Well Happy New Year to you all! This is the first time I’ve actually been able to cook properly since before Christmas!! So, seeing as its Saturday… well I think it is I’ve kind of lost track of days, I thought I’d do some cooking!

I don’t know about you but I love Lamb, it has so much flavour and is super easy to cook. The rack I got this morning from my butcher was just calling out to be taken home and it only took about 15 minutes… that’s with resting time!

The accompaniments only took a few minutes… let’s be honest opening a bag of salad and slicing some baby peppers isn’t too strenuous.  The only thing that really takes any time at all with this is the sauce/dressing, but don’t worry that’s super easy too.

• 1 rack of Lamb
• 4 baby peppers or a couple of big ones if you can’t find the little ones
• ½ bag of spinach and rocket salad leaves
• 250ml red wine
• 250ml beef stock or lamb… I only had beef
• 2 tbsp of mint sauce
• 50ml of Balsamic Vinegar

Start off with the sauce, that’s going to take your time. Heat a small sauce pan and into it put the balsamic and the stock and then reduce by half.  Next, add the wine and reduce until there is about a third of the liquid left in the pan.  Feel free to leave it to simmer away while you get yourself a glass of wine and prep the peppers.  If you’re using the baby ones, slice them so you get little rings of pepper if you’ve got larger ones cut them into long strips.

For the lamb you’re going to want to French trim it. I had a go myself but if you don’t fancy it ask your butcher to sort it out for you.  Once it’s all trimmed and looking pretty, score the layer of fat with a knife to make a diamond pattern. Next, rub some oil onto the lamb and season well. Then, into a hot pan seal it on all sides before putting it onto a baking tray and roasting it in the oven at 200c for 10 minutes, once it’s done leave it to rest in a warm place for 5 minutes.

While the lamb is resting, in the pan you sealed the meat in, lightly fry the peppers just to soften them. Once they’re cooked place them on top of the salad on your plate and slice the lamb rack into cutlets. Add the lamb to the plate and just before you drizzle with the sauce add the mint sauce and give it a good stir, then sit down and enjoy!

The sauce is also really good with pigeon or any gamey meat if you change out the mint sauce for a couple of spoons of red currant jelly.  Or you can add some rosemary and some onions to it and it goes really well with Beef and a celeriac mash.

PG