Day 12- Lamb Chops with Poached Quince and Balsamic Pan Sauce

Doesn't this one just sound fabulous? As soon as I saw the name I knew I had to make it. Quince is an odd fruit and something I'd never heard of before coming to Morocco. The first time I had it was in a tajine made by my first host mom. The tajine was simple- onions, beef, quince and an absolutely divine sauce. I couldn't get enough!

That said, quince isn't exactly an easy fruit to deal with. It's basically a bigger, lumpier, harder version of an apple. I tried to make a tajine with it once, but made the mistake of not cooking the quince first in water. It ended up being hard and not very tasty.

the ingredients- I doubled the quince and made extra sauce

For this lamb chop recipe, I started by simmering the sliced quince with some thyme in apple juice and sugar.

When the quince was nearly ready, I started work with the lamb chops. Simple enough, I just sprinkled with salt and pepper and cooked for around 3 minutes per side in some vegetable oil.

my first lamb chops!

When the quince is nice and soft, you separate them from the juice and set aside. I put the quince and the cooked lamb chops in the oven to keep warm while I made the pan sauce.

For the sauce, you boil the apple juice from the quince until it reduces. Then you remove the juice from the heat and add balsamic vinegar, butter, rosemary and oregano.  I didn't have any fresh herbs, so I added a reduced amount of the dried version. Then before serving, I strained out the herbs.

A-MA-ZING

Finally, just put the dish together. We were eating it Moroccan style (on one plate with bread). I wish I'd taken some photos of it arranged nicely on individual plates. It would have looked so much nicer. Oh well, here it is!

The verdict- Holy Amazing. This is hands down my favorite dish so far on the challenge. Absolutely everything was perfect. The meat was tender, the quince was incredibly soft and sweet and the sauce was just insanely good. Mohamed liked it as well, but did comment that it was VERY sweet. It's true, this is a sweet dish. If sweetness isn't quite your thing, I'd recommend reducing the sugar by half or removing it all together. Also, with the original recipe each person would only have a few slices of the quince, so the sweetness would be better balanced by the lamb chops. 

I highly recommend this dish! Find the entire recipe on Epicurious here: Lamb Chops with Poached Quince and Balsamic Pan Sauce.

For tomorrow, it's more chicken and chickpeas. A great combination, I can't wait to try this recipe for Chicken and Chickpea Stew.

photo by Kana Okada for Epicurious