Rack o’ Lamb

Some dishes are pure classics.  Like a perfectly seared and roasted rack of lamb.  Last week Jamie cooked us up a rack of the Ovation Lamb and it was on point, so I thought I would share the recipe with you lovely folks.

Of course little chef and little sous chef wanted to be in on the entire experience, and little sous chef is starting to try food now and can tell if she is being left out of anything!  She mostly drools on spoons and makes fart noises, but that’s a pretty fair contribution for her age I would say. dishes-with-all-3-cultivatingfoodies

He started by making a family favourite gnocchi.

Gnocchi

3 medium russet potatoes (The brown skin ones)

2 eggs

All purpose flour

Salt & pepper

Butter

Peel and boil the potatoes until they are nice and soft but not turned to complete mush.  Strain them and use a “ricer” to rice them down.  If you do not have a ricer (as I am sure 99% of people do not) then use the good old two fork method and squish them down until there are no lumps and bumps.  In a bowl mix the eggs in with the potatoes with a fork or spatula.  Next we mix in the flour.  You will notice I did not put a measurement, and for all of you logical folks out there this may make you crazy.  But this part you must “feel”.  Slowly mix in some flour until your dough is soft, but you are able to roll it in to long “snakes” on your cutting board.  The trick here is not too much flour, and as little mixing as possible to get the consistency you want.  If you knead it like crazy like a bread dough it will end up rubbery and no good.  Once you have your perfect consistency, separate it in to a few sections and roll each one out so that is a snake the thickness of a nickel.  Cut the snake in to ½ inch sections and set them aside on a cookie sheet that you have sprinkled with flour (otherwise they will stick).  You can simply leave them in small cut pieces, or use a gnocchi roller to give them the little ribs that give them the shell appearance.

gnocci

While this is happening have a pot of water simmering and when your gnocchi’s are made poach them in the water quickly (Until they float to the top) and then put them in a pan with lots of nice butter.  *Important note.  If you are making a large batch, poach them in batches, then place on a plate or cookie sheet with a touch of oil so they do not stick together.  From there you can fry them in your hot pan with some butter and leave them at that or add a dash of cream and garlic.

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Next the lamb.

Peanut Crusted Lamb:

2 Tablespoons basil pesto

aprox. 40 shelled peanuts

salt & pepper

Crush the peanuts and mix with the pesto.

Season the lamb rack with salt and pepper.  Get a pan smoking hot with a touch of oil and sear all sides of the lamb.

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Remove from the pan and cover with the crushed peanuts and pesto mixture.  place it in a pan bone side down and roast in the oven for approx 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees F.  It should cook to medium rare, 130 degrees F.  If you like it a bit more done go to 145 F.  If you like it well done, don’t waste your money, eat chicken 😉

Let it rest for 5 minutes when it is done and then slice between each rib bone.

To complete the dish he also made a demi gel.  It tasted amazing, and really classed up the plate.

Demi gel:

2 Litres of beef stock

3 small carrots – roughly chopped

1 green onion – roughly chopped

1 whole piece star anise

5 peppercorns

Add all ingredients to a saucepan and reduce down to 2 tablespoons of liquid.  Pour the liquid (it will be very thick) on a sheet pan with parchment and let cool in the fridge.  Once it is completely cooled and set, cut it out with a small ring cutter, or slice in strips and garnish your plate with it.

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We also put a few butter fried green beans on the plate to ward of the scurvy.

The kid’s of course devoured it.  Little chef called it “Baa-baa steak”, and little sous chef gummed at the bones and made silly faces and tried to escape her bumbo.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures of our “date night” dinner with our little munchkins.  Hope you try the recipes soon!

-Stephanie