Dinner Ideas Lamb Racks

Easy Recipe for Mint and Pistachio Lamb

Oct 16, 2009 Sally Luxton

Meat prices have skyrocketed but buying lamb in racks in Australia is half the price of those tasty lamb cutlets at some butchers. Try this easy recipe for lamb racks.

Dinner ideas are endless with imagination, but with spring in some parts of the world, succulent lamb racks are a mouth watering choice. Forget buying a jar of pre-packaged sauce as they often contain many harmful additives, preservatives, colours and flavour enhancers. Freshly picked, natural flavours are unbeatable in a marinade on spring lamb.

Mint is so easy to grow but probably best grown in a pot so it doesn't take over the whole garden. Its properties and scent help to keep mosquitoes away in the garden and is a versatile herb, although widely used with lamb as a sauce, garnish or marinade.

For a family of 4, 2 lamb racks each with 4 cutlets should be ample if the children are younger than 8 years of age. Most young children love the tenderness of lamb as it is not too grisly and easy to chew, not to mention the messy part of chewing on the bone at the end of the meal.

Easy Recipe for Mint and Pistachio Lamb Racks

2 sprigs of fresh mint leaves or about 15-20 leaves
1 clove of garlic
20 pistachio nuts shelled
1/2 teaspoon rock salt
1/2 cup olive oil
2 lamb racks

Method

Tear up the mint leaves and roughly chop up the garlic.
Place both garlic and mint leaves into a mortar
Pound up the mint leaves and garlic
Add the pistachio nuts and rock salt and keep pounding until the 3 ingredients are almost a paste
Add the olive oil gradually until the paste becomes an easily spread marinade
Spread the marinade over the lamb racks
Fry the lamb racks with a little olive oil in heavy based fry pan just enough to seal each side
Once sealed, place the lamb into the oven until cooked as desired (rare, medium, well done).
Serve the lamb with couscous and stir fried greens for nice twist or mash potato and steamed vegetables.
For each child, just cut 1 lamb cutlet off the end of each lamb rack

Variations

Chilli lovers may like to add 1 or 2 chopped birds eye chillies before the pounding process to spice up the evening.

There are various types of couscous available including French provincial or Moroccan for example. For this recipe a French provincial type is preferable. Couscous is so easy and quick for those long working days at the end of which peeling potatoes is hardly appealing. By comparison, couscous just needs to be stirred in boiling water for 1 minute, then left to rest for 4 minutes before being fluffed with a fork and a knob of butter or oil.

The copyright of the article Dinner Ideas Lamb Racks in Recipes is owned by Sally Luxton. Permission to republish Dinner Ideas Lamb Racks in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Dinner Ideas Lamb Racks