Recipes ROASTED MEDITERRANEAN RACK OF LAMB WITH POMMES VOISIN POTATO BAKE
ROASTED MEDITERRANEAN RACK OF LAMB WITH POMMES VOISIN POTATO BAKE
Looking for something that’s easy to make but will knock your guests’ socks off at your Easter lunch table? It doesn’t get much better than this… A plump rack of lamb roasted to perfection with loads of Mediterranean flavours. If you really want to up the ante presentation wise, ask your butcher to French-trim it for you so the bones are neat.
To go with it? A pommes voisin potato bake. Think of it as the cousin of that French classic, pommes dauphinoise. Unlike dauphinoise, it contains butter instead of cream, plus loads of salt and pepper and lovely fresh thyme. Serve this with a crunchy green salad for a perfectly balanced, marvelously indulgent Easter lunch. Bon appétit!
- WHAT YOU WILL NEED -
- FOR THE RACK OF LAMB
- FOR THE POMMES VOISIN
- 1, 5kg rack of lamb
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- Cape Herb & Spice MEDITERRANEAN ROAST
- 1 kg of potatoes - all purpose or floury potatoes, not waxy potatoes
- Third of a cup of melted butter (that's 80g)
- Cape Herb & Spice Atlantic Sea Salt
- 8 sprigs fresh thyme
- TO SERVE: Lemon wedges
- METHOD -
Start by making the pommes voisin as that can rest and be reheated if necessary while the lamb roasts. Peel the potatoes and slice them as thinly as possible – aim for 1-2mm thick. Pack a third of the potatoes in an ovenproof dish. Strip the leaves off the thyme stalks and sprinkle a third of the thyme leaves over the potato layer. Spoon a third of the butter over and finish off by giving it a very generous grinding of salt and pepper. Repeat with the remaining two layers. Cover the dish tightly with tinfoil and place in a 200 degree Celsius oven for 40 minutes. Remove after 40 minutes and use oven gloves to press down on the foil to compact the potatoes. Then remove the foil and bake the potatoes for a final 20 minutes without the foil. Stab the potatoes with a thin knife or skewer and if they’re meltingly soft, your pommes voisin is done. Remove from the oven and keep it warm by covering it again with foil until you serve.
To make the rack of lamb, heat a non-stick pan with a drizzle of olive oil. Brown the meaty sides of the lamb as well as the fatty top of the rack. Remove and sprinkle the rack generously all over with our Cape Herb & Spice Mediterranean Roasts Rub. Place the rack upright in a roasting tray (so the bones are pointing upwards). Roast at 200 degrees Celsius until done to your liking. For lamb that is medium rare, aim for an internal temperature (use a meat thermometer) of 55-60 degrees Celsius. For blushingly medium, 65 degrees will do. Allow the lamb to rest for ten minutes before you slice it. (Cook’s note: if you have a large oven, you can roast your lamb rack at the same time as the potatoes. The potatoes will need 60 minutes in total. For a medium to medium rare lamb it’s about 30-40 minutes, so the potatoes need to go into the oven first.)
Recipe concept & photography by Lizet Hartley.
Lizet Hartley is a freelance stills and reel food stylist, food photographer and recipe developer. In her spare time she – rather predictably – cooks. Get more of her recipes on her blog at http://www.melkkos-merlot.co.za