The first thing you have to learn with Thomas Keller's recipes is that to make any given recipe, there are probably 1-3 recipes you have to make before. Case in point, the Rack of Lamb requires 4 cloves of Garlic Confit.
Garlic Confit:
1 cup peeled garlic
2 cups canola oil
- Put the garlic in a saucepan and cover with canola oil.
- Turn the heat on medium - low, so that the oil is just barely bubbling.
- Cook for 45 minutes, until the garlic cloves get soft. They'll look like this:
- Take the garlic off the heat, and let it cool in the oil.
- When it's cool, drain it. You can keep the oil for the lamb.
- Only 4 cloves are required for the lamb, so I tossed the rest of them on some parchment paper and froze them. They'll be great to add some easy flavor to sauces and recipes in the future.
Now that the garlic is done, it's time to move on to the real recipe.
Herb-Crusted Rack of Lamb with Honey Mustard Glaze
2 frenched 8-bone racks of lamb
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
Canola oil (I reused the oil from the garlic confit)
0.25 cup dijon mustard
3 TBSP honey
6 TBSP unsalted butter at room temperature
4 cloves garlic confit
3-5 anchovies
1.5 cups ground panko bread crumbs
3 TBSP finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 TBSP minced rosemary
My first piece of advice is to buy racks of lamb that are already frenched. I attempted to do this, but got confused at the Halal Butcher and walked away with a normal rack of lab. Here' what it looked like when I got home:
Frenching the lamb basically means pulling all of the meat off the end of the bones. It makes them look cleaner. I used this website for instructions on how to french the rack. Here's the outcome:
Next, score the fat on top of the lamb and season well with salt and pepper.
This would be a good time to turn the oven on to 425.
Get out a roasting pan with a roasting rack (we use a cooling rack in a jellyroll pan) - you'll need this as soon as you're done searing the rack.
Heat the canola oil (peferrably garlic confit oil) in a large frying pan over medium-high heat.
One rack at a time, cook the racks fat-side down in the pan.
After 90-120 seconds, move them to the roasting pan.
Next, you'll need to prep your topping. Puree the garlic, butter and anchovies in a food processor.
Transfer this puree to a large bowl, add in the bread crumbs, parsley and rosemary. Combine well, but the result should still be chunky.
Combine the mustard and honey, and brush this mixture over the fat and meat side of the racks.
Pat a thick layer of the bread crumbs on the top of the lamb.
Bake for 25-35 minutes (it took us 24), until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 128-130 F.
Let the racks rest for 10 minutes, and you'll have:
