I made Easter dinner for my friend “Joan”, and since this is the most elegant thing that’s happened in my kitchen in years, I took pictures to share with you.
Trader Joe’s brought in New Zealand lamb racks recently so this wasn’t too extravagant. [One rack is ~1.25 lbs, 8 small chops, serves two.] If you have a rack of lamb and want instructions, I suggest these. The garlic and rosemary rub from that link sounds great too. I used the mint and spice crust from my previous lamb WFD, which I like, but Joan thought the spice in that was too strong. One cookbook I looked at had a Parmesan cheese crust for rack of lamb, that sounded too weird for me.
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mint sauce
I also made this mint sauce. Joy of Cooking says it’s the classic English sauce for lamb, but neither of us liked it much. Joan likes mint jelly; if she’d reminded me of that ahead of time I would have bought some, but then ¾ of the jar would be in my fridge for years.
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English Fresh Mint Sauce
from Joy of Cooking, about ½ cup
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar or packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons boiling water
2 tablespoons minced fresh spearmint leaves
8 to 10 tablespoons rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
Stir sugar and boiling water together in a small bowl until sugar is dissolved. Stir in mint and vinegar. Cover and let stand at least 2 hours.
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Joan and I might not always agree on condiments, but we agree on medium-rare lamb, and drinking good Pinot Noir with it.
I found it more difficult than I expected to carve it cleanly, since the bones aren’t straight.
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We plated 2 chops for the picture, but had no trouble eating 4 of these little chops each. A professional would have had some kind of sauce drizzled on the plate, but the mint sauce above is too thin to look good. My wedding china makes a VERY rare appearance.
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What’s for dinner at your place? Please consider writing it up for a future WFD. Message ninkasi23 if you want to try this.