This recipe is great for a crowd. I used to sear the cutlets in a frypan before baking it all but to be honest, that was just extra work. Now I throw them all into a pan and bake the lot together (though if you want to sear them, go for it – heat a frypan to super hot and sear both sides quickly before putting into your baking pan.)
Be generous with the onions, tomatoes and rosemary as the leftovers cook down to a lovely ‘jam’.
INGREDIENTS
- 4-5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 8 lamb cutlets – ‘French cut’ (meat is removed from the bone to form a little handle)
- 10 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
- 1 red onion, cut into slices
- 1 punnet cherry tomatoes
- 6 sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves pulled off the stem
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- 3 heaped tablespoons brown sugar
- 2tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
METHOD
- Preheat oven to 180°C
- Sprinkle some extra virgin olive on the base of a shallow baking pan.
- Arrange cutlets in a single layer.
- Scatter the garlic, onion, rosemary and tomatoes around the cutlets.
- Mix the brown sugar and vinegar together then pour over the cutlets.
- Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes.
- Increase the oven heat to 200°C then remove foil from the baking pan and bake another 10-15 minutes (depending on how cooked you like your meat – I like these still pink in the middle.)
- Lamb should be slightly pink in the middle – so don’t overcook! If you push on one with your finger it should feel firm but bouncy (squishy means it’s still raw – hard means overcooked).
- Serve with mashed potatoes and greens, or a salad.
NOTES
This recipe works really well with pumpkin, or veal cutlets.
If you have a lot of the sauce, onions and tomatoes left over – put them all in a large frypan and simmer on very low for about 40 minutes until cooked down to a jam.
Photo credit: David Lyons
