Sticky - Sweet Asian Lamb Lollipops with Creamy Asian Pasta

When   a single dish makes a restaurant famous, it's worth  a visit to find out what all the hoopla is about.  If , inconveniently, there's an ocean between you and Kailua-Kona,  make  it yourself.  This dish  of  barbecued  lamb chops served atop a creamy  Parmesan-veg pasta is  reportedly Sam Choy's  signature  dish. It will serve   4 people, assuming most will   easily  devour 2-3 little lamb chops.
   
In quite  a large bowl, combine 2 c. brown sugar or brown Splenda, 3/4 cup  minced or shredded fresh garlic, 1/2 c. fresh  minced cilantro leaves, 1/2 c.  soy sauce, 1 TB fresh ginger, peeled & minced,  1/2 tsp Chinese 5-spice, 1/2 tsp red chili pepper flakes, and salt to taste.

Add 8-12  rib lamb chops* and turn over and over in the mixture, then massage each one well,   to be sure the  sticky  rub penetrates  the lamb.   Submerge   the  chops in the thick sauce and refrigerate  4-6 hours or overnight.

Ready to  finish?    Cook 16 oz.  cooked, drained  trottole, cavatappi or fusilli -  or any fat, spiral-y pasta with nooks and crannies  that  allow  sauce to linger.  Drain.  Preheat the broiler  for at least 15 minutes,  and start the prep for the  pasta sauce:    In a large pan, heat 4 TB olive oil and 2 TB butter. Add  1 1/2 Tb minced or shredded garlic  for 2-3 minutes,  don't let it brown.  Add  2 medium zucchini, julienned,  and a peeled and julienned  or shredded carrot.  Cook for 2-3  minutes, stirring now and then. Add     Stir, then  add 4 cups heavy cream and  bring to a boil- immediately lower to a simmer  and cook 5 minutes.  Just before serving add   1 c. Parmesan cheese, 1/2 c. chopped cilantro leaves, salt and pepper.  If your cream doesn't thicken enough, (mine sometimes doesn't)n stir in some diced softened cream cheese - maybe 4 ounces.

Broil the chops  close to the  flame 2-3 minutes per side for rare, about 5-7  for well. You may want to cut into one to check for doneness - because the  almost-candied outside is already dark, it's hard to tell  what's really going on inside.    If you have really  good ventilation over the stove, you could  also use a very large cast-iron skillet or stovetop grill, heated to smoking-hot.  Watch the chops, they'll cook quickly and will  tend to burn in a skillet  because of the sugar content.     Place the cooked chops on top of the  pasta, and  eat them (they're tiny, after all!) with your fingers, like a lollipop.  Licking your fingers and sucking every last bit of that flavor from the bone afterward is socially acceptable.  Really.

* a rack of lamb is 8 rib chops - cut them apart, and  holding each by the bone, scrape the bone with a knife, to expose it, and resemble  a lollipop. Most of the time the  rack you'll  purchase has already been frenched. If not, ask the butcher to do it.  It only takes a minute.

Cowpies

It's  probably   unpatriotic to  confess that I don't like Oreos unless they are an ingredient, bravely  offering themselves up for  a   higher purpose.   Somewhere on this blog I've  posted  more-than-awesome recipes for Oreo Muffins and Oreo Truffles,  for example.   Here they appear crammed into  massive  dark-cocoa cookies along with Mounds bars and chocolate chips.

The cookies  have  been around for  years,  often known as  "Gobs" but I have renamed them, thanks to  suggestions by Facebook friends.   My  Minnesota cousin Margy  gets credit for the new name.

Don't  go rogue and use all-butter or all-Crisco. Or substitute Kit -Kats  or Milky Ways for Mounds Bars.  And it's pointless  to attempt to 'healthify' it with  whole- wheat flour.  The  recipe shouldn't be messed with.

Beat together  3/4 c softened, unsalted butter and 1/3 c. butter-flavored Crisco.  Use a mixer, and when it's  creamy  add 1 cup white sugar and 2/3 c brown sugar, beat til creamy then  2 large eggs and 2 tsp. vanilla, beat a  little more.

Combine the dry ingredients :  2 cups  flour, 2/3 c.  dry cocoa ( preferably  dark) , 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt.

Gradually add  the dry  ingredients to the wet, til blended.    By hand, stir in 16 coarsely chopped Oreos,  1 or 2 cups chocolate chips  and  8 oz. chopped Mounds bars ( they chop  easier if chilled).

Chill the dough for  30 minutes while you preheat the oven  to 350 and  put parchment paper on cookie sheets.

I make huge cookies, very thick and  the size of the palm of my hand, and get about 24.   I just scoop out  maybe a fat  1/3 cup ,  push it  into a ball of sorts, and very  gently shape & very lightly flatten it out  just a tiny  bit , only to be sure  the whole thing is about equally thick and there are no  thin edges to burn or over-crisp.      Don't overdo the shaping  -  due to the irregular bits of heaven poking out,  they will never  be smooth and pretty.

The  size I  described  bake for about 15-18 minutes, with smaller ones you should probably start checking at 10 minutes. Since we  all make slightly-different sized cookies, times will vary. To be safe, test- bake  just a couple before you bake the rest. The  tricky part  is removing them before they are quite set, which is hard to judge with all the gooey-ness oozing from them.  Touch the center and take your best shot.  They should still look a bit wet.  They'll firm up as they cool --- first  on the paper for 10 minutes (carefully slide the whole sheet of paper off the hot baking sheet to  stop the cooking process)  then  on wire racks.   If they are  crunchy,  you left them in a little too long.   If that happens, uh-oh, you'll just have to  eat this batch and start over when you recover from  chocolate overload.