This dish brings out the best in lamb, with a succulent, flavorful back of lamb roasted to perfection and served on a bed of golden, crispy potatoes. The addition of cherries lends a delightful balance of sweetness and acidity, enhancing the dish with a gourmet touch. Perfect for an elegant dinner, this meal delivers both comfort and sophistication in every bite.
Ingredients
Method
- Take the lamb out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking.
- Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
- Toss the potatoes with the olive oil and a good pinch of salt on the roasting tray, cut side down.
- Roast the potatoes for 35–40 minutes, turning once, until golden and tender; start the lamb about 15 minutes after the potatoes go in.
- Mix the breadcrumbs, thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley, olive oil and a pinch of salt for the crust.
- Pat the racks dry and season them all over with the salt and pepper.
- Heat the neutral oil in the ovenproof frying pan over medium-high heat.
- Sear the racks fat side down for 3–4 minutes, until golden and the fat has started to render, then sear the other sides for about 1 minute each, holding them with tongs.
- Move the racks to a board and set the pan aside unwashed for the sauce.
- Brush the fat side of each rack with mustard.
- Press the crust mixture firmly onto the mustard.
- Stand the racks crust side up in the small roasting tin, bones pointing up and leaning together.
- Roast for 12–18 minutes, until a thermometer in the centre of the meat reads 52–54°C (126–129°F) for pink, or 58°C (136°F) for medium.
- Add the tomatoes to the potato tray for the last 10 minutes of cooking.
- Rest the lamb loosely covered with foil for 10 minutes; the centre will rise by 3–4°C.
- Meanwhile, pour the fat out of the searing pan, add the garlic, sage leaves and stock and bring to the boil, scraping up the brown bits.
- Boil for 6–8 minutes, until reduced by half to about 150 ml.
- Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the cold butter a few pieces at a time until glossy.
- Season the sauce with salt and pepper and strain it.
- Cut each rack in half between the bones.
- Pile the potatoes in the centre of four warm plates and set half a rack on top.
- Pour the sauce around the potatoes and finish with a branch of tomatoes and a sprig of sage.
- Roast rack of lamb and bake it in a crust of flavouring herbs to the desirable level.
- Served on baby potatoes with meat sauce.
- Decorate with baked cherry tomatoes and twig of sage.
- Boil down the sauce by half and bring to the desirable taste, then add butter.
- Place potatoes on a plate.
- Cut rack of lamb in halves and put atop potatoes, pour sauce around potatoes.
- Decorate with cherry and twig of sage.
What we changed for home
- Method written out: sear the racks, brush with mustard, press on the crust and roast at 200°C (400°F) to 52–54°C (126–129°F) inside The original gives no temperature, time or doneness. Searing renders the fat cap, and a thermometer is the only reliable way to hit pink lamb.
- Baby potatoes raised from 150 g to 600 g and roasted 150 g is about four small potatoes for a dish of four. The introduction describes golden, crispy potatoes, so they are roasted while the lamb cooks.
- Sauce made from 300 ml stock reduced in the searing pan, instead of 100 g bone broth 100 g reduced by half gives three tablespoons of sauce for four plates. Deglazing the lamb pan adds meat flavour, since lamb stock is rarely sold.
- Salt for the lamb given as about 1 tsp per rack The chef's 1 g of salt cannot season 1.1 kg of meat; it is probably the amount for the crust alone.
- 1 tbsp olive oil added to the crust Dry crumbs and herbs fall off the mustard; a little oil binds them and helps them brown.
- Cherry tomatoes raised to 200 g and roasted for the last 10 minutes 60 g is one small branch; four branches give each plate its garnish.
The dish in the photograph was cooked by the restaurant for this story. Photo: Oleksandr Slyadnyev.
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