Rack of Lamb with Lavender Honey

Rack of lamb. Finger lickin good, baby! One of mine and H’s big time favorites. We had been having it so frequently (big ups to Dennis for letting us know when it goes on sale) that I actually had to mix it up a bit and make it a different way. Not that we were getting sick of it grilled and served with that fantastic balsamic reduction, believe me they go beautifully together…but we needed to break out of the comfort zone. Party trick alert: While enjoying your rack of lamb, try snapping off the ends of the lamb chop bones and stick them in your mouth right in the front underneath your lips - yeah so they look like some real skanky teeth! It it a surefire guarantee to freak your dinner guests out. Nice! Please note: the bones are more brittle if they are grilled. Anyway, I believe H found this recipe on About.com and put in a request that I make it. H had come home from a trip to Marshall’s one day a few weeks prior to this with a beautiful jar of herbes de Provence for me. I have to admit I was a little um bothered/freaked out/skeptical about using herbs that were sold at Marshall’s - it just seemed weird to me, but I said well nobody would know (ha!) and if they are awful I will just chuck ‘em. Much to my surprise, they were great! Although I don’t think I will specifically do my herb shopping at Marshall’s from now on…but that’s just me. So this recipe calls for lavender honey, which I think maybe we got at the Co-op Food Store in Lebanon, NH (::snicker:: which means it probably cost us about a hundred bucks ::snicker::), or maybe Shaw’s in Tilton…but anyway, it says you can use another kind of honey if you aren’t fancy enough to have lavender honey just lying around your pantry. Like me. Why did we buy lavender honey anyway?

Rack of Lamb with Lavendar Honey & Herbes de Provence

Serves 6

• 2 (1½ lbs. each) racks of lamb, frenched & trimmed
• 1 cup of fresh bread crumbs
• 2½ Tablespoons herbes de Provence
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2½ Tablespoons olive oil
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup lavender honey (or another honey, if lavender honey is unavailable)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Combine the bread crumbs, herbes de Provence, salt and pepper and mix with the olive oil.

Season the racks with more salt and pepper. Place them, meat side up, in a roasting pan and roast for 12 minutes. Remove from oven.

Coat each rack with a thin layer of the honey. Sprinkle with the bread/herb mixture, pressing it into the meat.

Return to the oven and roast an additional 10 - 15 minutes for medium rare.

Let the lamb rest 10 minutes before carving into individual chops.

Serve two chops per person.

(click on images to enlarge)

Methane Meter says (about Lamb in general):

Download or print recipe here:
Rack of Lamb with Lavender Honey & Herbes de Provence Recipe (PDF 20.5 kb)