Easter Lamb

Happy Easter to one and all… We had a pretty quite Easter weekend. One was down with tonsillitis and the other was just shattered with a lack of sleep and a touch of the cold. Thankfully yours truly felt fine…

To celebrate Easter I paid homage to our old neighbours, the Greek family Petrakis! Lamb was on the menu and don’t I wish I was able to make this when we were kids.

I gently smoked two racks of lamb with a touch of cherry wood. Of course I marinaded the lamb for 30 hours in a mixture of extra virgin olive oil, one full head of garlic (minced), 5 springs of rosemary, 10 sprigs of thyme and 10 sprigs of fresh oregano. Chop it all up and place the lamb and the herbs into a zip top bag overnight.

When ready, get your grill set to 225F (107C) with indirect heat.  Add your cherry wood and smoke the lamb for about 45 minutes or until the internal temperature hits 120 F. Then get your grill nice and hot and sear the lamb for another 5-10 degrees more.

Rest it for 5 minutes and serve.

Another amazing, though quiet Easter for our family this year. It was rather special as I let Kalyna (the 5 year old) draw on the Imperial Kamado, turning it into a wonderful painted Easter Egg. Nice one kiddo!

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Perfect Lamb Rack

So here’s the easiest way to roast a lamb rack and have it taste like you’ve just eaten at a 3 Michelin star restaurant.

The trick to perfecting your lamb is to remove the fat cap entirely. Admittedly, I used to keep it on hoping that it would render down. Not a chance. You need to carefully trim your rack so that almost no fat remains on the outside. If you keep it on, you’ll get a chewy, almost impossible hunk of lamb fat that quite honestly does much better once rendered down and kept in the fridge.

Once you’ve removed your fat cap, tie up the rack with some butcher’s twine and place the lamb into a large zip top bag and prepare a simple wet marinade of olive oil, 1 head of garlic, salt, pepper and four stems of finely chopped rosemary. Let that sit in the fridge for as long as you can, preferably over night.

As with most joints of meat, I like to reverse sear them. The technique is simple but it takes a bit of practice to get it perfect. Enjoy the fun of learning how to do this.

Get your grill up to 225F and set it up for indirect heat. Place the lamb rack on the grid and insert a trusty internal probe. I used a touch of wood (birch, this time) but only a little, like a quarter handful.

Allow the internal temperature of the lamb rack to come up to 120F – remove it and then coat the rack in olive oil. Set it aside and now fire up the grill by opening up the air baffle below, remove the plate setter and get it as hot as it will go. The secret is now in the sear, getting a beautiful rich brown caramelisation all over this rack. I used the back side of one of my Grill Grates, rested over the Mini Egg. This aircraft grade aluminium gets screaming hot, really fast. Now simply put your oiled rack on and keep flipping it every few minutes to ensure an even crust. Remove the lamb once it reaches 130F internal temperature.

Let the lamb rest for about 5 minutes. Cut off the butchers twine between the bones and slice between them. We served this rack of lamb with roasted red pepper salad and rosemary/garlic new potatoes.

As you can see by my daughter’s face, this was a winning dinner. I asked if I could finish her lamb and she shot me a look that could kill!

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Overall Heather Rating: 10/10