Lamb Racks w/ Pommes Anna
Makes 4 Servings
Delicate lamb racks served with an apple cider glaze, roasted hazelnuts, and a Pommes Anna potato cake. An elegant & refined dish that’s not as difficult as it looks.
Pommes Anna is a classic potato dish that’s a show-stopper in terms of presentation. In this version we’ve used celery root in place of some of the potato.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 Lamb Racks
- 2 sprigs of Fresh Rosemary
- 2 cloves of Garlic, unpeeled
- ½ cup chopped Skinless Hazelnuts (could substitute skin on in a pinch)
- Apple Cider Glaze:
- 1 cup Sweet Cider
- 1 cup Hard (Alcoholic) Cider
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ¼ lb Unsalted Butter
- Celeriac Pommes Anna:
- 2 Russet Potatoes
- 1 Celery Root
DIRECTIONS
1
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2
Cut the fat cap and any surface silverskin from the racks.
3
Optional: Further French the bones all the way down to the loin to make “spider racks” (how to cut lamb spider racks).
4
Optional: Tie rings of butcher’s twine along the length of the loin between each bone, pulling them tight to compact the meat and form it into a rounder shape.
Doing this will slightly increase your cooking time.
5
Wrap the bones in a sheet of foil. Season the meat with salt and pepper on both sides.
6
Get an oiled oven-safe pan hot over high heat. Sear the meat on both sides to develop a crust.
7
Add the rosemary sprigs and garlic to the pan, then move it to the oven to roast until the lamb is cooked to your liking.
8
Remove the lamb from the stove and let it rest, loosely covered with a sheet of foil. Reserve 1 sprig of rosemary and 1 clove of garlic from the pan.
9
Peel & trim the celery root into a cylinder. Trim the potatoes into cylinders. Thinly slice the cylinders into disks that are thin enough to be semi-translucent (using a knife or mandoline).
10
Get oil hot in a large non-stick pan. Start layering the potato slices in the pan in a rosette pattern, season them with salt and pepper. Cover the potato layer with a layer of celery root, season again, then finish with another layer of potato.
11
Move the pan to the oven for about 2 minutes, until the bottom of the potato-celery root cake is browned. Flip it and continue to roast until it develops a nice crust on the other side.
12
Repeat steps 10-11 three more times to produce the rest of the pommes anna cakes (these can be made ahead of time).
13
Pour both ciders into a frying pan, add the salt, one clove of the garlic from the lamb pan and one of the sprigs of rosemary. Simmer to reduce the cider to a glaze.
14
Once the glaze has reduced by 3/4, add the butter and whisk to melt it in. Strain the glaze.
15
Toast the hazelnuts in a dry pan, just until aromatic.
16
Cut the twine off the racks (if you used it), remove the foil from the bones, and slice the racks into 1-rib chops.
17
Put a pommes anna cake on each plate, top it with a quarter of the Merino chops.
18
Drizzle the cider glaze over the top of everything, then sprinkle the plate with the hazelnuts.
19
Serve.