Crusted lamb rack

Crumbed Sweetbreads, A Warm Vegetable Salad and Merlot Jus

Pesto

1 cup fresh mint
1 cup fresh basil
3 cloves of garlic
1 cup olive oil
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
¼ cup pine nuts
50ml lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Place mint, basil, garlic, parmesan, lemon juice and pine nuts into a food processor and blend until smooth and forms a paste. Slowly add oil while mixing and season.

Merlot jus

250ml merlot wine
25g shallots
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp brown sugar
500ml beef stock
25g butter
Salt and pepper

Place the wine, shallots, garlic and stock in a pan and reduce by two thirds. Pass through a sieve then mix through butter and season.

Sweetbreads

500g sweetbreads

Boil sweetbreads for 7 minutes then drain. Once cool enough to handle, peel and put aside. When ready, place sweetbreads into deep fryer at 190ºC until golden brown. Drain on baking paper.

Pine nut and parmesan crumb

½ cup pine nuts
½ cup parmesan cheese
1 cup breadcrumbs
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
5 large fresh mint leaves
5 sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper

Place pine nuts, parmesan and fresh herbs into a food processor (remove the herbs from the stalk) blend until well combined. Add the bread crumbs and salt and pepper and mix. Halve the crumb mix into two bowls.

Sweetbread crumb

1 egg
½ cup milk
½ cup plain flour
1 bowl herbed crumb mix

Whisk the milk and egg together. Roll sweetbreads in flour until evenly coated. Place into egg wash before coating with crumb mix.

Lamb rack

2 lamb racks
2 tbsp of seeded mustard
1 bowl herbed crumb mix

Trim the lamb, removing all sinew and cut into racks of four bones. Brush with seeded mustard then coat racks with the crumb (the crumb will stick to the mustard). While the vegetables are cooking, sear off your lamb. You want your pan to be smoking hot so the crumb does not stick to the pan and gives the rack a good colour. Place the lamb into the oven at a 180ºC for 7-10 minutes (depending on size) and then take out to rest.

Warm vegetable salad

¼ small pumpkin
1 parsnip
1 fennel bulb
1 small kumara
5 yams
2 red onions
20g feta
1 handful of mesclun
3 sprigs of rosemary
1 handful of mint leaves
5 sprigs of thyme
A drizzle of oil
Salt and pepper

Peel and cut vegetables into bite size pieces. Finely chop herbs. Place vegetables onto a roasting tray and sprinkle herbs, salt and pepper, drizzle oil over and mix. Cook at 180ºC until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Assemble

Mix vegetables, mesclun and feta and dress with pesto. Cut each lamb rack in half and place on plate alongside sweetbread. Serve merlot jus in small ramekin and garnish with rosemary.

Recipe kindly supplied by

Chef Jessica O'Neil
Blazing Copper
100 Waimea Street, Gore
(03) 208 9029

Photo by
Olivia Turner