Vietnamese-Style Grilled Lamb with Baby Artichokes

Copyright 2007 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
3 French-cut lamb chops (about 8 oz.)
1 bulb shallot, finely diced
1 T Canola oil
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup fresh lime juice (about three limes)
2 T fish sauce
1 red chili, julienned
3 baby artichokes
salt and pepper
extra virgin olive oil

For the lamb:
Combine fish sauce, sugar, shallots, chili, lime juice and oil together in a bowl and blend well. Place marinade and lamb chops into an air-tight plastic bag and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. When ready to cook, place lamb on hot grill or grill pan, and cook about 2 minutes on each side. Serve with Vietnamese dipping sauce.

For the baby artichokes:
Prepare the artichokes by cutting about a half an inch from the top and remove the stem. Remove the rough outer leaves. Place artichokes in a steamer and cook for about 20 minutes. When done, cut in half. Pat dry with a papercloth. Then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and season with sea salt and pepper. Grill cut side down for about 1 minute.

Vietnamese dipping sauce:
¼ cup fish sauce
1 red chili, julienned
2 T sugar
¼ cup rice vinegar
1 t shallot, finely diced
1 t garlic, minced

Combine all the ingredients together in a small bowl and whisk until well blended.

Makes 1 serving. Serve with steamed “broken” rice.

Pair with a glass of Cote du Rhone.

TIP: “Broken” rice is pretty much what it sounds like: white rice that’s been broken during the milling process. This generally means that broken rice isn’t considered a premium rice and is actually used sometimes to feed ducks and other poultry. So now you’re wondering how appetizing this can be? For me, the broken rice just adds another texture to a meal. You can substitute with regular jasmine rice.