Rack of Lamb with Honey & Balsamic Sauce
Posted in Eating In, Recipes
There’s something about a nice rack of lamb that makes it hard for me to pass by, when idlely drifting through butchers shops, purveying their cuts. Lamb is one of my favourite dishes full stop, but to be able to combine it with a ready made handle AND have it look classy on a plate at the same time, is just genious.
So this was a pretty simple dish I made up on the spur of the moment (read: spent all day thinking about and scouring the web for ideas), which I think turned out just dandy.
- Rack of Lamb (or two)
- Olive oil (a given really, just buy a few gallons of good quality olive oil and you will be doing yourself a big favour)
- Rosemary (Is it possible to do a lamb dish without rosemary ?… I think not)
- Salt (do yourself another favour and go and get some Maldon Salt… beautiful texture and flavour for cooking)
- Cracked Pepper (do yourself a huge favour and buy a pepper mill, and load it up with peppercorns)
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Honey
- Red Wine (nothing specific, but preferably something drinkable)
To Serve With
- Sweet Potatos
- Butter
- Cream
- Rosemary
- Fennel
How I made it
So firstly, cut down into your lamb rack a little and stuff every concievable orifice you can find with fresh rosemary, salt, black pepper, and libations of olive oil. Score the fat on the back of the rack, and rub that down with salt and pepper too. Now crank your stove up to high and sear your lamb rack in a healthy dose of olive oil in a hot pan. Make sure you give it a good covering so that the tricky parts all receive a fair amount of heat, and then when it’s looking charred to perfection, drop the heat, and put it into the oven to continue cooking through til done. Keep the pan juices as we’ll use those for the sauce.
Once the lamb is away in the oven, peel and slice your sweet potato and fennel. Get the sweet potato boiling in a pot of salted water, and braise the fennel in a little white wine and butter over a low/medium heat so it softens up. Once the sweet potato is cooked, but not mushy, drain the water and mash with extra rosemary, butter, cream, salt, pepper, and a little grated parmesan.
Next the sauce… Pretty simple really… Into the pan juices goes a good few dashes of balsamic vinegar and a good squeeze of honey (I’d give you measurements, but i really didn’t use any… I generally cook to taste and measure things by eye). Give this a taste and you have a lovely sweet balsamic flavour coming through… which I then pulled back to savoury land with the help of a splash of shiraz and dash of beef stock. Reduce the sauce down, and keep stirring to make sure the honey doesn’t seperate, and perhaps thicken with some corn flour and water… and you’re done.
At this point I cut all the lamb racks up into french cutlets (if thats what french cutlets are of course… ) and attempted to pile it onto a plate in some sort of attractive formation. Sadly failing… after taking some photos, I heaped the rest of the lamb on top and Sharon and I devoured them as best we could.
Delish.
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Wow – I bought the prettiest rack of lamb a couple of days ago and, although I do have a couple of great recipes, I thought I’d hunt the web for a new one!
Will be testing this one tonight!!!
By the way, I love your blog and will definitely be back.
Why thank you Ruth… lamb racks are indeed pretty things to cook with… I hope yours turns out tasty.
Come back anytime :)
Matt
Well wan’t can I say about this dish, is give it a go, you’ll love it, as much as my family did, once you start you can’t stop, this was the first time I cooked rack of lamb before to.
this looks amazing! what delicious photos! thank you
Sir, this is some tasty lamb. Cap doffed.
Matt, this is the tasiest dish, I first made it in August 2006 and it always makes its way to the table for special guests.