Lamb Chops with Redcurrant & Rosemary

Two 150g chops cook in about four minutes, so almost all of the work here is the sauce, and the sauce is three things melted into the pan the meat just came out of. Redcurrant jelly does what a long reduction would otherwise have to do — it brings sweetness and body at the same time. This is the dinner for a night when you want something that eats like a restaurant plate and you have twenty-five minutes.

Ingredients

• 2 lamb chops — about 150 g each
• 2 sprigs rosemary — one whole, one finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic — bashed, skin on
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• Salt and black pepper

For the pan sauce

• 2 tbsp redcurrant jelly
• 75 ml red wine
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• A good knob of butter — cold, off the heat

To serve

• Crushed new or Maris Piper potatoes
• Peas or broccoli

Method

1. Season and wait. Salt both sides and leave the chops out of the fridge for 20 minutes. Cold chops in a hot pan cook unevenly — grey band on the outside, raw in the middle.

2. Render the fat edge first. Hot pan, film of oil. Stand the chops on their fat edge, holding them with tongs, for 2 minutes until that strip is golden and has given up its fat. This step is what separates a good lamb chop from a chewy one, and the rendered fat is what you then cook the rest in.

3. Sear. Lay them flat. 2 minutes on the first side, undisturbed. Turn, add the whole rosemary sprig and the bashed garlic, and give it 2 minutes more, spooning the foaming fat over the chops as you go.

4. Rest — this is not optional. Onto a warm plate, 5 minutes minimum. A chop this size loses most of its juice onto the board if you cut it straight away. Five minutes of resting is longer than the searing took, and matters more.

5. Build the sauce. Pour off all but a spoonful of fat. Pan back on medium, wine in, scrape the base clean. Let it reduce by half — about 2 minutes.

6. Jelly and mustard. Stir in the redcurrant jelly until it melts, then the Dijon and the chopped rosemary. Simmer 1–2 minutes until it coats the back of a spoon. Taste it — if it's too sweet, a few drops more mustard pulls it straight back.

7. Finish off the heat. Pan off the hob, swirl in the cold butter until the sauce turns glossy. Adding butter off the heat is the difference between a sauce that shines and one that splits into oil. Pour in the resting juices, and spoon it over the chops.