Rack of lamb with a light herb crust

Rack of lamb is one of those cuts that makes me think of old fashioned haute cuisine - of ocean liners or the Savoy Grill.  Usually, a rack is 'French cut' - that is to say the ribs are pared down at the ends leaving bare bone leading to succulent little chops - full of flavour and tenderness.  A couple of racks can be joined together in a round to create a crown of lamb - now that's getting really swanky!

To my mind, lamb is coming to the end of the season right now - my butcher provided me with some well hung Essex salt marsh lamb, bigger and more flavoursome than at the start of the 'spring lamb' season, but more tender than it will be in the weeks to come.  While not cheap, this meat was fabulous - tender, sweet and nicely 'lamby'.  My ever-so-kind butcher also provided me with a bag of bones and scraps (at no extra cost) for the gravy.

Traditionally, rack of lamb is served with a thick, intense gravy (though I'm sure it would be described as a 'jus' on most menus today) - I decided to lighten the tone this weekend - given the hot weather and the fact that I was serving this for lunch - I felt a lighter touch would be better.  Thus my stock was simmered for three hours rather than a classic eight or nine - and reduced down just to a pleasant light gravy, rather than a full-on demi.  What's more, my stock was 'fortified' with dry sherry (though a good vermouth would also hit the mark) rather than the more usual red-wine reduction, and finished with a sprig of rosemary to lend depth of flavour.

If you are going to make this dish, I would really recommend making the gravy from scratch - it's way better than anything that comes out of a carton (or, God Forbid, a cube!).  It's best to start the night before.  The following recipe feeds four food-lovers.

Gravy
Lamb bones and scraps - enough to fill your roasting tray in one layer
Onion - a decent sixed one, peeled and roughly chopped
Celery - a couple of decent stems, roughly chopped (you can use up those outside stalks here)
Carrots - a couple, peeled and roughly chopped
Herbs - whatever you have to hand - not essential, but ideally, parsley stalks, thyme, rosemary and a bay leaf
Peppercorns - 10 or so
Dry sherry - half a glass or so (or vermouth such as Noilly Prat)
Rosemary - a healthy sprig

Lightly oil your roasting tin and throw in the lamb, and put in the oven (180degrees) for about 45 minutes to an hour.  Turn occasionally.  Half way through, throw in the vegetables.  What you're looking for here is some caremelisation but no burning.

When done, carefully lift out the bones, meat and vegetables with a slotted spoon, trying to leave the fat behind, and place in your largest stock pot.  Cover with water giving a couple of inches over the bones extra and add the herbs (leaving a sprig of rosemary for later).
Bring the gentlest of simmers but do not boil - not ever! and leave for two to three hours, skimming any scum that rises.

When you're happy that you've extracted the flavour from the meat without going too far, strain using a colander to collect all the big bits.  Then you need to strain again - this time through a muslin/cheesecloth-lined sieve.  Then strain again.  And again.  The more you strain this, the brighter and cleaner your finished gravy will be. 

Now, you can refrigerate overnight - then benefit of this is that you can then remove all the fat that will solidify on the surface of your stock.

For the rest of the gravy instructions, see below.

Herb crust
Breadcrumbs - three to four good handfuls of fresh white breadcrumbs
Parsley - at least two handfuls of roughly chopped leaves
Rosemary - a few sprigs (needles only)
Thyme - a small bunch
Oregano - the leaves from a few stalks
Mint - a good three or four stalks' worth of leaves
The zest of one lemon
Salt & pepper

In a blender, whizz everything together - you should end-up with a bright green mix which smells wonderful.  You can really use any herb you like here - but I would always include lots of parsley.  You could also add in a finely chopped clove of garlic into the blender as well - though if you're serving with dauphinoise potatoes, you might want to omit this as I did.

The lamb
Rack of lamb - two, french cut, skin and most of the fat removed, leaving a nice thin covering of fat on one side
Mustard - dijon, around two tablespoons

Lighlty oil a frying pan and sear the lamb - what we want here is a nice golden crust all over.  This will add even more flavour to your noble piece of meat.
Put to one side, pour off any excess oil and deglaze the pan with the sherry (from the gravy recipe above).  When this has bubbled down a bit and the alcohol burnt off, add to your gravy.  Reduce the gravy until you get a nice light consistency - not to coat the back of the spoon!

Put the lamb on a board, fat-side up, and liberally smear the top side with mustard.  Then gently but firmly pat on as much of the breadcrumb mixture as you can, pushing down to stick it to the mustardy-lamb.

You can now hold until your guests arrive and the sherry is poured (you do offer sherry to anyone who enters your home, I take it?)

Pre-heat the oven to 180-200 degrees.  Put the lamb in uncovered for 30-45 minutes (depending on how you like it - 30 minutes for fairly pink but not bleeding, 45 minutes for medium-well done, an hour for full-on cremated - you may need to cover the crust with paper if this is your choice, to prevent the crumbs from burning).
You also need to leave enough time to rest the meat - at least 15 minutes before eating.

Put the rosemary sprig into the stock and bring to a simmer and cover.


To serve, cut the lamb into individual chops - you should have 3 or 4 per person - and arrange artfully.  Warning: Don't try to do this at the table as the crust will cover everyone - much better to let your guests be impressed by seeing the racks come out of the oven and then see your creation on the plate!
Serve with dauphinoise potatoes, steamed green beans and the strained gravy on the side.

Note: this recipe comes with a guarantee that it will impress any guest.

tags: lamb  

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