Garlic Roasted Rack of Lamb

Yum

There are few meals more impressive than a Garlic Roasted Rack of Lamb.  The presentation, whether done in a crown or just a rack carved into chops at the table, is exquisite.  Lamb is a beautiful, subtle meat with a slight smoky flavor that pairs well with almost any seasoning. Today I am going to show you how to make a beautiful holiday meal that will impress your guests and have everyone raving about how beautiful and tasty your holiday table was!  The best part?  This recipe is a cinch to make.  I won’t tell if you don’t.  😉

What are we waiting for?  Let’s do this!

Garlic Roasted Rack of Lamb

Lamb Ingredients:

1 French cut rack of lamb (about 8 chops)

3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/2 cup seasoned Panko breadcrumbs

1/2 tsp. dried parsley

Enough white wine to make a paste

Poached Pears with Peach Balsamic Reduction Ingredients:

1 can pear halves in syrup

1 tbsp. peach balsamic vinegar

1/4 tsp. dried thyme

Directions:

Mince garlic and scrape salt and pepper together with garlic until you form a paste.  Mix together the garlic/spice paste, parsley, and panko crumbs. Drizzle in just enough white wine to make a mixture that resembles moist sand (just enough to stick together).  Place the lamb fatty side up in a greased roasting pan and press the crumb mixture into the lamb so that it sticks firmly.  Roast at 425 for 20-25 minutes until lamb is desired doneness (roughly 120 degrees for rare, 130 for medium rare, 140 for medium well, or 150-160 for well done).  Keep in mind that the temperature of the meat will raise 5-10 degrees after you take it from the oven.  Tent the finished lamb with foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes before cutting into chops and serving over poached pears.

To make poached pears, mix pears and syrup, peach balsamic vinegar, and thyme together in a small saucepan.  Simmer the mixture on medium heat until the pears have almost fallen apart and the syrup is thickened and reduced.  Serve with lamb chops.

This sounds complicated, but it’s really not. I will walk you through it, and before you know it you’ll be making a beautiful meal and feeling like a pro.  Let’s look at the process in pictures. 🙂

This meal is so deliciously easy and so impressive that you just might stay in the next holiday instead of going out!  I will show you how to throw this together, and when you pull this gorgeous meal out of the kitchen, any worship you receive will be yours.  😉   Start out by mincing your garlic into small pieces.  You need a sharp knife to do this.  I love MAC knives. It’s smart to invest in at least 1 good kitchen knife.  It more than pays off in quality and sharpness.  No more dull knives.  Treat yourself.

Now here’s a cool trick.  Sprinkle your salt and pepper right overtop of the minced garlic on your cutting board.  Trust me on this.

Now carefully take the blade of your knife and kind of slide the knife (dull side toward you) in your direction. You are almost going to slowly scrape the spices and garlic together.  Almost mash them.  Grind them.  Take out your frustrations.  Channel your cable bill and taxes and horrible school pickup line woes into this.  Grind this mixture together into a paste.

Yeah.  It looks kind of gross but it’s going to be delicious. Trust me.

Mix together your panko crumbs, parsley, and spice/garlic paste.

This part is fun. Hehe.  Take some white wine and mix in a little bit.  Stir it up and kind of “cut” the paste up with a metal spoon.  Keep adding wine, a little at a time, until you have something like damp sand. You want your mixture to be just moist enough to hold together, but definitely not wet.

Next, place your rack of lamb, fatty side up, in a greased roasting pan.  I highly recommend investing in a Le Creuset braiser.  This beauty is one of most often used pieces of cookware in my kitchen. It can do anything from sauteing onions to braising short ribs.  It can make a fabulous, crisped pizza, or roast vegetables like a dream with a gorgeous, caramelized crust that you can only get from cast iron cooking.  The beauty of cast iron, also, is that it can go from oven to stovetop, which means you can use the same pan you roasted the lamb in to make your pan drippings into sumptuous gravy, if you want to.  Ooooh yes.  Delicious, restaurant quality food, and only 1 dish to wash.  Someone sign me up.

Pack your spice mixture onto the lamb, pressing down so that it adheres.  Roast your lamb in a 425 degree oven until it reaches your desired level of doneness (roughly 120 degrees for rare, 130 for medium rare, 140 for medium well, or 150-160 for well done).  If the coating starts to get too brown, cover the pan loosely with foil.  Keep in mind that your lamb needs to rest for about 10 minutes after you take it out of the oven, so pull the lamb out when it’s about 5 degrees below where you want the final temperature to be.  The internal temperature will rise a little bit as it sits.

This summer my Aunt treated me to this delicious peach balsamic vinegar from the farmer’s market.  It’s absolutely delicious and adds a kiss of savory fruit tang to any dish.  So I decided to use it in a super easy, delicious side dish to complement this lamb.   While your lamb is roasting away, let’s get started on the Pear side dish.

This part is really difficult. Get out your Harvard degree.  Are you ready?  Deep breaths everyone.

PUT THE INGREDIENTS IN A PAN.  haha.  Yep. That’s it.  Pour your can of pear halves (don’t drain the syrup– pour that into the pan too), your peach balsamic vinegar, and your thyme into a small saucepan.  Cover your pan and heat it on medium heat until the liquid reduces slightly and thickens from a watery consistency to more like a syrup.  You want the pears to be softened but not so soft that they fall apart. Honestly?  Just simmer on medium heat while your lamb is cooking, and when the lamb is done, the pears should be ready too.  You can’t mess this up. 🙂

Test your lamb’s temperature with a meat thermometer, and pull it out of the oven when it is about 5 degrees below where you want your optimal temperature to be.  Next, place a little piece of foil overtop of the meat. You don’t want to crunch the foil around and seal in the steam– just lay the foil loosely on top. It keeps the mean warm and moist without making the coating loose the crispness.

After about 10 minutes, move the lamb to a cutting board.  Gently cut between the chops and gaze at their loveliness. Ahhh, you culinary goddess, you.

Put a few of the pears on the plate and cross 2 lamb chops overtop of the fruit.  Drizzle a little extra pear juice on the meat.  Sigh with happiness.

When you serve these beauties, everyone will “ooooh” and “ahhh.”  Don’t tell anyone how easy this was to make, as they sigh with blissful contentment.  Just soak up the glory.  You earned it.

You did it. And I’m just so proud of you.

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