rack of lamb
A delicious and easy pot roasting recipe.You can’t go past the pot roasting cooking method for its versatility and ease of use. The technique works with all kinds of meats and is great for cooking meat and vegetables, in one pot and at the same time. This is my recipe for carré d'agneau à la niçoise, a rack of lamb cooked with provincial style vegetables and black olives – it doesn’t disappoint.
INGREDIENTS
1 lamb rack
1 medium sized zucchini
200 g (7 oz) potatoes (waxy or all round, I used Dutch cream)
200 g (7 oz) tomatoes (peeled and seeded)
2 garlic cloves
1 small bay leaf
A few twigs lemon thyme
10 – 15 black olives
Olive oil
Sunflower oil
Salt and Pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
Dice the zucchinis, potatoes and tomatoes into small pieces.
Colour the zucchini, potatoes and tomatoes in a frypan separately in 1 ½ tablespoons of olive oil, pepper and salt each time. Colour by shaking the pan and tossing the vegetables.
Preheat the oven (fan forced) to 210C (410F).
Salt the lamb rack and brown all sides in a Dutch oven, fatty side first. I use sunflower oil for this recipe because the lamb needs to be browned on a medium to high heat and sunflower oil has a high heat point.
After you brown the lamb, remove any excess oil and fat from the pot and then put the lamb back in and arrange the vegetables around. Add the bay leaf, thyme and garlic cloves.
Cover the pot and cook for 20 minutes. Add the black olives 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time.
Once cooked you can serve the meat and vegetables directly in the pot and let people help themselves or plate individually.