In this book it begins by saying that grilling should only be done on a charcoal grill to get that grill flavor and smoke. Of course I do not own a charcoal grill so I first had to decide if I would go buy one or try to figure it out on my gas grill. After much discussion with Symon we opted for to not getting a charcoal grill and sticking to the gas grill. One thing I did want to share with you is about how Alton Brown determines how hot the grill is. For most "grillers" they use the hand technique in which you put your hand over the fire and determining on how long you can leave your hand there, is how hot it is. Obviously this is not safe and Alton Brown realizes this. Instead, he uses a ice cube and if it melts in a certain amount of seconds. Depending on how long it takes to melt will determine how hot it is. Very cool. :)
For the first recipe, we were to make rack of lamb. (Hence the Mary in the title) We ended up purchasing the lamb at Costco. Which turned out to be great. It came packaged and ready to go. This rack of lamb was called "Austrian rack of lamb". Not sure what the difference is but these were the only kind I could find.
The first thing I needed to do was prep the lamb. This was really easy. Just oil her up and salt and pepper. The rack was already "frenched" for me so I didn't have to do it. "Frenched" means that the bones are sicking out.
In this picture, you can see the fat(white) layer on the back of the lamb chops. I will come back to that. I sliced the rack in 1/2 and then wrapped foil around the exposed bones so they would not burn on the grill. I turned the grill on to Med/High and let it warm up for 5 minutes. (of course AB suggests the charcoal grill so I had to improvise. The thermometer on the grill said 375 degrees so I figured it was ready. I placed the racks on the grill Fat side down and let them cook open (top NOT closed) for 5 minutes and then turned.
As you can see after the first turn, there was some good color but I think I should have left them on the first side for 2 minutes longer. After the 1st two flips. I moved the lamb off the heat and then covered for 10 minutes. I was aiming for an internal temperature of 138 degrees.
After I reached that temperature I removed from the grill and let rest for about 15 minutes under foil. Lamb is to be served med-rare. As you can see it is very med-rare if not rare but we trusted the thermometer.
I will say that after letting the rack rest for 15 minutes, when I cut it, NO juices ran out. It just goes to show that you must let it rest. :)
Since we had the grill going we decided to grill some red potatoes with the lamb. The book calls to use an cast iron skillet on the grill to sear some red potatoes. I was not so keen about putting my expensive cast iron skillet in which I have a love affair with on the grill. I opted for the 2nd options of making a hobo pack style cooking method with tin foil as seen here.
I seasoned the potatoes with oil, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. After cooking for about 40 minutes the were still not completely crunchy.
Here is the finished product.
It tasted really good. Not all of the potatoes were soft so we ended up eating only the smaller chucks. The lamb was really good. It had a little gamey flavor. We felt that it probably could have been cooked a little bit longer since it was so rare. Symon wanted to eat it with horseradish which I didn't have. He likes to put sauce on EVERYTHING!!! Overall it was really good and for the record, neither of my kids ate it. :(
Lessons learned:
1. EXPENSIVE!!!!
2. Cut the potatoes smaller
3. Cook the lamb a little bit longer.
4. Trim some of the fat off to get a better color on the grill and get a warmer temp inside the rack.
I think that the next time I grill I will try the ice cube trick to confirm my temperature. Coming up next, Salmon!!!!
