pretty by the bay

Tyler Florence is a hunka hunka burning love. I’ve never met him, per se, but I once saw him roaming around Mill Valley, where he lives and has a lovely kitchen lifestyle store. Sadly, I haven’t seen him since that magical day, so I have to get my fix by watching Tyler’s Ultimate on Food Network.

On a recent episode, Tyler made an elaborate and impressive middle eastern feast that revolved around grilled lamb chops. The simply-prepared chops were garnished with a lovely harissa sauce and served alongside a grain salad, baba ghanoush and homemade pita chips. Everything looked fresh and delicious, and unlike most television menus, it didn’t seem like it would take that long to prepare. I decided to skip the grain salad (only because it required more ingredients than I cared to purchase at the time) but made everything else on Tyler’s menu, starting with the lamb chops. Now, Tyler suggested I buy a rack of lamb and “french” the chops myself so they’d have the attractive little bone sticking out from the bottom. I had neither the funds nor the skills to deal with an entire rack of lamb, so my butcher talked me into lamb loin chops as a substitute. These were more like a pork chop with a bone running through the middle. They were easy enough to grill on my stovetop, but were difficult to eat compared to a frenched chop. Other that that small detail, I followed Tyler’s recipe to the letter to yield a medium-cooked chop. The stunning sauce underneath the meat is the red pepper harissa, which I also made according to the original recipe – but used ground spices in lieu of whole. Hopefully Tyler will forgive the fact that I don’t have a spice grinder.

As our chops sizzled away on the stovetop, we dined on Tyler’s suggested appetizer: baba ghanoush and homemade pita chips. The baba was quite different from versions I’ve enjoyed in middle eastern/Mediterranean restaurants. The addition of cilantro was most intriguing as I expected to use parsley. Corey’s not the biggest cilantro fan, so I used less than the recipe called for and scaled all of the ingredients back by half to make it more appropriate for two people. While the cilantro added a decidedly different flavor, it was really good and very easy to prepare.

The real winner here? The pita chips! Tyler suggests spicing them up with zaatar (which I love) and cutting them into strips as an alternative to traditional wedges or chips. These were wonderfully crunchy and looked cool, to boot! I was excited to use the zaatar that Rhodeygirl (aka Sabrina) was kind enough to share from the stash her aunt brought over from Jordan. Thanks, Sabrina – I’m loving this!

If you’re into lamb, I highly suggest you take a peek at both recipes featured here. If you’re not into lamb, you may find this tshirt amusing and appropriate (thanks to my brother for pointing it out).