Lamb Chops with Plum Sauce

The plum chutney-like sauce in which I cooked these lamb chops was leftover from a chicken dish eaten by my family - including three little grandbabies. The original dish was based on a recipe by Melissa Clark featured in New York Times Cooking. I had used chicken thighs and cooked it in a large glass casserole dish. I just couldn't throw away the sauce, so it went into the freezer.

I served the lamb chops in plum sauce with rainbow rice and roasted vegetables that included broccoli, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, and onion.

More leftovers! They're in the freezer...

Ingredients:

10 lamb chops
6 juicy plums
zest of 2 large lemons
2 tbsp. ground sumac
4 tbsp. fresh ground sea salt
1 tbsp. fresh ground black pepper
1-2 tsp. cinnamon
1-2 tsp. allspice
2 tsp. ground thyme
2 tsp. ground rosemary
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp. garlic, finely chopped (3-5 cloves)
4 shallots, thinly sliced
4 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. honey

Preparation:

Stir sumac, salt, pepper, cinnamon, and allspice into lemon zest.
Fold 3 tbsp. olive oil and the garlic into the lemon zest mixture, rub all over lamb chops, then sprinkle with thyme and rosemary. Marinate for at least one hour.
Toss together plums, shallots, honey, 1 tbsp. olive oil, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. allspice, torn bay leaf, and 2 tbsp. water. Spread over bottom of roasting pan.
Place lamb chops over plum mixture and roast for 30 min. in preheated 425ºF oven.
Baste lamb chops with mixture of lemon juice and olive oil to keep them moist.

I grow my own herbs during the summer, and try to overwinter them with limited success. When they begin to dry out, I harvest them, and dry them at room temperature on paper towels. Then, I store them in recycled glass jars or plastic containers, either as shriveled leaves or rolled into ground powder. The thyme and rosemary for the marinade and plum sauce came from my fall-harvested herbs.