Grilled Lamb Chops with Nectarine Thyme Jam

Source:  Sunset Magazine

3 T lemon Juice
1/4 c olive oil
kosher salt
pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 T chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 T chopped fresh thyme
1 T whole thyme leaves
4 shoulder lamb chops (2.5 lb)
3 soft ripe nectarines (1.5 lb)
1/3 c sugar
1/2 t lemon zest
2 firm ripe nectarines (1 lb)

Whisk together 2 T lemon juice, 3 T oil, 3/4 t salt, 1/2 t pepper, the garlic, rosemary, and chopped thyme in a shallow dish.  Add lamb and turn to coat.  Chill, covered, 1-2 hours.  Bring to room temperature 30 minutes before grilling.  Meanwhile, make jam.  Coarsely chop soft-rip nectarines and put in a medium saucepan with 1 T lemon juice,  1 T water, the sugar and lemon zest.  Cook over medium heat, stirring and crushing with back of spoon, until fruit softens, 10-15 minutes.  Boil gently, stirring for about 10 minutes more.  Stir in whole thyme leaves and more lemon juice to taste.  Let cool. Heat a grill to medium high.  Cut firm ripe nectarines in half and pit, brush with 1 T olive oil, and sprinkle all over with salt and pepper.  Grill chops (reserve marinade) turning once and basting with marines, 8-10 minutes total for medium rare.  During last few minutes, grill nectarines, cut side down, for about two minutes.  Serve with jam.

Summer is here.  That means grilling season, fresh produce, and fresh herbs.  My neighbors plant herbs every year, and I love just grabbing fresh herbs from their yard, as opposed to buying them in the grocery store where it's so expensive, and you never end up using the same package, which makes it all that much more expensive.  I love lamb -- I don't want to eat it very often due to its very distinct taste, but do love it occasionally.  I went to New Zealand on vacation a few years ago.  I ate a lot of lamb there (you know, when in Rome) -- and lamb reminds me of that wonderful trip and that gorgeous country.  Now add to that nectarine jam with fresh thyme, and you know that I had to try this recipe.

Lamb shoulder chops are not cheap.  This is a treat for dinner.  It's also not as simple as dumping a few cans of stuff into a pot.  With that said, the jam was pretty easy to make.  I just simmered it until it was soft and looked like jam.  I also used garlic scape in the marinade because I had some from my CSA box.  And off we were to a friends house with the marinating chops and the cooled jam.

We grilled the lamb chops on a grill pan inside.  There really wasn't much marinade left in the bag to baste the chops with.  I figured there was enough fat in the lamb to keep it moist.  The nectarines were kind of a disaster to take apart -- maybe they were too ripe.  And by then I just wanted to get done, so I just threw them on the grill pan for a few minutes.

This is an absolute rockstar recipe.  I would never have thought that sweet nectarines would pair so perfectly with lamb.  Wow.  So wonderful.  The dish was beautiful, delicious and unique.  If you want to impress company this summer, this is the dish to make.

As a closing note -- I am well aware that there are way more pictures than I normally take, but this dish just looked great and I had to share.