Olive Encrusted Lamb Racks

TOOLBELT DIVA's Note:

Lamb is the meat of Australia. Rack of lamb is one of the easiest cuts to deal with, low in fat and high in flavour. Loin chops could be substituted. Serve with roasted Rosemary potatoes, oven roasted mixed vegetables. Ideal wines for this lamb: Jamieson's Run Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz Merlot or Wolf Blass Premium Selection Shiraz both Australian. The lamb recipe is an Australian Recipe from(LCBO Food and Drink

• Total Time: 55 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 2 (1 1/4 lb) lamb racks (a lamb rack usually consists of 8 chops)
• salt & freshly ground black pepper (to your taste)
• 1 cup pitted olive (black or green, a mixture of each is ok)
• 2 tablespoons rosemary
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 lemon, zest of
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C).
2. Pat dry the lamb and cut each rack in half.
3. Set olive oil aside.
4. Place all remaining ingredients in food processor.
5. Process until well blended.
6. In a frying pan, heat olive oil over medium heat and brown lamb on all sides.
7. (You may have to do this in two batches).
8. Spread meat/fat side with the olive paste.
9. Place in roasting pan, bone-side-down.
10. Roast 25 to 30 minutes, or until lamb is cooked as desired.
11. Test for doneness.
12. Cut each group of chops in half and serve.

Reviews

[JustJanS]

Well Elaine, I'm Australian, so this dish had to be for me;-) We ate it for dinner tonight, made with a mix of kalamata olives and anchovy stuffed green. We only had one lemon (zested already) so we used the juice from it, and a quarter preserved lemon, which went really well with the other flavours. Thank you so much for my lovely dinner tonight.

[Bergy]

Although this was good it will not be a favorite of mine for lamb . I made it last Tues a bit slow on doing the review - Used Black olives only and this gave a rather dull looking finished crust. I think that Jan's suggestion mixing the olives would add color to the final picture. I used 3 loin chops and skewered them together browing only outside just like you would the rack, then when I was roasting them I separated them slightly to allow some heat to flow through (they were far meatier than a normal rack). Cooked perfect pink inside after25 min.. As I said this is a good recipe just not a top lamb favorite for my taste buds. Thanks Elaine you know I love your recipes