Rose Petal Hogget Chops

143/18: Rose Petal Hogget Chops

143/18 – Rose Petal Hogget Chops:

With more whole lambs on the way from Briggs Shetland Lamb I am trying to cook all the hogget to make some space. I spotted the racks in the freezer and remembered a recipe by Sabrina Ghayour in her book Persiana for Tray baked Rose Petal Lamb Chops with Chilli & Herbs. Swapping hogget for lamb and cooking it in the Ooni Pro on cast iron altered the dish slightly to Rose Petal Hogget Chops with Chilli and Herbs.

The Book:

This recipe is from the book Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour. To see all my other cooks from this book click the picture below.

Persiana

THE MEAT:

The best quality and best tasting lamb I have eaten is from Briggs Shetland Lamb. The lambs spend their days on a rough pasture croft on the island of Shetland. The breed is naturally smaller with a finished lamb weighing 8kg to 14kg compared to other breeds at 17kg to 22kg. Richard compares his lambs to Oranges and Tangerines, the smaller ones are juicier!

The hogget was 18 months old and cost me £100 fully butchered and delivered. If you live in Scotland Richard might be able to deliver it in person on his way to the restaurants in Glasgow and Edinburgh. If you live further away you can order through Fresh Food Express who will courier the meat to you.

In the box: 

  • 2 leg joints which include the chump
  • 2 racks of rib chops (Not French trimmed)
  • 2 racks of loin chops
  • 2 shoulder joints
  • Neck
  • and pieces of flank

HoggetThe cut selected for this cook was a rack of hogget, two of them.

Rose Petal Hogget Chops

Sliced between the bones. The massive butchers knife came in handy for chopping through the bone at the bottom.

Rose Petal Hogget Chops

The Prep:

I made the herb and chilli drizzle with red chilli, coriander, mint, lime juice, rapeseed oil, salt and pepper.

Rose Petal Hogget Chops

I was very excited to be using some new ingredients for this recipe as Steenbergs had stocked my cupboard with all the essentials for this months planned cooks.

steenbergs

A quick note on Steenbergs. I first used one of their ingredients for the Berber & Q Smoked Chicken Thighs. The recipe calls for Orange Blossom water which I had never heard of! Steenbergs was the first result that Google produced and I ordered some. When it arrived it was in a glass bottle which looked good but the contents smelt and tasted fantastic. It definitely lifted that dish.

I had a better look on their website after that cook and was impressed with everything I read: A family run firm, committed to organic, Fairtrade, the environment and their people. The herbs and spices are ethically sourced and environmentally sound. A lot of their goods are sourced directly from farmers and suppliers they have visited and have direct relationships with. This reduces the supply chain and provides someone like myself with confidence the product is high quality and contains what is on the label. Keep an eye on the blog as I will be cooking with a lot more ingredients from Steenbergs going forward, I believe it’s going to lift the taste and quality of each dish.

Free delivery when you spend £30 or more so it’s worth buying a range of different ingredients. 12 different jars would be about £30. Have a look on their website: steenbergs.co.uk

Some comparisons below for ingredients used in this cook.

Cinnamon: On the left is ground cinnamon from a supermarket bought jar. On the right is the Steenbergs ground cinnamon. The colour difference is interesting as the shop bought stuff is darker, maybe something has been added to darken it? In terms of smell the supermarket jar did smell of cinnamon but the smell soon passed whereas the Steenbergs cinnamon made me think of Christmas on the first sniff, smelt stronger and the smell stayed with me for longer.

Sophie Steenberg sent me some interesting information on the cinnamon:

There’s a problem in the UK that cassia is often sold as cinnamon and this is a stronger flavour rather than the complex more subtle flavour of cinnamon. You’ll find people talking about True cinnamon or Ceylon Cinnamon. Cassia mostly comes from Indonesia and is an ingredient in Asian, particularly Thai cooking. We always sell cinnamon as cinnamon, cassia as cassia.

Ground cinnamon is £2.60 for 40g on the Steenbergs website.

steenbergs

Turmeric: On the left is ground turmeric from a packet bought from an Asian supermarket which had been stored in a kilner jar. On the right is the Steenbergs turmeric. The supermarket turmeric was a paler shade of yellow and had very little smell to it. The Steenbergs turmeric actually smelt like the juice from turmeric root. This stuff is going to be a revelation in curries!

Ground turmeric is £2.60 for 50g on the Steenbergs website.

steenbergs

Cumin Seeds: On the left is cumin seeds bought from an Asian supermarket and stored in a Kilner jar. On the right is the Steenbergs cumin seeds. The supermarket bought seeds aren’t very old but straight away you can see the colour difference. In terms of smell there wasn’t much of a smell from the supermarket cumin seeds but the Steenbergs ones had a strong, fresh smell.

Cumin seeds are £2.60 for 40g on the Steenbergs website.

steenbergs

Ground Cumin: This one is a bit different. The top one in a glass jar is a supermarket bought jar of ground cumin. I didn’t have ground cumin from Steenbergs so I ground my own from the seeds above (black dish on the right). To make it a fair comparison I also ground the supermarket bought cumin seeds above and put them in the white dish on the left.

The ground cumin from a supermarket jar at the top didn’t have much of a fragrance and the colour looked a bit pale. The ground supermarket cumin seeds looked and smelt better than the supermarket bought jar but similar to the cinnamon, the smell passed quite quickly. The cumin ground from the Steenbergs cumin seeds on the other hand smelt strongly of cumin and the smell lasted a while. 

Ground Cumin is £2.60 for 50g on the Steenbergs website or grind the cumin seeds mentioned above!

steenbergs

Rose Water: This was interesting as the rose water from the Asian supermarket smelt a lot stronger than the Steenbergs rose water but it was also a harsher smell. Both were tasted and the supermarket purchased rose water was quite strong but had a strange aftertaste. The Steenbergs rose water was a lot milder and a more pleasant taste.

Another update from Sophie:

Our rose water is a traditional rosewater with nothing else added – quite a few are with rose oil not a traditional rose water and have other things added.

Looking at the KTC bottle the ingredients are spring water and essence of rose which sounds like an oil added to the water? The Steenbergs Rose Water is made by boiling rose petals in water so nothing is added.

Rose water is £3.75 for 100ml on the Steenbergs website.

steenbergs

Overall, each ingredient looked like it was going to improve this dish above what I would have achieved from my standard store cupboard.

In a bowl I added olive oil, ground rose petals, turmeric, ground cumin, cumin seeds, cinnamon, sea salt, garlic and rosewater. I gave it all a good mix around then added the hogget chops and made sure everything was mixed together. As turmeric was in the mix I put gloves on to save myself from having yellow hands for days!

Rose Petal Hogget Chops

I remembered to take the chimney cap off the Ooni Pro this time! A base layer of Oxford Charcoal Oak Lumpwood, lit with 2 flamers and left for 10 minutes before I added some Oak chunks.

Rose Petal Hogget Chops


The Cook:

When I added the Oak chunks I also put two cast iron dishes in to warm up. One is the Grizzler from Ooni and one is a cheap cast iron dish from Amazon. After about 5 minutes I took the cast iron out, placed the hogget on then put both dishes back in the Ooni Pro. Rose Petal Hogget Chops


Every couple of minutes I took the cast iron dishes over, flipped the hogget chops, rotated the dish 180 degrees and put it back into the Ooni Pro. After about 10 minutes the meat was probing 65c internal temperature on the Thermapen so I took them out. What a great colour!

Rose Petal Hogget Chops

 

Review: Thermapen V4

Time to Serve Up:

I only kept the lamb in the cast iron dishes long enough to take a photo then moved them to a plate to save them keep cooking!

Rose Petal Hogget Chops

Topped with the chilli and herb drizzle.

Rose Petal Hogget Chops

Close up, what awesome colours!

Rose Petal Hogget Chops

Time to Eat:

I was looking forward to this, it looked and smelt fantastic! We served it with steamed basmati rice.

Rose Petal Hogget Chops

SUMMARY:

Oh my goodness, this was so tasty! There is something very special about lamb/hogget/mutton/goat chops cooked at 500c+ on cast iron in the Ooni Pro. You just don’t want the meat to end as you want to eat it all night! This was so tasty I found myself picking meat off the bones and trying to get hold of any bits I could see!

The marinade paste was very tasty, all the ingredients worked well together and complimented the hogget chops. It did feel that the Steenbergs ingredients helped to lift the flavour of this dish. The hogget was top quality as always, fantastic taste and the herb and chilli dressing worked well to finish off the dish with a nice bit of spice.

I did find the hogget cooked on the Ooni grizzler pan looked and tasted better. It’s a sturdy, well built pan whereas the cheap pan isn’t as sturdy nor is it very well built as the handle doesn’t fit so you have to use welding gloves to move it. The grizzler is more expensive but it’s worth it!

Cook Difficulty: 2/5 
Cook Duration: Short: 2/5
Cook Equipment: Ooni Pro
Cook Method: Cast Iron
Charcoal: Oxford Charcoal Oak
Smoking Wood: Oak Chunk
Cook temperature: 500c+
Cook time: 10 minutes
Internal temperature: 65C (Thermapen)
Notes: No major changes. 

This recipe is from Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour:

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