Easter Dinner 2009

For Easter I treated myself to a rack of lamb with spicy plum chutney (made by the Virginia Chutney Company). Because I really shouldn't eat an entire meal of meat I had sauteed cauliflower as a side.

To cook the lamb, I first scored the fat so the chutney could work its way into it while cooking. I then mixed some of the chutney with salt and garlic powder. My reasoning was that normally you'd rub salt onto the lamb, and since I didn't think the chutney didn't have any salt in it, I thought I had to add some. (It turns out it does have salt in it. Oops.) I was worried that if I added salt directly to the meat it would rub off when I spread the chutney on. I could be wrong in this. Anyway, after mixing the salt, garlic powder, and chutney, I spread it on the rack, covering the top part where the fat was, the sides, and the front (non-Frenched side). I cooked the lamb in the oven at 325 F for approximately 45 minutes.

For the cauliflower, I sliced two shallots and crushed a clove of garlic. I sauteed these on med-low with one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of canola oil (those not as health conscious could use two tablespoons of butter). Once the shallots were soft and on the verge of carmelizing, I added the chopped cauliflower florettes, pepper, salt, and red pepper flakes. I can't remember if I added garlic powder, however. I suppose it wouldn't have hurt ;) I sauteed the cauliflower for 20-30 minutes.

Overall, it was satisfying meal. I was worried that it would be too hot, since both the chutney and the cauliflower have red pepper flakes. But, this wasn't the case, and both provided enough sweetness to make me happy (I have a sweet tooth). However, I think others might have found adding red pepper flakes, onions, and garlic to the cauliflower may have been unnecessary. I had thought about just sauteeing the cauliflower with nothing but butter, canola oil, and salt and pepper to let the natural flavor come through more. Then again, cauliflower has a subtle flavor, so maybe not. I think next time I make a rack of lamb I'll pull it out a little sooner. As it was, it was a nice pink, but I prefer my lamb to be closer to red - I like my meat as close to rare as possible while still being cooked. This is easy to do with a single chop, but with an entire rack it's harder to pull off since you need to keep in long enough for the center to cook.

(If you don't want to go to the Virginia Chutney Company's website, the spicy plum chutney has plums [duh], white sugar, brown sugar, apples, vinegar, raisins, carmelized onions and ginger, mustard seed, salt, and red pepper.)