Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb

This recipe is adopted from Gordon Ramsay. You can find his demonstration video at Youtube. Really easy to make and lovely to eat.

Ingredients:

2 racks of lamb cut in half with 3 bones serving
salt, black pepper and olive oil to marinate the lamb
Dijon mustard

Crust Ingredient:
4 slices of stale white bread cut into small pieces
1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese
a few sprigs of parsley
a few sprigs of rosemary
a few sprigs of thymes

How to Make:

1. Preheat oven to 200'C.

2. Wash and wipe dry cut lamb racks.

3. Lightly score fat layer (top side) with a sharp knife.

4. Marinate with salt, pepper and olive oil.

5. Heat up a frying pan (which you can put to oven later) and add olive oil. Sear and brown lamb on all sides.

6. Transfer whole pan with the lamb to the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes.

7. Meanwhile, place all crust ingredients to a blender and pulse a few times until it becomes crumbles.Pour mixture to a plate and mix well.

8. When lamb is ready, take out and brush all sides with mustard. Then roll the lamb on the crumbles plate. Allow meat to rest. When ready to serve, place lamb back to the oven for 3-5 minutes.

Serve with your favourite white wine!  

Mustard & Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb with Pea Puree

Ingredients:
Scottish Lamb Rack x 2 (if you trim the ends, you'll have a better shape. Photo showed racks without trimming. You can choose lamb from other origin but i found Scottish lamb of the best quality!)
50g dry white bread
1 clove of garlic - crushed
2tbsp Italian parsley - minced
2tbsp fresh mint - minced
2tbsp olive oil
2tbsp pinenuts
2tbsp wholegrain mustard or honey mustard

For the Pea Puree
butter
1 small leeo, trimmed and sliced
225g frozen peas
a sprig of mint
150ml chicken stock
3tbsp cream
nutmeg

How to make it:

1. Preheat ove to 200'C.

2. Place bread and garlic in food processor and blend until they form fine crumbs. Add the herbs and oil and blend again until roughly chopped. Lastly add pinenuts and blend until lightly chopped. The mixture should stick together lightly.

3. Spread the mustard over the lamb rack, then press the herb crust onto each one, pressing it down firmly so it sticks.

4. Place lamb racks with the mustard and herb crust to a large roasting tin and and roast in oven for 25-30min.

5. Once take out from oven, rest in room temperature with foil loosely on top for 10 min before you carve them from the bones - this will give you medium rare lamb. If you want it more cooked, increase oven cooking time to 35-40min.

 For the pea puree:

1. melt butter in a pan, add leek and saute for 3-4min or until soft.
2. add the peas, mint and stock and bring to boil.
3. cover and simmer for 4 mins.
4. use a stick blender to whizz the peas misture to form a rough puree.
5. add the cream and freshly grated nutmeg and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Roast Leg of Lamb

* reeipe adopted from Jane Hornby's "What to Cook and How to Cook it"

Serves 6-8 persons

Ingredients:
1 leg of lamb (approx 2kg)
10 cloves of garlic
handful of rosemary sprigs
carrots/ celery/onion
potatoes

Gravy:
100ml good red wine
500ml lamb/beef stock
1 tbsp redcurrant or raspberry jam

How to Make:

1. Preheat oven to 220;C.

2. Clean and dry the lamb leg. Poke around 20 holes on top of the leg with a sharp knife of around 1.5cm wide and 1.5cm deep. Poke a piece of garlic or a rosemary sprig in each of such holes. Then season well with salt and pepper.

3. Chop the celery, carrot and onion in big chunks and line them at the bottom of the baking tray. Sit the lamb on top of these vegetables, drizzle olive oil over the lamb and the vegetables and roast in the middle of the oven for 20 min.

4. Turn down oven to 190'C, pour 100ml of water over the lamb and roast for another 1 hour.

5. While the lamb is cooking, prepare the potatoes by adding mixing them with rosemary, salt and pepper and olive oil. (i prefer to use the ratte potatos from Frane and hence no need to remove skins. If you are using bigger size potatos, consider removing skin and cut into big chunks).

6. After the lamb has cooked for 1 hr at 190'C, put the potatoes into a tray on a shelf above the lamb. Cook the potato and the lamb for another 30min,

7. Take out lamb, turn the oven to 220'C to crisp up the potatoes for 5-10min. Transfer lamb leg to to a craving board and let it rest uncovered.

Gravy:
8. Sppon the excess fat from the roasting tray, then put the tray on the stove at medium heat. Add wine wine and stock, scraping up any bits from the bottom of the tray. Simmer until reduced by half and until gravy looks syrupy, then stir in the jam to make a glossy sauce. Season to taste.

Serve the lamb with the gravy and the vegetables and potatoes!

Roast Saddle of Lamb

* the way to cook this part of the lamb is in fact quite similar with rack of lamb. But meat from saddle is much more tender and juicy. Very difficult to find this part in shops. I order through a meat importer from Wales.

Ingredients:
Lamb Saddle x 1 (usually the lamb saddle consists of 2 pc, right side and left side. just use 1 side. If it's a frozen one, make sure you give enough time to defrost in fidge. Then the centre of the saddle is still very frozen, you cannot cook this well)
rosemary - minced
garlic - minced
Potato

Mint Sauce
a few bunches of fresh mint leaves - remove stems, just keep the leaves
olive oil
red wine vinegar
golden caster sugar
pinch of salt


How to Make the Mint Sauce:
just put all the mint leaves, 1-2 ttbsp of red wine vinegar, 1-2tbsp of golden caster sugar and a pinch of salt to the blender with a good drizzle of olive oil, Blend to the consistency you like and the taste you like.

How to Make the Lamb Saddle: 
1. Preheat oven to 230'C.

2. Wash and wipe dry the lamb saddle.

3. Marinate with salt, pepper, minced rosemary, minced garlic, paprika and olive oil - massage the saddle with this marinate mix thoroughly.

4. Wash and drain the potatoes and cut into wedges.

5. Heat up a frying pan with olive oil and brown all sides of the lamb.

6. Place the sddle on the oven tray, skin side up. Then add all marinate left on the fyring pan back to the top of the saddle. Sprinkle some more paprika and drizzle a bit more olive oil and place some extra rosemary leaves on top. Add the cut potatoes on the sides of the tray.

7. Roast for 15min, then turn down heat to 200'C and cook for another hour. Test with a meat thermometer.

8. Take out from oven and rest for 5-10 mintues before cut into slices.

Serve with the roast potatoes with the lamb and marinate juice left on the naking tray and the mint sauce!

Enjoy!

Roast Rack of Lamb with Mint Oil Sauce

Another simple dish to do! Lamb is not what i usually eat but this is what my hubby likes and i need to master the skills to do this!! After reading several books, i made up my mind to cook it this way!

Ingredients:

Scottish Lamb Rack (as Scottish lambs were fed with milk, grass and water only. So the meat is pretty tender!)

Rosemary - washed, dried and take out leaves.

Garlic - minced, just a little bit

Tomato and New Potato

Mint Leaves

Red Wine Vinegar

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Parprika, Salt and Pepper

How to Make:

1. Preheat oven to 200'C.

2. Wash and dry lamb rack. Score the lamb in a diagonal way (i.e. make a slight cut on the skin - dont cut too deep!). Marinate the lamb with parprika, salt, pepper, fresh rosemary and minced garlic all over, adding a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Set aside.

3. Boil water in a small pot and once boiled, put washed new potatoes in it for 5-6 min. Take out and drain and cut into half.

4. Tomato - wash, drain and cut into half (horizontally).

5. Heat up a frying pan, add olive oil and then sear the lamb rack until golden on all sides.

6. Place seared lamb rack on baking tray with the tomatoes and potatoes on the side. You can drizzle the oil remaining on the marinate plate to the baking tray and if not moist enough, drizzle a bit more olive oil on top of the lamb in the baking tray. Feel free to sprinkle a bit more parprika, salt, pepper and rosemary leaves on top. Roast for 25-30 minutes for medium and 40-45 minutes for almost well done. 

7. During roasting, you can prepare the fresh mint oil sauce - just wash and dry all mint leaves. Put the leaves in the blender, add some salt and sugar, then blend until smooth. Scrape them to a sauce bowl, add some red wine vinegar and a lot of extra virgin olive oil and mix well. Try the taste and adjust the seasoning to your likings.

8. Once you take out lamb from the oven, let it rest for 5 min with loose foil on top - so that it can retain some juice inside.

** it's important to note you will need to serve the lamb within 5-10 minutes after resting. Otherwise, the lamb will become overcooked during a long resting time.

Enjoy!
8. For

Shepherd's Pie

* original recipe comes from The Ivy, London

Ingredients:
(for 6-8 persons)

450g minced beef
450g minced lamb (or minced pork)
1 onion - peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic - crushed
5-10 sprigs of thyme - finely chopped
1 tbsp flour
4 tbsp tomato paste
4 tbsp ketchup
75ml red wine
50ml worcestershire sauce
2 pint beef stock
Mashed potato **

How to make:
1. Pre heat oven to 200'C.

2. Seasoned the minced beef and pork with salt and pepper.

3. Heat frying pan, then add olive oil, then cook the meat for a few mins until all done, then drain them in a colander to remove oil and fat.

4. Heat up the same frying pan, add some olive oil, and gently fry the onion, garlic and thyme until soft and fragrant.

5. Then add the meat, flour, tomato puree & ketchup, stirring constantly.

6. Then slowly, add the worcesershire sauce, red wine and beef stock, bring to boil and simmer for 20-30 min unitl the sauce is thickened. Stir them occassaionally to mix them well.

7.  Check seasoning and remove from heat and pour to heat proof dish, then top with mash potato. (best to pipe mash potato on top and make a nice pattern!)

8. Bake fo 30-40 min until potato is browned and served immediately!

** Mash Potato:
1, Peel and cut potatoes into even-sized peices.
2. Boil water in a deep pan, add salt, then add potato and cook for 15-30 min (until potato are soft when fork is sticked insude).
3. Drain potatoes and return them to the pan (without water) over the heat for a short moment to remove excess moisture,
4. Mash them with a masher and mix them with chill butter cut into small pieces until the desired softness and creaminess are achieved.