Pastry Wrapped Lamb Chops Recipes

STUFFED LEG OF LAMB WRAPPED IN PASTRY(BOUTY ARNIOU GHEMISTO ZIM)

Steps:

• For stuffing:.
• Combine all ingredients and blend well.
• Cover and refrigerate.
• For pastry:.
• Disolve sugar and yeast in warm water and let stand until foamy and proofed.
• Combine flour and salt in large bowl.
• Using your hands, rub butter into flour until it is absorbed.
• Make well in the center of flour and pour in yeast and milk.
• Still using hands,push flour from sides of bowl into center and mix to form dough.
• Knead several minutes until smooth.
• Place in lightly oiled bowl and turn to coat.
• Cover with plastic wrap and let stand in warm area until doubled, about 1 hour.
• For lamb:.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• Set butterflied lamb skin side down on working surface.
• Pound to flatten slightly.
• Mix butter,garlic,salt and pepper to a paste; rub half thoroughly into lamb.
• Spread with stuffing and reshape leg.
• Sew closed with string;tie crosswise at 1 inch intervals and twice around length to hold stuffing.
• Rub outside with remaining butter mixture, then rub with rosemary.
• Set on rack in roasting pan and roast 20 minutes.
• Reduce oven temperature to 350 and roast an additional 40 minutes.
• Let cool, then remove string and brush off excess rosemary.
• * Lamb can be prepared ahead to this point. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 24 hours.Don't start the pastry until you take the lamb out of the refrigerator.
• Lightly oil shallow roasting pan.
• Knead dough once again.
• Roll out enough dough on lightly floured surface to make rectangle 1/4 inch thick, large enough to completely enclose lamb with a 1 inch overlap.
• Set lamb on one end of rectangle.
• Beat yolks with milk and brush some on edges of dough;fold dough over lamb.
• Press seams together; trim and reserve excess dough.
• Set seam side down in roasting pan and brush with some of yolk.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Roll excess dough into long thin ropes. Braid in threes to go around top perimeter of lamb.
• Remaining dough can also be made into smaller and thinner ropes and/or worked into more intricate designs such as leaves,tiny birds, flowers and coiled snakes inside the encircling braid, all symbols of Easter in Greece.
• Brush decorations with yolk mixture.
• Bake until pastry sets, about 15 minutes.
• Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees and bake an additional 20 to 30 minutes(use a meat thermometer to check doneness).
• Transfer to heated platter and garnish with fresh mint sprigs, if desired.
• Let stand several minutes before slicing.

LAMB CHOPS IN PHYLLO PASTRY

Steps:

• The chops used must be cut from the rack. It is best that the butcher prepare them to order: The chine bone of a rack of lamb should be cut off and removed and the chops cut between the ribs, leaving the ribs intact and the meaty portion of each chop at least 1 inch thick. Have any fat or other coating trimmed from the perimeter of the meaty portion. Ask that each rib be scraped clean to make them ''French style.'' Sprinkle the chops with salt and pepper.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Heat the oil in a small skillet and add the rosemary, shallots and peppercorns. Smash the peeled roasted garlic cloves (they will be soft after roasting) to a fine pulp. Add this pulp to the skillet. Cook briefly, stirring, about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and let cool.
• Stack two rectangles of phyllo pastry, one atop the other. Brush the top rectangle with butter.
• The meat will be attached to the bottom of the rib. Insert a small paring knife in the center of the meaty portion at the base to make a hole for stuffing. Using the fingers, stuff each hole with an equal portion of the garlic filling. Press the meaty portion so that it will set flat with the rib standing upright.
• Place the chop, rib upright, on one corner of the buttered rectangle of dough. Bring up the pastry all around to completely enclose the meat, folding and tucking it under as necessary. Leave the rib exposed.
• Stack two more rectangles of pastry and brush the top rectangle with butter. Place the pastry-wrapped chop on the rectangles and neatly wrap these pastry pieces around the chop. Continue filling chops and wrapping them in the four layers of dough. Brush the outside of each pastry-wrapped chop with a little more butter.
• Place the chops, ribs up, on a baking sheet and bake 20 minutes or until pastry is browned.
• Spoon about 1/4 cup of well-heated yellow pepper sauce onto each of four plates. Spoon about 3 tablepoons of well-heated red-pepper puree in the center. Arrange one chop, rib upright, in the center of the red sauce. Garnish, if desired, with small cutouts of fresh green or red pepper.