Day 45: Sumac lamb chops

I almost had to go to the ends of earth to get one single ingredient for this evening’s Sunday tea. Well, maybe I’m exaggerating but I definitely had to go to two of the four corners of Ireland for it at least – metaphorically speaking, of course. That one single ingredient was a Middle Eastern spice called Sumac. I was reluctant to order it online from the UK in case Customs would open it and I’d have to throw it out which happened me once before when I ordered a food product through Amazon. Then, when I put the call out via Twitter, I had some helpful (!) suggestions as to where I might find it. Suggestions such as my local Asian supermarket, for example. Em, not so easy when you live in Donegal and I honestly don’t know if there’s even one Asian supermarket on the whole island of Ireland so, again, I had to rely on the Twitterati to come up with another suggestion. Thankfully, the Lady Herself, aka Rachel Allen very kindly put me in touch with two possible sources which both came up trumps. Firstly, Artisan Foods in Dublin via Simon Kilcoyne and Mr. Bell’s in the English Market in Cork. Two phone calls and I was sorted. I have put their details at the bottom of this post if you need to order it also.   

So, once I had the sumac, it was plain sailing from then on for the Sumac lamb chops. I poured a teaspoon of rapeseed oil on each chop, seasoned them and then sprinkled sumac over each one. I then did the same on the other side of each chop. On a very high heat, I put them on a griddle pan for 4 minutes each side. While that was happening, I made the salad part of the dish which involved diced cucumber, diced tomato, natural yoghurt and salt and pepper.

The verdict…

Dear Husband really enjoys lamb chops anyway and gave the dish 8 marks out of 10 and, surprisingly, really liked the salad part of the recipe too. He didn’t notice a significant difference in the sumac spice compared to lamb chops without it but maybe that’s because I didn’t tell him about it beforehand. I wonder will he notice much of a difference next time if I tell him about the sumac being added?! That’s the thing - sometimes that trick of mine backfires on me! Regardless, this recipe was extremely easy and quick to prepare – as long as you don’t count the few days you have to wait for the sumac to be delivered! It has made The List and Dear Husband will surely enjoy them then as much as he did this evening!

Details of where to get the Sumac:

Artisan Foods Ltd., 38-39 Canal Walk, Parkwest, Dublin 12 Tel.: 01 - 620 4984

Mr. Bell’s, Unit 15, Grand Parade Market, Cork Tel.: 021 - 431 8655