Location: My Tiny Kitchen

Besides beef, lamb is probably my favourite non-regular meat. I say non-regular because lamb is not the kind of meat that I can have very often. I love its rich taste and yet I can’t stand its richness when I have a lot of it. Nevertheless, once in awhile I like to pan-sear a rack of lamb that has been has been marinated over night in spices. I have used this recipe again and again and it has always given good results. Cumin is the secret in this recipe; it is the perfect spice for lamb. God probably created cumin right after he created lamb.

So far I have used only lamb from New Zealand. Usually one rack is a good serving for two people.

The rack always comes untrimmed. Take off the silver skin that sits on top of the meat. The silver skin is a piece of chewy membrane that binds the meat together. The meat is more tender after the silver skin has been removed. Removing the silver skin could be tricky and it takes some practices to master the skill.

Remove most of the fat that sits between the bone and the meat. The gamey smell of lamb comes mostly from the fat. Therefore if you don’t like the gaminess, then take away all the fat.

This is a rack that has been fully trimmed and ready to be marinated.

To allow more spices to get into the meat, I cut the rack into pieces. Each piece has two ribs.

This is my ultimate marinate:
- 1 and 1/2 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1/2 tbsp rosemary
- 1/2 tbsp thyme
- 1 tbsp kocher salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil

1. Rub the spices into the meat and marinate the meat overnight.

2. Because the rack has already been cut into ribs, I can pan-sear the ribs until they have been cooked to the wanted doneness. The following steps cook the lamb to medium well:

- In a heated pan, put in 2 tbsp of olive oil. Place the lamb into the pan, cover the pan and let it cook for high heat for 3 minutes, then medium heat for 2 minutes.
- Turn the lamb to the other side, cover the pan and cook for 3 minutes.
- Turn the lamb again to the last side that hasn’t been seared, cover the pan and cook for 3 minutes.