Tender rack of lamb, roasted with herbs and paired with rosemary fried potatoes, makes a quick and easy fancy dinner.
Hi friends,
Hope you had a great holiday!
This past weekend, my parents and my sister came up to visit us. They met Jonathan’s parents and sister for the first time. We also visited my aunt and uncle and cousins south of Boston. I was a little stressed last week with all the shopping, cooking, baking, cleaning, gift wrapping, etc. not to mention our plumbing problem and mice issue, which are both resolved now. And I was a little nervous about the parents meeting.
But everything went well, and it was really nice seeing family. We ate so much good food. Jonathan’s parents served us a feast of traditional Cantonese food, and my aunt and uncle and cousin stuffed us with appetizers, followed by a ham dinner and dessert.
My blog is fairly new, and I am still getting the hang of this blogging thing. A lot of my photos have been underexposed due to the low lighting this time of year, and I recently ordered another light to use. I know Thanksgiving and Christmas are the biggest holidays for food bloggers, and I had hoped to share more holiday-oriented recipes this year. I’m still at the point where it’s taking all my free time to produce one post per week, and I didn’t have time to develop more holiday recipes.
We also had mice in our basement, and a couple made their way up to the kitchen. Jonathan found a hole behind our stove where they were coming in and covered it up, and we set traps in the basement and put out mice poison. Every time I cooked, I’d spend like two hours cleaning the kitchen first because we were so nervous about the mice being there. They’re gone now, but I was spending an afternoon doing this arts and crafts project where I was gluing sunflower seeds to mousetraps because the mice were licking the peanut butter off the traps without setting them off.
So, maybe next year I will be a little better at blogging and more organized and start early developing holiday recipes. I have so many ideas!
Speaking of which, I had this crazy idea about combining my last two recipes into a new recipe. Two weeks ago I posted a recipe for Lobster Thermidor, where I had lobster meat in a cream sauce stuffed into lobster shells. Then last week I shared a recipe for Mushroom Stuffed Shells, where I stuffed jumbo shells with a mushroom and cheese mixture. So I got to thinking, what if I make this lobster meat mixture from the Lobster Thermidor, but instead of the cream maybe make a cheese sauce with a roux, like a macaroni and cheese sauce, and then stuff that mixture into the jumbo shell pasta and bake? What do you guys think? It’s on my list to try out for a holiday dinner recipe next year.
Moving on to today’s recipe. Roast rack of lamb is fast and easy, yet still very fancy. This would be the perfect dinner if you are eating at home on New Year’s Eve. You guys know I love roasting proteins with herbs. See this Engagement Chicken as Exhibit A. Rack of lamb is such a tender, flavorful meat. It doesn’t need any fancy sauce or crust. I like it seasoned with the classic combination of rosemary, thyme, and garlic.
I also like fried potatoes as an easy starchy side, like the duck fat fried potatoes in this recipe. These potatoes are French bistro food to me, and it came to mind to go with the rack of lamb. I seasoned the potatoes with some rosemary to complement the lamb. In staying with the quick and easy theme of this dinner, I cooked some greens while the lamb was resting.
Here are the main ingredients. There aren’t many! That’s a one-pound Frenched lamb rack, a couple baking potatoes, rosemary, thyme, garlic, and mixed cooking greens. I used a mix of baby kale, baby spinach, and baby chard. You can use any of those on their own or any combination.
I seasoned the lamb with salt and pepper and then browned it.
Then I rubbed the herb mixture onto the lamb.
Here it is after being roasted in the oven.
The rosemary fried potatoes. These go good with everything: chicken, fish, beef, lamb, duck, or eggs.
I really appreciate the support and encouragement from my readers during my first few months of blogging. Best wishes for a happy healthy 2018!

Roast Rack of Lamb with Rosemary Fried Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 (1 pound) Frenched lamb rack
- salt and pepper
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 pound potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary leaves, divided
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 5 ounces mixed cooking greens or baby spinach
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Brown lamb: Pat lamb dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a cast iron or other oven safe skillet over medium-high heat. Brown lamb on both sides, 30 seconds to 1 minute per side. Remove from heat.
- Fry potatoes: Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add potatoes and fry, stirring frequently, for 25 – 30 minutes, until potatoes are tender. During the last 5 minutes, add in 1 teaspoon rosemary leaves and salt and pepper.
- Meanwhile, while potatoes are frying, in a small bowl, mix together 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon rosemary leaves, thyme leaves, and garlic. When lamb is cool enough to handle, spread mixture over both sides of the meat. Return to skillet and transfer to oven. Roast for 14 – 18 minutes, until internal temperature reaches 125 (for medium-rare). Transfer to cutting board, cover loosely with aluminum foil, and let rest 10 minutes.
- While the lamb is resting, in a skillet or pot, heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add greens and salt and pepper. Cook just until greens wilt.
- To serve: Cut lamb into 2-bone chops, so you will have a total of 4 pieces. Divide potatoes, greens, and lamb chops between serving plates.
Bon Appétit!
Leave a Reply