. Since the sauce is an important component of the dish, I didn't faff around with the lamb. I salted the ribs generously and cooked them on the stove top over medium heat for 3 minutes on one side and two on the other for medium rare.
Inspiration recipe (for purposes of proportion), here.