Fresh recipe of the month: Pomegranate lamb chops with mint molasses

We have plenty of pomegranates ripe and ready on our tree and fresh mint in our garden, so we decided to try out these ingredients with lamb. We found a delicious recipe on the POM Wonderful website, which is an awesome site full of great pomegranate recipes. We followed the recipe as written, except used 1.5 times as much pomegranate juice and mint, and used lamb chops instead of racks of lamb. The combination of the flavors with the lamb was incredible.

Here is the recipe directly from the POM website:

Juice from 46 large POM Wonderful
Pomegranates,* or 2 cups POM Wonderful
100% Pomegranate Juice
2 racks of lamb, frenched and trimmed of fat
salt and pepper to taste
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup mint leaves
4 tablespoons dry sherry
1 bay leaf
3 tablespoons orange blossom honey
skin of 1 apple (any variety)

Prepare fresh pomegranate juice.*
In a small saucepan over medium heat, cook pomegranate juice, sherry, bay leaf, honey and apple skin; reduce by half.
Remove from heat and discard bay leaf and apple skin. Allow reduction to cool; divide evenly and save in two separate containers.
In a blender, place 3 tablespoons of olive oil and mint leaves; blend until smooth.
Combine the mint and oil mixture with half of the pomegranate reduction to make molasses. Set aside and keep warm.
Salt and pepper the lamb and set aside for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 325F.
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a cast iron skillet.
Brown the lamb on all sides.
Place lamb on a roasting rack over a shallow pan and brush on all sides with the remaining pomegranate reduction.
Roast in preheated oven.
Baste lamb every 7 minutes (5 times). Lamb should be done to medium rare when a meat thermometer inserted reads 135F.
Remove lamb from the oven and allow to rest for 7 to 10 minutes before carving into chops. Allow 3 to 4 chops per serving or a half rack per person.
Drizzle with mint-pomegranate molasses and serve.