Marinated Lamb w/ Pomegranate Molasses

Let me just put this out there: I read a lot of recipes. I mean, a lot. As a private chef I pride myself in delivering a wide variety of meals to my employer. In fact, up until last week I had not repeated a single recipe! As you can imagine, this can become very challenging and time consuming. Often, I find myself flipping through cookbooks, food blogs, recipe sites and magazines wondering when that one recipe I need is going to jump out at me. Sometimes it never happens and I combine a few to create my own dish-and while I enjoy doing this, again, it's time consuming. And I don't have the money to test them before I cook them. So unless I have Guinea pigs to cook for, I tend to stick to recipes I've made or recipes that sound like they can't fail.

Until tonight. Tonight I made lamb marinated in garlic, cumin seeds and pomegranate molasses. Believe it or not, up until last week I had never even heard of pomegranate molasses, but when I did, it intrigued me so much so that I scoured the Internet trying to find every recipe possible. I imagined my employers licking their lips and sighing with satisfaction all the while trying to figure out where exactly the flavors are coming from. This, more than anything, convinced me to make the following dish...

Marinated Lamb w/ Pomegranate Molasses

For the molasses:
2 C. Pomegranate juice
1/4 C. Sugar
1/8 C. Lemon Juice

For the marinade:
1 t. Cumin Seeds
1/4 C. Pomegranate Molasses
1/2 C. Olive Oil
4 Cloves Garlic, smashed
1 t. Oregano
1 t. Salt
1/2 t. Pepper
1/2 t. Cinnamon

1# Boneless Leg of Lamb, cubed
1 Red Pepper
Optional: Skewers

Method:

1. In a small sauce pan, combine ingredients for the molasses. Bring to a boil & reduce by 1/2. Set aside and allow to cool.
2. In a large plastic Ziploc bag, combine the ingredients for the marinade (add the molasses after it's cooled down a bit). Add the meat & marinate for 2-5 hours turning frequently. (I marinated it for 5 hours.)
3. Cut red pepper into strips and then squares. At this point you can either:

• Make Kebabs alternating meat & peppers & grill them for 4 minutes (turn often)
  
• Place meat, peppers and marinade in a small baking dish & broil them for 4-7 minutes (turning often)

Tonight I opted for broiling the lamb. I stirred the meat half way through. The result was fantastic. The broiler made the meat caramelize and the peppers softened just enough. I think that cooking the meat in the marinade also helped boost the flavor.

The meat was served with lemon couscous and a cucumber, tomato and mint salad. Overall, a very successful dinner.

The next time I make this, I am going to try using the marinade on lamb chops. It would probably also taste good on beef.