Andrew Zimmern Cooks: Grilled Rack of Lamb with Eggplant Salad

Hey Everybody. We're going to do a slam-bang grilling session that I think you're really going to enjoy. First up, lets get some lamb grilling. So, I have these gorgeous racks of lamb, and I want to make sure, before I grill it, that I have cut as much surface fat off as I can. Lamb fat is delishous when it's roasty-toasty, but too much of it can cause sooty flair-ups. I'm just going to thin out the fat. Fat is flavor. Lamb has so much inter-muscular fat, I'm not too worried about trimming it down and taking away my flavor. And just season those with a little bit of salt. This is za'atar, it's a middle eastern seasoning with dried sumac. And I'm going to season these up on both sides. And because lamb is so fatty, I dont need to add anything to my grill. And I'm going to start these racks meat-side up. And the reason that I want to do that is that I actually want to start melting this fat without causing sooty flair-ups. I'm going to make a couple of salads here. The first one is going to go with the lamb. Cut some half-inch slices of eggplant. Season those. A little salt and pepper. Little bit of olive oil. This is a wonderful Tunisian olive oil that we actually sell at andrewzimmern.com. Eggplants are kind of like sponges – they soak up that oil. So by stacking them and rubbing them, we're able to put oil on all eight sides of those slices. I have some leek. And I'm just going to run some olive oil down the inside where we've cut them. And just season those with a little bit of salt. And then I'm going to cook these cut-side-up. And the reason is I want that olive oil to heat up inside the ribs of those leeks. Check our lamb. Boy, that looks gorgeous. I mean that is the color of flavor right there my friends. And we can flip those over. I want my eggplant salad to have a few companions to it. So I'm going to add some acidity with these tomatoes. I've got some feta cheese. I've got some fresh mint. And I'm just going to twist those leaves together. And just do a very corse chiffonade of those. I just want it to spread nicely and distribute itself in that salad. You can see that our leeks have gotten charred and so I'm removing them to the area of the grill that I know has less heat. Mmm, this is just gorgeous. I want these large pieces of muscle on the bottom to get the majority of the heat. The pieces of meat up along here are pretty much already cooked. So I just perch the two racks next to each other and they'll usually stay pretty well. Once that eggplant is soft in the middle, you can let it rest. This leek is cooked all the way through, put that on our board. I'm just going to stack these. So they hold their heat. And now, I'm going to grill-roast that lamb. That lid provides convective heat. Turn our attention back to the rest of this salad. I just want to cut some recognizable pieces of leek. I don't want to mince it, I want people to bite into a nice piece. Same thing with the eggplant. I'm going to add a little shallot, some salt, some pepper, lemon juice, some more of our olive oil, little bit of sherry wine vinegar, and then all I want to do is give this a gentle stir to combine those flavors and the salt. Oh yea. Now, I like my lamb –eh– medium rare-ish. Who am I kidding, I like raw lamb too, lamb tartare is fantastic. But I'm just feeling those muscles there, and we're going to let those rest for about 10 minutes. Let those gorgeous juices return. So we have two of our plate components here, and then last one is I want to serve this with a little bit of uh, Indian-Mexican inspirited quick bread. It's half naan, half tortilla. You can make these ahead of time, and refrigerate them. And these just take seconds. Look at how gorgeous these are. I literally put the tortilla down first on the plate. And then my next move is a scoop of this delicious salad. And then my last move is going to be putting a couple of chops on there. Look at how perfectly that's cooked. Maybe a little raw Za'atar, maybe just a little bit of salt to finish. It's a great lunch, it's a great dinner, it's a great party platter. Grilled rack of lamb on an eggplant, feta and tomato salad with a quick and easy flatbread underneath. That makes me hungry.

Channel: Andrew Zimmern

Views: 1,436

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: rack of lamb, lamb, rack, grill, grilled, tomato feta salad, salad, tomato, feta, medium rare, flatbread, naan, tortillia, andrew zimmern, Andrew, Zimmern, zimmernman, Andrew Zimmern cooks, AZ cooks, food, cooks, cooking, az, travel channel, bizarre foods, travel, recipes, tips, kitchen, basic, easy, culinary, fun, family, meal, lunch, dinner, easy dinner, easy lamb dinner, grilled lamb, andrewzimmern.com, lamb on the grill, delicious, intuitive content, anthony bourdain, adam richman, bucket list

Id: Q9ZI3ahHHQY

Length: 5min 9sec (309 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 20 2017