Lamb Porterhouse — onions on the floor

Quality of ingredients simply cannot be overstated. So I decided to go on a small lamb kick after Easter. The rack in my previous post was so amazingly tender, I had to try another cut with the only stipulation being that it came from the same farm. I was fortunate enough to find just that. my lamb and pork heaven in Napa goes by the name of "The Fatted Calf Charcuterie". They were sourcing from Emigh Farms, which is where the rack came from in the previous post. My goal was to cook the meat in the exact same style as I did the rack and see if the process of cooking, the farm of origin and cut of meat made any noticeable differences. I refined a few of the hiccups from the first attempt, so this one was a bit more polished. The result was a perfectly cooked lamb porterhouse with a hint of smoke and a ton of umami. The actual texture of the meat was a bit tougher, which is probably from the different cut of meat. Regardless it was outstanding. The dish was finished a nice red wine and shallot lamb sauce, that after being cooked, had the rendered lamb fat incorporated into the sauce for a final touch. The rest of the rendered fat was then brushed onto the steak immediately before serving. Because why not. A little bit of sel gris gave you little bits of salt throughout the meal. Looking foward to round three...

The Process

Ingredients

2x Lamb Loin Chops (porterhouse style cuts)
kosher salt
canola oil

Brine

75g white sugar
75ml good fish sauce
6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

Red Wine Sauce

1/2 cup red wine (shiraz from TJ here)
2 medium shallots, finely diced
1 cup beef or veal stock
1/4 cup chicken stock

Cookware

Medium cast iron or fry pan for rendering fat
Grill (use a cast iron or fry pan if not available)
Immersion Circulator
Vacuum sealer
Tin foil for wood chips
Hickory wood chips. A large handful.
Medium saucepan for red wine sauce
Rack for resting
Basting brush

Short and Sweet Instructions

Render the fat out of the lamb. Reserve and let cool.
Sous vide the lamb for 1 hour in the brine
Sear on grill and smoke with woodchips
Build Sauce and strain, stir in rendered lamb fat
Brush lamb fat on chops just before serving

Prep

Preheat your immersion circulator to 63 degrees Celsius.
Finely dice your shallots
Roughly chop your garlic

Cooking Instructions

Lamb

Heat your cast iron or similar pan over medium low heat
Place the loin chops, fat side down, and let it slowly cook until the fat begins to render. You'll see a nice little pool forming like in the pictures above. Low and slow is the key here. You don't want to caramelize it, although some is okay. Definitely do not let it smoke. Take it easy and take your time. Your goal is to render out as much as possible. I let mine go for a good 10 minutes.
Pour the rendered fat into a container and set aside.
Now we're going to vacuum seal the lamb. It's important to remember that the meat must be cold, or else the sealing process could rob the meat of it's precious juices. Since it was only cooked on one side, it should chill rather quickly, so I threw mine in the freezer for 10 minutes to make sure they were good and cold. Not frozen, but cold.
In your vacuum bag, but the brine and the lamb chops and seal on the lower setting. The name will vary, but most sealers usually have settings to denote whether you're using wet ingredients or ingredients which require gentle handling.
Once sealed, drop it into your preheated 63 degree tank and sous vide for one hour. This is basically setting the temperature for the meat.
While this is cooking, get your grill fired up. We're going to attempt to smoke this on a standard grill. Now my current grill isn't anything fancy, so if you have smoking capabilities, then feel free to use them.
Once it's done, remove it from the bag, lightly pat dry.
Now is when you're going to season the lamb. The brine is pretty salty, so you don't have to go crazy here, especially if you have a low tolerance for salt. Just season it evenly with however much you like.

Grilling and Smoking

Time to get creative.
I built a little bowl for my wood chips out of tin foil to hold them in.
The plan is to get those chips ignited and smoking. As soon as they get to that point, put the lamb down on the grill and close the lid.
You're going to sear the chops here, but you also want them to smoke. You also don't want them to overcook. So here's how we're going to do that.
Get your chips smoking and place the lamb down on oiled grates. You don't want it to stick. Close the lid immediately.
Let them sear for 1-2 minutes (or longer depending on the power of your grill). We're cooking for color here, so all we want is the char and smoke flavor since they're technically already cooked from the sous vide bath.
Once they have the desired char, flip them over and close the lid again. Let them char for another 1-2 minutes or until the color looks right. Remember that there is sugar in the brine, so that will caramelize quickly.
Once both sides are good then lower your grill to it's lowest setting, close the lid and let the chops smoke for a few minutes. My chops were pretty thick, so I was able to leave them in there for almost 5 minutes.
Once they're done, then transfer them to your cooling rack and bring them back inside.
They can sit on the rack while you finish everything else. Just reheat them in a 350 degree oven until they're just warmed through. You don't actually want to cook them.

Red Wine Lamb Sauce

Take your diced shallots and sautee them over medium heat in a small saucepan.
Add your red wine and reduce by 2/3.
Add your beef / veal / chicken stock and reduce by 1/2
If your stock is homemade, you should start to see it thicken as it reduces. This is a nice bonus to cooking your own stocks since most store bought ones don't do that. At least for any economical price.
Once reduced, strain your stock and return the liquid back to the clean pan. Season to taste.
I added a tablespoon of the lamb fat to the sauce just before serving to give it a touch of richness.

Finishing

If the lamb needs to be brought back up to temperature, then place it in a 350 degree oven until heated through. Don't cook it. Just warm it up.
Warm your sauce up if it got cold. Medium heat.
Warm your rendered lamb fat over medium low heat until it liquifies.

Plating

Place a dollop of the sauce in the center of the plate with a spoon.
Place your lamb chop directly on top of that.
Drizzle the sauce around the edge of the plate
Using a basting brush, brush the liquefied fat onto the lamb
Sprinkle with sel gris
Serve and enjoy