Savoury
Suppers
Rack of Lamb with Oatmeal and Cracked Black Pepper Crust
This recipie is featured in the Scottish recipes by Lady Claire Macdonald leaflet. World - renowned writer, cook and cookery demonstrator, Claire Macdonald lives at Kinloch Lodge on the Isle of Skye.
Allow 1 rack to serve two people
To serve 6
3 Racks of Lamb
6 tablespoons Hamlyn’s Scottish Oatmeal
About 30 grinds of black pepper, best if you have a very coarse grinder
1 teaspoon approx. best rock salt, such as Malden
A sprig of Rosemary - chopped
Lay a sheet of baking parchment in a roasting tin - this will make washing up very much easier.
Now, either cut the fat and skin from the racks - easy with a very sharp knife, or, if you like to eat fat, leave it on but score it, again with a sharp knife, in lines across then diagonally. Mix together the oatmeal, salt and pepper, and scatter it over the racks. Roast in a hot oven, 400’f, 200’c, gas mark 6, for 20-25 minutes if you like the meat rare. Personally, I like lamb cooked right through - unfashionable, I know - so I cook the racks for an hour. Because I cook them for so long I cover them with a piece of baking parchment for the first half of their cooking time, to prevent scorching the oatmeal during the cooking time. If you leave on the fat, a lengthy cooking time allows the fat to crisp up and much of the fat literally melts into the meat. Delicious!
Serve the lamb with a minty hollandaise sauce:
3 large Egg Yolks
150g - 225g (6-8 oz) Butter
A good handful of chopped mint leaves - applemint if at all possible
140ml (1/4 pint) White Wine Vinegar simmered till reduced by half with:
6-8 peppercorns, a bayleaf, a few crushed parsley stalks, half a raw onion.
When cold, strain the flavoured reduced vinegar.
Put the yolks into a pyrex bowl which fits on top of a saucepan. Have about 2” of water simmering in the pan. With a whisk add the flavoured wine vinegar to the yolks, then add the butter, about an ounce at a time. Stir with the whisk until the butter has melted before adding another piece. Keep the water beneath the bowl at a gently simmer - not a fast boil - as you stir in the butter pieces. You should end up with a thick sauce. Take the bowl off the heat and stir in the chopped mint. This sauce will keep its heat and can be made an hour before serving - keep it in a warm place, but not over direct heat.
To serve the racks, you can either cut each rack in half and serve it
just as it is, or you can cut between each bone and arrange three chops
per person on each warmed plate. Do whichever you choose. If you really
want to be correct, you can buy small frills of white paper, specially
made to cover the ends of the bones, but I have to confess that I have
never done this!
Toasted Pinhead Oatmeal and Vanilla Crystal Ice Cream.
By Lady Claire Macdonald
Serves 6-8
75g (3 oz) Hamlyn’s Scottish Pinhead Oatmeal
50g (2oz) Granulated Sugar
3 tablespoons Water
450ml (¾ pint) Double Cream,
75g (3 oz) sieved Icing Sugar
½ teaspoon best quality Vanilla Extract
Dry fry the oatmeal over a moderate heat for about 5 minutes, shaking the pan, to toast the oatmeal.
Whip the cream together with the icing sugar and vanilla extract.
In a saucepan stir the granulated sugar and water together over moderate heat until all the sugar granules have dissolved completely. Only then let the syrup boil, and boil for 2 minutes, boiling fast. Stir the dryfried pinhead oatmeal into the syrup and scrape this onto a baking parchment lined baking tray - it will become hard and crystalline. When cold, bash with a rolling pin into crumbs.
When the crisp sugar-coated crumbs are cold, fold them into the vanilla flavoured whipped cream, and freeze this mixture in a solid polythene container with a lid. Bring the ice cream from the freezer to room temperature just as you sit down to eat the savoury courses. It should then be easy to spoon into a serving bowl. This is good with all types of soft summer fruits.
