In December of 2014 I was fortunate enough to find myself on a rock & roll bus tour with Mary Wilson of The Supremes, and Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones. It was a European concert tour of Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, with special guest star: Mary! For a couple of months Mary had been saying to me, “You have to come join me for at least some part of this trip. It is going to be quite an adventure.” How was I going to argue with an invitation like that? I joined her in Stockholm for stops in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Belgium. Needless to say, I had an absolute blast. Although I was just coming along for the ride and the fun, I was determined that along the way I was going to get a recipe from Bill. We were on the bus on our way to Copenhagen, when I recognized my window of opportunity. As Mary and Bill and I were talking, the topic shifted to food. I briefly explained to Bill about my food blog and my forthcoming “Cook Like a Rock Star” cook book. Without hesitation I dove right in and asked the burning question I had on my mind.
“I would love to get a recipe from you,” I said. “Everyone makes something. What do you like to cook?”
Without missing a beat, Bill amusingly quipped, “I make water for tea.”
“Yeah, I know: English Breakfast tea,” I laughingly replied from days of observation. “But there must be something you cook.”
“Well, I do make a salad made of endive, walnuts and lots of crumbled bleu cheese,” he replied.
“Now we’re talking!” I said. “And what do you serve it with?”
“I like it with lamb chops.”
“How do you like the lamb chops?” I inquired.
“Grilled.”
“And what do you like on the endive walnut bleu cheese salad? A balsamic vinaigrette?”
“Exactly.”
“Olive oil, salt and pepper in it?”
“You’ve got it,” Bill smiled.
By the time our conversation was over with, I had Bill’s formula for a perfect meal. I was so excited: I had just added music legend Bill Wyman, to my list of rock star recipes, and it sounded like it was going to taste great!
When I got home to my own kitchen, I took all of Bill’s directions, and the notes I had made from our conversation, and here are the results. You can grill the lamb over a barbecue flame, on a grill pan on the stove, or in a frying pan, and I guarantee that it is going to be delicious.
Whether you use lamb shank chops, lamb rib chops, or lamb shoulder chops, it is going to work out perfectly and flavorful. The marinade for the lamb chops gives the meat a lot of taste and moisture, no matter how you like to cook it. Taking its spice notes from rosemary, a blend of Herbes de Provence (a mixture of basil, thyme, lavender, and fennel), and two kinds of pepper, this lamb rocks!
Serving it with Bill’s tasty endive and walnuts and bleu cheese salad with balsamic dressing makes for the perfect tasting accompaniment. Using fresh squeezed lemon juice and olive oil in both the marinade and the salad dressing makes the perfect homage to the chic Mediterranean seaside strip of the Côte d’Azure, where Bill spends much of his time. It is: tres fantistique!
Ingredients:
Lamb
—8 Lamb Shank Chops (or 8 Lamb Rib Chops, or 4 Lamb Shoulder Chops)
Lamb Marinade
—1 tablespoon minced fresh Garlic
—1 tablespoon chopped fresh Rosemary Leaves
—1 teaspoon dried Herbes de Provence (Basil, Thyme, Lavender, Fennel)
—1 teaspoon Salt
—1/2 teaspoon ground Black Pepper
—1/4 teaspoon Cayenne (red) Pepper
—1/2 cup fresh squeezed Lemon Juice
—1/4 cup Olive Oil
Salad
—4-6 heads of Endive
—1/2 cup Walnuts
—1 cup of crumbled Bleu Cheese
Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
—1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
—3/4 cup Olive Oil
—1/4 cup of fresh squeezed Lemon Juice
—1 tablespoon Honey
—1 teaspoon Salt
—1 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
NOTE: This recipe is perfectly proportioned to serve four people.
Directions:
In a bowl, combine the garlic, chopped rosemary leaves, Herbes de Provence, salt, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and olive oil. Mix them together, and pour into a zippered food storage bag. Add the raw lamb chops, coat the meat evenly with the marinade, and let stand in the refrigerator for one hour.
While the meat is marinating, prepare the salad items. Cut a quarter inch off of the stem end of the endive, and begin removing the spear-shaped leaves of it. You will have to continue loosening the leaves a few at a time, as you remove them. As you move up the stalk, you will have to make further cuts to loosen the smaller inner leaves. Once you have the endive leaves, you can either serve them whole, or slice them into little strips, depending on how you want them displayed. (In the above photo, they are left whole, and used as little “boats” to contain the bleu cheese and the walnuts.) Add the bleu cheese and walnuts, and refrigerate until it is time to serve.
To make the dressing, you can either assemble the ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together, or you can put them in a lidded jar and shake them together. Refrigerate the dressing until ready to use. What I do to have greater control, is to put the dressing in a plastic bottle with a nozzle top (like a catsup / mustard plastic squeeze bottle you find in restaurants), and drizzle the dressing onto the salad when it is time to serve it.
After an hour of marinating, the lamb is ready to cook. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, as you are going to use that too. Take the chops out of the bag, and either grill them on a barbecue grill, getting a nice char on both sides; or, using a stovetop grill pan (or frying pan), heat up the pan, add the lamb, and sear both sides approximately three or four minutes per side.
NOTE: For the frying pan / grill pan method, add a drizzle of olive oil to the pan to avoid the meat sticking to the hot surface.
When the chops have nice caramelized brown sear marks on each side, transfer the meat to a baking dish, and place in the oven for three-to-eight minutes. Add several spoonfuls of the marinating liquid—complete with garlic and rosemary chunks—on top of the meat while in the oven to assure more moisture and flavor. If you want the lamb pink in the middle, three minutes in the oven will do nicely. If you like your meat cooked throughout, it will require up to a full eight minutes in the oven.
If you are doing the lamb chops on an open-flame outdoor grill, you can control the amount of doneness by where you position the meat on the grill.
NOTE: The best and most foolproof way to test the lamb for doneness, is to take a knife and cut into one of the chops. Most lamb connoisseurs prefer some pinkness. Three minutes in the oven should do that perfectly. Personally, I don’t like any pinkness in my meat so I cooked mine the full eight minutes.
My serving suggestion, like the photo, is to place the meat on one side of a dinner plate, and the salad on the other side of the plate. You can either toss the salad and then add it to the plate, or carefully arrange the endive, bleu cheese and walnuts, and then drizzle them with the salad dressing.
No matter how you plate and serve this dish, it is sure to be a hit. The garlic / rosemary / lemon flavors season the meat to perfection, and the salad is an incredible counterpoint to the flavor of the chops. The sharpness of the bleu cheese, the slightly bitter taste of the endive, and the crunchy walnuts are offset by the sweet and sour taste of the balsamic dressing.
Bill Wyman is not only acknowledged as the bass player who gave The Rolling Stones their original distinctive rocking sound, once you make this meal you will realize that he not only “cooks” on stage, he can really cook in the kitchen too!
“I would love to get a recipe from you,” I said. “Everyone makes something. What do you like to cook?”
Without missing a beat, Bill amusingly quipped, “I make water for tea.”
“Yeah, I know: English Breakfast tea,” I laughingly replied from days of observation. “But there must be something you cook.”
“Well, I do make a salad made of endive, walnuts and lots of crumbled bleu cheese,” he replied.
“Now we’re talking!” I said. “And what do you serve it with?”
“I like it with lamb chops.”
“How do you like the lamb chops?” I inquired.
“Grilled.”
“And what do you like on the endive walnut bleu cheese salad? A balsamic vinaigrette?”
“Exactly.”
“Olive oil, salt and pepper in it?”
“You’ve got it,” Bill smiled.
By the time our conversation was over with, I had Bill’s formula for a perfect meal. I was so excited: I had just added music legend Bill Wyman, to my list of rock star recipes, and it sounded like it was going to taste great!
When I got home to my own kitchen, I took all of Bill’s directions, and the notes I had made from our conversation, and here are the results. You can grill the lamb over a barbecue flame, on a grill pan on the stove, or in a frying pan, and I guarantee that it is going to be delicious.
Whether you use lamb shank chops, lamb rib chops, or lamb shoulder chops, it is going to work out perfectly and flavorful. The marinade for the lamb chops gives the meat a lot of taste and moisture, no matter how you like to cook it. Taking its spice notes from rosemary, a blend of Herbes de Provence (a mixture of basil, thyme, lavender, and fennel), and two kinds of pepper, this lamb rocks!
Serving it with Bill’s tasty endive and walnuts and bleu cheese salad with balsamic dressing makes for the perfect tasting accompaniment. Using fresh squeezed lemon juice and olive oil in both the marinade and the salad dressing makes the perfect homage to the chic Mediterranean seaside strip of the Côte d’Azure, where Bill spends much of his time. It is: tres fantistique!
Ingredients:
Lamb
—8 Lamb Shank Chops (or 8 Lamb Rib Chops, or 4 Lamb Shoulder Chops)
Lamb Marinade
—1 tablespoon minced fresh Garlic
—1 tablespoon chopped fresh Rosemary Leaves
—1 teaspoon dried Herbes de Provence (Basil, Thyme, Lavender, Fennel)
—1 teaspoon Salt
—1/2 teaspoon ground Black Pepper
—1/4 teaspoon Cayenne (red) Pepper
—1/2 cup fresh squeezed Lemon Juice
—1/4 cup Olive Oil
Salad
—4-6 heads of Endive
—1/2 cup Walnuts
—1 cup of crumbled Bleu Cheese
Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
—1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
—3/4 cup Olive Oil
—1/4 cup of fresh squeezed Lemon Juice
—1 tablespoon Honey
—1 teaspoon Salt
—1 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
NOTE: This recipe is perfectly proportioned to serve four people.
Directions:
In a bowl, combine the garlic, chopped rosemary leaves, Herbes de Provence, salt, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and olive oil. Mix them together, and pour into a zippered food storage bag. Add the raw lamb chops, coat the meat evenly with the marinade, and let stand in the refrigerator for one hour.
While the meat is marinating, prepare the salad items. Cut a quarter inch off of the stem end of the endive, and begin removing the spear-shaped leaves of it. You will have to continue loosening the leaves a few at a time, as you remove them. As you move up the stalk, you will have to make further cuts to loosen the smaller inner leaves. Once you have the endive leaves, you can either serve them whole, or slice them into little strips, depending on how you want them displayed. (In the above photo, they are left whole, and used as little “boats” to contain the bleu cheese and the walnuts.) Add the bleu cheese and walnuts, and refrigerate until it is time to serve.
To make the dressing, you can either assemble the ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together, or you can put them in a lidded jar and shake them together. Refrigerate the dressing until ready to use. What I do to have greater control, is to put the dressing in a plastic bottle with a nozzle top (like a catsup / mustard plastic squeeze bottle you find in restaurants), and drizzle the dressing onto the salad when it is time to serve it.
After an hour of marinating, the lamb is ready to cook. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, as you are going to use that too. Take the chops out of the bag, and either grill them on a barbecue grill, getting a nice char on both sides; or, using a stovetop grill pan (or frying pan), heat up the pan, add the lamb, and sear both sides approximately three or four minutes per side.
NOTE: For the frying pan / grill pan method, add a drizzle of olive oil to the pan to avoid the meat sticking to the hot surface.
When the chops have nice caramelized brown sear marks on each side, transfer the meat to a baking dish, and place in the oven for three-to-eight minutes. Add several spoonfuls of the marinating liquid—complete with garlic and rosemary chunks—on top of the meat while in the oven to assure more moisture and flavor. If you want the lamb pink in the middle, three minutes in the oven will do nicely. If you like your meat cooked throughout, it will require up to a full eight minutes in the oven.
If you are doing the lamb chops on an open-flame outdoor grill, you can control the amount of doneness by where you position the meat on the grill.
NOTE: The best and most foolproof way to test the lamb for doneness, is to take a knife and cut into one of the chops. Most lamb connoisseurs prefer some pinkness. Three minutes in the oven should do that perfectly. Personally, I don’t like any pinkness in my meat so I cooked mine the full eight minutes.
My serving suggestion, like the photo, is to place the meat on one side of a dinner plate, and the salad on the other side of the plate. You can either toss the salad and then add it to the plate, or carefully arrange the endive, bleu cheese and walnuts, and then drizzle them with the salad dressing.
No matter how you plate and serve this dish, it is sure to be a hit. The garlic / rosemary / lemon flavors season the meat to perfection, and the salad is an incredible counterpoint to the flavor of the chops. The sharpness of the bleu cheese, the slightly bitter taste of the endive, and the crunchy walnuts are offset by the sweet and sour taste of the balsamic dressing.
Bill Wyman is not only acknowledged as the bass player who gave The Rolling Stones their original distinctive rocking sound, once you make this meal you will realize that he not only “cooks” on stage, he can really cook in the kitchen too!