By using the same pan to roast the lamb chops and sear the strawberries, you’re using the juice in the berries to deglaze the flavorful fond into the sauce as well as creating one less pan to wash.
- 1 cup [180 g] buckwheat, bulgur, or other grain of your choosing
- 10 stems chard, cut into ribbons
- 1 rack of lamb (8 lamb chops, 1 to 2 lb [455 to 910 g] total)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Neutral oil
- 1 lb [455 g] strawberries, hulled and halved
- ½ cup [120 ml] dry red wine
- Olive oil
Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Whisk in the buckwheat, return to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer until tender, about 12 minutes.
Place the chard ribbons into a medium bowl. Drain the buckwheat and then pour it over the chard, letting the heat from the buckwheat wilt the chard.
Season the lamb chops liberally with salt and black pepper. In a large frying pan, heat a glug of neutral oil until smoking hot. Sear the lamb, flat side of the rack down, until deeply browned, about 5 minutes. Flip and sear the other side for another 2 to 3 minutes or until the chops are medium-rare. Remove the lamb from the pan and let rest.
Tip any excess fat from the frying pan into a heatproof dish to discard once cooled. Return the frying pan to high heat and add a glug of neutral oil. When smoking, add the strawberries and a couple grinds of black pepper (be warned, the moisture in the strawberries will cause the oil to pop and spit). Allow the strawberries to sear until the juices just start to leach, about 2 minutes. Remove the strawberries from the pan, then add the red wine to deglaze, scraping up any of the browned fond on the bottom of the pan. Let the wine reduce by half, then pour over the roasted strawberries.
Toss the buckwheat-chard mixture with a couple good glugs of olive oil.
To serve, slice the rack of lamb into eight individual chops. Dish the buckwheat-chard salad among four plates, place two chops per plate atop the buckwheat, and spoon the roasted strawberries over the whole thing.
Reprinted from Pulp: A Practical Guide to Cooking with Fruit by Abra Berens, with permission by Chronicle Books, 2023. Photographs © EE Berger.