Grilled Lamb T-Bones with Fava Bean Salad

About a year ago Iron Chef and Restaurateur, Michael Symon, visited Detroit's Eastern Market for a cooking demo. I was very excited to be able to attend this event. The dish he prepared was Grilled Lamb T-Bones with a Spring Vegetable Salad. It was a recipe included in his then forthcoming book, "Michael Symon's Live To Cook: Recipes and Techniques To Rock Your Kitchen".

Now I have never eaten lamb, ever, but this dish looked so good I really wanted to try it. Unfortunately, at the time, I had to wait until the release of his book, which wasn't until November of that year, then had to wait until Spring rolled around as the recipe included fava beans and asparagus, and fresh fava's weren't available in the market until mid-April.

After waiting a year, I finally get to try this recipe. Aside from the lamb t-bones, or lamb loin chops as they may be labeled, the recipe includes a wonderfully fresh tasting salad made up of fresh fava beans, asparagus, a few chilies (for a speck of heat), fresh mint, garlic, kalamata olives and feta cheese.

Note, the chilies that are called for in the recipe are pickeled "Fresno" chilies. These were extremely hard to find in my area. Serrano Chilies are an acceptable substitute and were even found pickeled in the Mexican Food section of my supermarket!

First thing to do is season the lamb t-bones with a combination of kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, toasted coriander seeds (crushed), red pepper flakes and sugar. You season both sides, cover them and refrigerate for 24 hours.

When the lamb is ready, grill them on a hot grill pan (or a hot charcoal grill outdoors), for about 4 minutes per side for medium rare.

While the lamb is grilling mix together all the salad ingredients, and dress with extra-virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt & pepper.

When the lamb is ready, plate 2 t-bones per person and top with the salad.

Now, this being my first time tasting lamb I was very pleased with the results and the dish was as delicious as I thought it would be! Many people told me lamb would have a "gamey" taste. Honestly, I thought it tasted like a grilled steak. Excellent Spring or Summer dinner!