A recipe for belated Easter lamb semi-a la Nana
Considering my endless quest for drama, it’s surprising that it wasn’t until today that I decided to look into the “do you eat ham or lamb for Easter” battle. That could be because I come from a lamb household; I most associate the dish with my Nana’s house, because for whatever reason, we’d have it when visiting her. (As these things go, probably because we liked it.) Until recently, ham didn’t seem on the table for any holiday, really. Excitingly, for me at least, that’s changed; this year, I did make it for Easter to much success, but soon after I felt a craving for my former friend lamb. Luckily the man I co-habitate with made it happen by surprise delivering me a rack of lamb, frenched.
Normally that’s the kind of thing you’d share with a couple of people you’d invited over for dinner, but somehow we ended up with a whole one for ourselves which—foreshadowing—we have been picking away at ever since. (A leftover lamb sandwich is a great sandwich.) When the rack was presented to me, I immediately turned to Fave Recipes, since I knew some recipe of my Nana’s would probably be in there.
Indeed there was, and I soon set to making it. Only about halfway into planning did I realize that this was a recipe for lamb shanks, not rack of lamb—no matter how frequently I try to remind myself, the names for different cuts of meat struggle to stay lodged in my brain. This meant that this recipe would need some adapting. I pivoted, deciding not to dredge the shanks in flour, though the ingredients I coated it in were mostly the same, plus a little mustard. (I also recommend anchovies instead of salt as a rub but didn’t feel like bothering with them this time.) Once all the ingredients were rubbed on the rack, I plopped it in a pan and left it alone. The oven time was addressed too; I cooked it at 400 for about 40 minutes, until the meat’s temperature was 135 degrees. One of the nice things about lamb is how little attention it requires to be good.
Temping is another thing I fear I’ll never be good at—I’m always afraid the thermometer is hitting the pan or the bone or some other unidentified thing—but the end result of my labors was medium rare, although the fat was a little under-crisped on top. In the future, I would probably trim it slightly, though I find that daunting as well, as my sister can attest when she saw me wrangling our Easter ham.
The meal was served with baked potatoes and greens that I also cooked in some of the lamb fat. I can’t say it went off without a hitch, as I most certainly ate too much and had a stomach ache later that evening. But all in a delayed Easter’s work.
Donations Time: Last month, $130 went to Welcome to Chinatown. This month, your money will go to Good Farmer Fund which “assists farms in crisis” in Washington state. You can sign up or switch to become a donor to this newsletter for $5 a month or $30 a year right here—most certainly the cost of a rack of lamb of some size.