Food for thought

Herb-crusted Rack 'o Lamb

I had a request for the recipe for the crust on a herb-crusted rack of lamb I posted on FB a while back.

I wish it were my recipe but it belongs to Thomas Keller, the über-chef of The French Laundry fame, taken from his Ad Hoc cookbook.  Here it is:

2 frenched 8-bone racks of lamb

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Canola oil

¾ cup Dijon Mustard

3 tbs honey

6 tbs (3 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tbs garlic puree*

3 to 5 anchovy filets, salt packed or oil packed, rinsed, dried and minced

1½ cup dried bread crumbs or ground panko crumbs

3 tbs finely chopped Italian parsley

1 tbs minced rosemary

grey salt or coarse sea salt

*Put 1 cup of peeled and trimmed garlic cloves into a saucepan and cover with enough oil to cover them by about 1 inch.  Set the saucepan over medium-low heat.  The garlic should cook gently; very small bubbles will come up but they should not break the surface.  Cook for 40 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes until cloves are completely tender when pierced with a knife.  Remove saucepan from stove and let cool.  Once cool, put the garlic in a food processor and blend, scraping down the sides often, to puree. For a finer texture, pass through a small, fine-screened sieve or  tamis.

Score the fat covering the lamb in a ½-inch crosshatch pattern; be careful not to cut into the meat.  Season all side with salt and pepper.

Set a roasting rack in a roasting pan.  Heat some canola oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat until it shimmers.  Put 1 rack fat-side down in the pan and sear to golden brown, 1½ to 2 minutes; carefully move the lamb as it sears to brown as much of the fat as possible (it is best to sauté 1 rack at a time, so the temperature of the pan doesn’t drop dramatically).  Transfer the lamb to a roasting rack, meat-side up.  Drain off the fat, reheat the pan, adding fresh oil, and sear the remaining rack. 

Combine mustard and honey in a small bowl; set aside.  Combine the butter, garlic, and anchovies in a small food processor and puree until smooth.  Transfer the puree to a medium bowl and stir in the bread crumbs, parsley, and rosemary to combine.  Do not over-mix; the mixture should be moist, but it may not all come together.

Brush the mustard mixture over the fat and meat (do not coat the underside of the racks.  Spread the bread crumbs evenly over the racks pressing gently and patting them so the crumbs adhere. (The lamb can be refrigerated, on the rack in the roasting pan, for up to 6 hours.

Position an oven rack in the bottom third of the oven and preheat the oven to 425°F.

Put the lamb in the oven, with the met side towards the back, and roast for 25 to 35 minutes, until the temperature in the centre of the meat registers 128° to 130°F.  Let the racks rest on the rack in a warm place for about 20 minutes for medium-rare.

Dee-lish