Lamb Chops In Lemongrass Ginger Coconut Sauce - cooking recipe

Ingredients

4 lamb chops
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper (to taste)
3 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil, divided
1 teaspoon whole cumin seed
1 tablespoon whole coriander seed
4 whole cardamom pods
1/2 small white onion
1 large stalk lemongrass, bottom third only
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced
2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (to taste)
1/2 cup coconut milk
water, as needed

Preparation

Season lamb chops with black pepper on both sides,set aside.
Heat a small pan over medium,when hot reduce heat slightly ,and add cumin seeds,stirring often until they are toasted and begin to pop.Remove immediately.Add coriander seeds and repeat removing immediately when they look and smell toasted and pop-these will take a little longer.Add cardamom to the same skillet and toast evenly on all sides-you can relax a little here if they get too brown -you will be discarding most of the pod.
Place the cumin and coriander in aspice grinder and grind well.Smash the cardamom pods and remove seeds,discarding the outer pod(if there any small pieces of the pods, don't worry they will get ground, just remove most of the pods)Add the cardamom to the spice grinder and grind well.Set aside the spice mixture.
Peel and chop onion.Slice the bottom section of the lemongrass thinly.Peel and mince ginger.Peel and chop garlic cloves.
Heat 2 tablespoons coconut oil in the same skillet over medium heat.Add the onions,lemongrass and ginger.Fry,stirring occasionally for about 3 minutes.Add the garlic and continue frying,about 5 minutes,stirring as needed.Add the coconut milk,the spices, and about 1 cup water.
Simmer for about 8 minutes on medium low,stirring occasionally.
Place sauce in a blender and blend thoroughly ,getting the sauce as smooth as possible.Strain into a bowl,pressing on the solids with the back of a spoon extracting as much liquid as possible.Discard solids.Set sauce aside.
In a medium sized pan heat the remaining tablespoon of oil over medium heat;when hot,add the lamb chops and sear on one side,about 1 1/2 minutes,flip to sear the other side.After about a minute moret,pour in the sauce.
Stir,reduce heat to medium low ,and cover.Check after minute and give the sauce a stir,you may need to add more water,about 1/2 cup.Flip lamb chops.Recover and continue stirring the sauce occasionally and adding more water as it concentrates,in 1/2 cup increments to keep it from becoming too dry.
Cook until lamb is very tender;this may take about 10 minutes from start to finish,but may take less time,depending on the thickness of thechops.Just make sure the sauce doesn't burn or become too dry.