Rack of Lamb with Beer Polenta

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Seeing as though my Italian Christmas Eve is filled with fish and absolutely no meat, I figured to get my full of some lamb tonight! Not to mention that there is a chance that the world could be ending....

This meal consists of three main elements- a beautifully cooked rack of lamb, a clean side salad and beer polenta. That's right beer polenta...(something tells me that you might see another blog from me in the future- perhaps a beer and cheddar cheese polenta or something of that sorts...any thoughts??)

Here is an overview of my recipe-

Lamb:
1 rack of lamb with about 8 ribs
3 garlic cloves crushed
1/4 plus 2 tbs. olive oil
Any herbs of your choice- some ideas could be rosemary, thyme, oregano ect..
kosher salt
freshly cracked black pepper

Incorporate the olive oil, garlic, herbs and freshly cracked black pepper together in a bowl. Add the lamb to this mixture and coat the lamb on all sides. Cover the bowl with wrap and pop into the fridge from anywhere between a hour and day; however, I know that under certain circumstances (escpically this one about the "end of the world") you can't always wait that long so whatever works for you!

Next remove the lamb from the fridge. Preheat the oven to 400. Once the lamb is at room temperature, heat a large sauté pan or shallow dutch oven with about 2 tbs. olive oil to medium-high heat on the stove. Make sure the cloves of garlic are off of the lamb and add a healthy pinch of salt and pepper to each sides of the lamb.  Sear the lamb fat side down for around 5 minutes or until golden. Than flip the lamb fat side up and pop it in the oven to roast for anywhere between 7-20 mins. depending on how you like it. Just so you can get an idea about internal temperatures around 120 is rare. Take the meat out and let it rest for at least ten minutes. Cut the rack into either single or double pieces. Enjoy!

Beer Polenta:

Basically for instant polenta, just follow the package's direction and instead of using all water as your liquid do about half beer half water or quarter beer rest water. You can finish the polenta with butter, cream/milk, cheese or even herbs if you please. Best of all it is so quick you can make it while the meat is resting!


Salad:

This salad I made tonight had endive, radicchio, arugula, parsley, feta cheese and olives. Any dressing with olive oil and a nice acidic punch of vinegar,  freshly squeezed lemon or orange juice would be great! This salad brought nice fresh and bitter tastes to cut through the rich lamb.

Happy Eatings!