The night before Nola

As Randy’s birthday week  month continues, I cooked a special dinner on Thursday night, the day before we left for Nola to celebrate with Grandma Yuyu.  I made all of Randy’s favorites- rack of lamb,  rosemary garlic potatoes and arugula salad with pine nut and parmesan.  For dessert I even tried to make Randy’s favorite- basbousa!  The rack of lamb recipe was a herb crusted and honey mustard glaze from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc cookbook and was surprisingly easy for a Thomas Keller recipe.  The rack of lamb was DELICIOUS and I have to say was as tasty as anything we would have eaten out. 

Thanks Adam for teaching us that we can stay in and still have a gourmet meal 🙂

• 2 frenched, 8-bone racks of lamb (2 to 2 1/4 pounds each)
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• Canola oil
• Garlic confit (instructions below)
• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3 to 5 anchovy fillets, rinsed, dried and minced
• 1 1/2 cups ground panko bread crumbs
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tablespoon minced rosemary
• Gray salt or coarse sea salt

1. Score the fat covering the lamb in a cross-hatch pattern, taking care not to cut into the meat. Season the racks on all sides with salt and pepper.

2. Set a roasting rack in a roasting pan. Heat a thin layer of canola oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Put one rack fat-side down in the pan and sear until golden brown, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes; carefully move the lamb as it sears to brown as much of the fat as possible. Transfer the lamb to the roasting rack, meat side up. Drain the fat, and reheat the pan, adding fresh oil. Repeat with the remaining rack.

3. To make garlic confit- (I used this recipe which is slightly different than Thomas Keller’s since I don’t own a diffuser and I still don’t know what it is)
Put a cup of garlic cloves in a heavy, covered braising pan or Dutch oven. Add one bay leaf, 8 fresh thyme sprigs, a scant tablespoon kosher salt, and 15-20 peppercorns. Barely cover with the oil (blended 50% extra virgin olive oil and 50% canola).  Cover the pan and braise in a 300 degree oven until the cloves are pale golden and very tender, about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool it to room temperature,

4. Combine the mustard and honey in a small bowl; set aside. Combine the butter, 4 cloves garlic confit and anchovies in a small food processor and puree until smooth.

5. Transfer the puree to a medium bowl, and stir in the bread crumbs, parsley and rosemary to combine. Do not overmix.

6. Brush the mustard mixture over the fat and meat, but not the underside of the racks. Spread the bread crumbs evenly over the racks, pressing gently and patting them so the crumbs adhere.

7. Position the oven rack in the bottom third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 425° F.

8. Put the lamb in the oven, meat-side toward the back, and roast for 25 to 35 minutes, until the temperature in the center of the meat registers 128° F to 130° F. Let the racks rest on the rack in a warm place for 20 minutes for medium-rare.  I usually don’t have the patience to let meat rest, but since we were waiting for Grandma Yuyu’s lamb to cook more we did let the lamb rest and I think this made this dish even better.