Garlic roasted rack of lamb

Well, it was a mental weekend, what with the boy’s 18th birthday party, then dinner out with friends on Saturday followed by waiting up until 1am to pick Sam up from doing the bar at a local event.  Knackered doesn’t even cover it.  Sunday dinner, then, was a chilled affair – luckily I’d remembered to defrost the racks of lamb that I took home from the Asda meat masterclass so we had roast rack of lamb, rubbed with a little garlic, just served simply with some veggies and some little rosemary roasted potatoes.

Rack of lamb is the easiest thing ever.  The butcher will trim it all up for you, then it’s just a case of scoring the skin in a criss cross pattern, then squishing some garlic with a pestle and mortar and adding whatever you’ve got handy: rosemary, mint, parsley, anchovies, capers, etc  in with a glug of olive oil to make a thick paste.  Rub this all over the meat and whack it into a really hot oven.  Turn it down to 200/gas 6 and leave it for about 20 minutes if you like your meat pink, 30 if you like it more well done. (If you’re less lazy then me, you can crisp that skin up by pressing it into a hot pan before it goes in the oven, but we don’t eat it, so I don’t bother).

If you’re clever, you can boil some cubed potatoes (about ten minutes is enough), toss them in olive oil and rosemary while they’re still hot and chuck them in at the same time as the lamb.  It will all be ready by the time the lamb’s had a little rest. Easy peasy.  Now for a nice quiet week…