Minted Lamb "lollipop chops"

A favorite in our house is lamb.  No matter how good the beef is here in the US we can't pass up a lovely lamb roast or baked lamb rib chops... these are absolutely sensational!  Back home we refer to them as lollipop chops and I bake them in a delicious blend of mint jelly and tomato sauce.  This is what I am used to as convenience food, but to mix essentially two store bought sauces to get this sort of result is just heaven!   Now I am going to make this hard for my US friends as the mint jelly I use I still have imported from Australia... but I'm sure you can use what you're used to here as a substitute.  This is a healthy, quick and absolutely knock out meal.  You can serve it for a mid week meal for the family or spruce it up with some roasted mixed vegetables for a dinner party.  It takes me about 20mins from start to finish and because the lamb is done in the oven, you could chose to cook your other vegies alongside it at the same time.  We love the simplicity of this and could eat it once a week for sure.  There are never any leftovers on lollipop chop night as we find the girls easily eat two chops each.

Serve 4

Ingredients:
lamb rack, 7-8 ribs (or lamb loin chops)
sea salt and cracked black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
2 tblspn (masterfoods) mint jelly
2 tblspn tomato sauce/ketchup
1 tspn soy sauce
1/2 cup warm water
1 tblspn brown sugar

Method:

• Pre heat the oven to 380'F / 190'C
• Mix together the mint jelly, tomato sauce, water, soy and sugar in a measuring cup and whisk until combined.  
• On the stove top, heat your roasting pan (preferably a non-stick scanpan type pan)
• Season your lamb rack generously and massage it in with olive oil
• Brown the lamb rack in the roasting pan on both sides for approx 2-3 mins a side
• I then cut the rack into smaller portions of 2 ribs each before baking in the oven.
• Pour the mint jelly sauce over the lamb and bake for approx 12-14mins.  Turn them over or baste them half way through cooking.  Lamb is best cooked medium so don't over cook.
• In the meantime, prepare your other sides dishes - eg. serve with israeli cous cous, cooked in chicken stock and asparagus done on a plate in the microwave (under gladwrap) for 2 mins with a knob of butter and a good squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper
• When cooked to your liking, let the meat rest for a few minutes then cut each portion into individual ribs before serving.  
• Use the extra sauce in the roasting pan as the gravy.  If you wish to thicken it quickly, place the roasting pan back on the stove top and add a little gravy base / gravox to thicken it up before pouring over your lamb.