Great Rack! of lamb that is...

One of the classic mainstays of French country cuisine is the Roast Rack of Lamb. The rack of lamb is the entire rack of ribs, dressed and prepped to remove most of the fat and gristle leaving the most tender and marbled select bits. An old-school Italian butcher here in Brooklyn prepared these for me and even notched the bones for easy carving later on.

The lamb was prepared as follows. The entire rack was peppered then pan-seared on high heat to provide a nice brown finish and seal in the juices. Then the rack was coated in honey to make it sticky, on top of which was layered a crust of breadcrumbs and ground almonds. It was place into a pre-heated oven at around 375 degrees with several garlic cloves and roasted for about 25 minute or until meat thermometer shows an internal heat around 140 degrees for rare lamb.

While we waited for the lamb to finish roasting we enjoyed an appetizer - some broiled Buna-Jimeji mushrooms drizzled in melted butter, garlic, parsley, pepper and sea salt. The browned butter roasted up and brought out a fantastic earthy richness to the tiny mushrooms which we served with slices of focaccia.

The lamb was removed, cooled and the chops separated. A sharp knife is helpful here so you do not break the crunchy crust that has formed. I definitely prefer my lamb as close to rare as possible in order to enjoy the moist tenderness and clean flavor.

The lamb chops were served on a root vegetable confit (parsnip, turnip, carrots, potatoes slow roasted in olive oil with rosemary and smoked paprika) and chard greens wilted in white wine and soy sauce. It was a grand dinner served with a traditional style full bodied red.

Desert was no slouch as we served Tres Leches ice cream with slices of coconut cookie and sprinkled with raw coco-nibs. Again, yum.