Lamb Lollipops with Warm Mint Pesto {valentine’s day}

To be incredibly clear, I hate the word lollipop.  It just sounds SO dumb, and this is not a dumb recipe.  

Actually, it’s kind of dumb-easy, but the flavors are SEXY.  

So sexy, in fact, that I think this should be on your menu for Valentine’s Day, if you eat meat and are into that kind of celebration.  

We actually made these on Sunday for the Super Bowl, and I had to explain to everyone why we were eating random bits of lamb with the rest of the menu.  My friend Cara picked up one of the pieces of lamb and said “omg I just wish we ate like this on Valentine’s Day:  WITH OUR FINGERS AND LOTS OF MEAT!”  So there you have it, folks.  Very Paleo.  

To be fair, you could totally serve 3 of these as an entree and use a knife and fork like civilized people, but I kind of love the idea of housing some meat on a stick for V-day, ya know?  It seems really irreverent and great.  Eff knives.  

For these, we start with a Frenched rack of lamb (or have the butcher do the cutting for you!), some butter, and salt.  That’s IT for the lamb.  Then for the sauce we have mint, parsley, crushed red pepper, garlic, cashews, rice vinegar, olive oil, and a bit more butter.  

I think the easiest thing to do here is to make the sauce, then preheat a pan for the lamb while you do any trimming/cutting you need to do, then sear the lamb while the sauce warms in a separate skillet and SERVE.  I mean, we’re talking 30 minutes or less to lamb, here.  Start with the sauce!  All ingredients go in a little food processor or blender.  

Blend!  Taste, adjust seasoning to your preference.  

Lamb!  Preheat a large skillet (cast iron is my favorite) to medium-high heat with half the butter and a drizzle of olive oil.  Put the little chops right in between each of the rib bones, and trim off any extra fat.  You can also ask the guy behind the butcher to do this, but I like messing with raw meat, so there.  Sprinkle the lamb all over with salt.  

Now, when the skillet is super hot, add the lamb and LET IT SIT.  We only turn it once during the entire cooking process, so calm down and find something else to do.  

While the lamb works on the first side, add the mint pesto to a little skillet with the rest of the butter and turn the skillet to medium-low.  We want to very gently warm the pesto and cook the garlic a bit while the butter melts into the sauce.  

Now, after 3-5 minutes, flip the lamb and let it cook for a few more minutes.  The lamb should have a nice crust on it from the butter, and how long you cook it will of course depend on your preference.  I did these for about 4 minutes on each side and they were medium, which was perfect for us.  

Now, we have butter melted in to pesto and lovely seared lamb.  

I say we drizzle and eat.  

Yep.  

You could serve these as an appetizer, like at the restaurant where Jay used to work, or you could serve these as the main course with some fancy sides for Valentine’s Day, OR you could just make these for the next time you’re having friends over and want to feel fancy.  

No matter how you end up, these are DELICIOUS and you’ll love them.  Try them soon!  ps the pesto will probably have leftovers, and if you toss that with some gnocchi the next day no one will be mad at you.  Promise.