Herb crusted rack of lamb

From Gordon Ramsay’s F Word
Serves 4

Ingredients

2 large racks of Lamb cut in half with 3 bones per serving
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
4 slices of stale bread made into crumbs.
7 Tbs. grated parmesan (roughly ½ a cup)
Sprig parsley
Sprig thyme
Sprig coriander
Sprig rosemary
2 tablespoons English mustard (dijon)
splash of olive oil

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place lamb on cutting board fat side up. Lightly score the fat layer with a sharp knife. Next, generously sprinkle the lamb with salt and pepper. Mop up the excess seasoning with the rack of lamb, ensuring it’s thoroughly coated.

Heat some olive oil in an oven safe pan. Seal the lamb by holding each side in the oil long enough to develop color (careful not to burn your hands). 

Transfer the pan with the lamb into the oven and bake for 7-8 minutes. Prepare the crust while the lamb is cooking.

Place all of the ingredients for the crust except the mustard into a blender and pulse several times until it looks nice and green. Make sure you don’t over do it with the olive oil, just a splash.

Pour the mixture into a deep dish (bowl or plate) and set aside.

Remove the lamb from the oven and brush generously with mustard. Dip the lamb into the crust mixture coating it completely. Dip several times to ensure an even coating. Allow meat to rest for a bit.

Place it back into the oven for 3-4 minutes when you’re ready to serve.

Roast leg of lamb with anchovies and rosemary

From Great British Chefs
Serves 4

Ingredients

1 leg of lamb
12 anchovies
12 garlic cloves
12 sprigs of rosemary, small
sea salt
cracked black pepper, smoked
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 160°C/gas mark 3

To prepare the lamb, cut 36 small holes into the upper, fleshy part of the leg. Push the garlic cloves, rosemary sprigs and anchovies into the holes, equally distributing the ingredients across the meat

Lay the leg onto a roasting tray and sprinkle over some sea salt and smoked pepper.

Drizzle with olive oil and rub lightly into the flesh

Roast for 60 minutes, or until the lamb reaches a core temperature of 58°C.

Allow to rest in a warm place for 15-20 minutes before carving and serving

Lamb chops with fruity couscous and mint

From BBC Good Food
Serves 4

Ingredients

4 lamb chop or leg steaks, trimmed
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
200g couscous
5 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
8 date, stoned and finely chopped
zest and juice 2 lemons
20g pack each mint and flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Method

Place the lamb in a bowl. Sprinkle over the paprika, half the onion, 1 tbsp vinegar and ½ tbsp oil. Season, then set aside.

To make the couscous, boil the kettle and tip the couscous into a heatproof bowl. Stir in the pine nuts, dates, lemon zest and half the juice. Pour over 140ml just-boiled water, push the coucous to the sides of the bowl, cover, then leave to stand for 10 mins.

Heat grill to high. Lift the lamb out of its marinade, grill for 2-3 mins on each side, then rest, wrapped in foil, for 10 mins. Stir half the chopped herbs and some seasoning into the couscous, then add the remaining lemon juice to taste. Mix together the remaining herbs, red onion, vinegar, oil and seasoning to make a herby vinaigrette. Serve the lamb and couscous with the vinaigrette.

Aromatic lamb chops with minty yoghurt

From Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Home Cooking
Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp ground turmeric
4cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely grated
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely grated
olive oil, for marinade
8-12 lamb cutlets, French trimmed
250ml natural yoghurt
4 mint sprigs, leaves only, roughly chopped
seas salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the seeds and turmeric into a mortar, add a pinch of salt and pound as finely as possible. Mix in the ginger and garlic, then add a little olive oil to form a paste

Rub the paste into the lamb and leave to marinate for a while (anywhere from 10 minutes to overnight)

Place a griddle pan over a medium heat and drizzle with oil. When hot, add the lamb and griddle it for 3-4 minutes on either side if you like it pink or 4-6 minutes if you prefer it well done. When cooked to your liking, turn the lamb on edge and cook the fat until dark golden and crisp.

Put the yoghurt and mint into a bowl, season with salt and pepper and mix well. 

Serve the cutlets with the yoghurt on the side.

Roast leg of lamb with shrewsbury sauce

Delia’s Complete How to Cook
Serves 6 – 8

Ingredients

1 leg of lamb, weighing 5 lb (2.25 kg)
1 small onion, peeled and sliced
a few sprigs fresh rosemary, to garnish
salt and freshly milled black pepper
For the Shrewsbury sauce:
2 level tablespoons plain flour
1 heaped teaspoon mustard powder
1 pint (570 ml) Beaujolais or other light red wine
5 rounded tablespoons good-quality redcurrant jelly, such as Tiptree
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
juice 1 lemon
salt and freshly milled black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5, 375°F (190°C).

First of all, place the meat in the roasting tin, tucking the slices of onion beneath it.

Season the surface with salt and freshly milled black pepper, then place it, uncovered, in the pre-heated oven on the middle shelf. Roast for 30 minutes per lb (450 g) – for a 5lb (2.25 kg) leg this will be 2½ hours. Make sure that you baste the lamb at least 3 times while it is cooking, as this will help keep it juicy and succulent.

If you like to serve your lamb quite pink, give it 30 minutes less cooking time. To tell if the lamb is cooked to your liking, insert a skewer into the centre, remove it, then press the flat of the skewer against the meat: as the juice runs out, you will see to what degree the meat is cooked – the pinker the juice, the rarer the meat.

When it is cooked as you like it, remove it to a carving board and keep it in a warm place to rest for 30 minutes. Now, to make the sauce, spoon off any surplus fat from the roasting tin, tipping it to one side and allowing the fat to separate from the juices; you need to leave about 2 tablespoons of fat behind.

Now place the tin over a direct heat turned to low and stir in the flour and mustard powder until you have a smooth paste that has soaked up all the fat and juices. Next, add the wine, a little at a time, mixing with a wooden spoon after each addition. Halfway through, switch from the spoon to a whisk and continue to whisk until all the wine has been incorporated.

Now simply add the redcurrant jelly, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and seasoning, then whisk again until the jelly has dissolved. Now turn the heat to its lowest setting and let the sauce gently bubble and reduce for about 15 minutes, then pour it into a warm serving jug. Carve the lamb, garnish with the rosemary, pour a little of the sauce over and hand the rest round separately.

Lamb cutlets with mint, chilli and golden potatoes

From Nigellissma
Serves 4

Ingredients

500g/1lb 2oz baby new potatoes, washed and halved but not peeled
3 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp dried mint
½ tsp celery salt
8 lamb cutlets, preferably organic, trimmed of fat
100g/3½oz rocket
1 tsp sea salt flakes or ½ tsp pouring salt
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint

Put the halved baby potatoes on to steam.

Get out a large dish – in which the lamb cutlets will fit in a single layer – and first pour into it the olive oil and sprinkle in the chilli flakes, dried mint and celery salt.

Using one lamb cutlet as if it were a wooden spoon, smoosh the oil with its sprinklings around a bit, so that it is rather better mixed, then place the lamb cutlets in a single layer, turn them instantly, and leave to marinate for 10 minutes.

Heat a large, heavy-based, non-stick frying-pan – big enough for all the cutlets to fit in – then duly place them all in it (the oil that clings to them from the marinade is plenty enough for them to fry in) and fry over a medium heat for five minutes. While the cutlets cook, check that the potatoes are tender, which they should be by now; in which case, turn the heat off under your steamer.
Using tongs (for ease), turn the cutlets over and cook for a further three minutes. If you are going to make this an entire one-plate meal, strew the bottom of a large serving platter with rocket, or any other leafage you desire, and when the lamb cutlets are cooked, but still juicily pink, remove them to the salad-lined (or, indeed, naked) plate. Obviously, cook for longer if you like your lamb well done.

Tip the steamed potatoes into the pan and fry for three minutes, then turn them over and fry for another three minutes, shaking the pan every now and again to make them tumble and turn in the hot, spiced fat.

Using a slotted spatula or similar, transfer the potatoes to the plate of cutlets and sprinkle with one teaspoon of sea salt flakes (I like these plenty salty, but if you have more austere tastes or are feeding small children, then decrease the salt or ignore the command altogether) and the chopped parsley and mint.

Rack of lamb with black olives, new potatoes and red pepper yoghurt

From Waitrose food
Serves 6

Ingredients

500g Jersey Royals (or other new potatoes), halved (or quartered if large)
Mint stalks
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 x 650g British lamb racks
2 tbsp unsalted butter
120g pitted black olives, drained and chopped
50ml extra virgin olive oil plus extra to serve

Red pepper yoghurt
small jar roasted red peppers, drained
250g natural yoghurt
25g pack basil, leaves roughly torn

Cook the potatoes in a pan of boiling, salted water for about 15 – 18 minutes, until tender. Drain, loosely cover with foil to keep warm and set aside

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Heat the oil in a large ovenproof frying pan set over a high heat. Score the fat on the lamb racks, season and fry, fat-side down, for 3 – 4 minutes, until golden. Sear on each of the remaining sides for about 1 minutes, then lower the heat and add the butter. Baste the lamb, turning it regularly for a further 4 minutes. Transfer to the love, fat-side up, until cooked to your liking (it will take about 10-12 minutes for medium rare). Cover the lamb loosely with foil and set aside to rest.

For the yoghurt, pat the peppers dry on kitchen paper, removing any excess seeds. Roughly chop them and mix into the yoghurt with most of the basil leaves; season with black pepper and set aside.

Crush the potatoes roughly with a fork and mix with the chopped olives and olive oil; season and transfer to plates or a larger platter. Slice the lamb and serve on top of the potatoes, with the yoghurt alongside. Scatter with the reserved basil leaves and drizzle with more oil before serving.

Used a boneless lamb leg and sweet potatoes instead. For the lamb leg, it was about 650g. I still browned it in accordance with the instructions above but popped it into the oven for 30 minutes at 190 degrees. I found it a bit overcooked so the next time, I will reduce the cooking time in the oven to 25 minutes.

Roast rack of lamb and crushed potatoes

From Jamieoliver.com

Serves 2

Ingredients

10 Anya potatoes
1 handful cherry tomatoes
1 quality 6-bone rack of lamb
olive oil
1 handful Kalamata olives, stoned
1 small handful garlic cloves
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
a few sprigs rosemary
2 lugs olive oil

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5.

Boil the potatoes until tender and squeeze the pips from the tomatoes.

Stick a large frying pan on a high heat, add a lug of olive oil and sear the lamb until golden. Remove and put to one side while you crush the drained potatoes in the frying pan – use the bottom of a jar or a masher – then fry for a couple of minutes over a low to medium heat.

Stir the tomatoes and olives into the potatoes with some seasoning, rosemary sprigs and the garlic cloves, drizzle with a little olive oil and place in a roasting tin. Place the lamb on top of the potatoes and cook according to pack instructions. Depending on the size of the racks, the lamb will take somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes to cook, but will still be pink in the middle (add 5 to 10 minutes if you like your meat well done).

When the lamb is cooked to your liking, slice it into chops and serve with the crispy potatoes and a little salsa verde or an extra drizzle of olive oil

Marinated rack of lamb with coriander and honey

From Ottolenghi the cookbook
Serves 4

Ingredients

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1kg rack of lamb, french trimmed
20g flat leaf parsley, leaves and stalks
30g mint, leaves and stalks
30g coriander, leaves and stalks
4 garlic cloves, peeled
15g fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
3 chillies, seeded
½ teaspoon salt
50ml lemon juice
60ml soy sauce
120ml sunflower oil
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
4 tablespoons water

make sure most of the fat is trimmed off the lamb, leaving a uniform thin layer that will keep the meat moist and add to the flavour. use a very sharp knife to separate the rack into portions of two or three cutlets. place in a non-metal container.

blitz together all the remaining ingredients in a food processor, pour them over the lamb and make sure it is well covered for a night in the marinade. refrigerate overnight.

preheat the oven to 200c and heat up a griddle pan.

remove the meat from the marinade, shaking off the excess. sear well on all sides, about 5 minutes in total.

transfer to a baking tray and cook in the oven for about 15 minutes, depending on the size of the racks and how well cooked you want them.

meanwhile, heat the marinade in a small pan and simmer for 5 minutes. both the cutlets and sauce can be served hot or at room temperature.

BBQ rack of venison (lamb) with saffron and roasted peppers cous cous

From Waitrose recipes
Serves 3 or 4
Ingredients:

2 New Zealand Racks of Venison, each with 3 or 4 ribs
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
2 tbsp olive oil
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
200g essential Waitrose Couscous,
Large pinch saffron
1 chicken stock cube
280g jar Waitrose Cooks’ Ingredients Chargrilled Peppers in Olive Oil, drained and cut into thin strips
25g pack fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

1 Place the venison in a large dish, add the rosemary, olive oil and lemon zest and juice and rub in well. Leave to marinate at room temperature for 15 minutes.

2 Meanwhile, place the couscous, saffron and stock cube in a heatproof bowl and add 350ml boiling water. Stir well and set aside for 5 minutes until the water is absorbed and the couscous is tender.

3 Remove the venison racks from the marinade then barbecue them over hot coals or under a preheated grill for 10–12 minutes on each side until crusty and well browned but still pink in the centre. Leave
to rest for 5 minutes before carving into cutlets.

4 Stir the peppers and parsley into the couscous. Serve with the venison.