Minty Lamb Steaks!!

Why the exclamation marks after the title?  Because of this anecdote from our history: Warren and I have run two food pubs in the past (one as tenants, one as owners) and when we were looking to buy the latter one, we viewed a village pub that looked promising on paper but, in reality, was seriously run down.  Not only was it situated in close proximity to a maggot farm (which did put us off, slightly!), but their food menu left a lot to be desired.  (Yes, we could have changed this, but it said a lot about what standards the local clientele were satisfied with.)  Pretty much all "boil-in-the-bag" meals, the most popular dish (according to the somewhat vacant landlady) was "Minty Lamb Steaks"; sure enough, an order came in while we were there and we watched in horror as something resembling a lamb burger was taken from the freezer and dropped in the deep fat fryer!!

Last night's meal, I am delighted to report, was not a frozen and deep-fried mixture of dubious meat, cereal and goodness knows what else ... it was a couple of genuine British lamb steaks (although not as good quality or well-butchered as we were hoping), seasoned and pan-fried, with an accompanying gravy made with red wine and - yes - mint!  The sauce was added to the meat in the cooking pan and the whole lot finished off in the oven.  We served it with little potatoes, roasted with garlic, Italian seasoning and onions, plus some green beans and sweetcorn.  (I'm guessing chips and peas would have been the choice at the aforementioned pub!)