Category: Holiday

Rack of Lamb with a Mint Panko Crust

Rack of LambTraditional Rack of Lamb!

Who can deny a Rack of Lamb for Easter or for Christmas?  It’s tradition, isn’t it? Well not in my family.  Not that we don’t celebrate these holidays or enjoy many of it’s benefits, but the whole Rack of Lamb mystery seemed to evade our house when I was growing up.  I didn’t understand until recently, and unfortunately I haven’t found another way around it.  An eight rib rack of lamb can run you upwards of $45 bucks, easily.  That’s about 15 bucks a pound considering the average rack weighs about 3 plus pounds.  But I figure, much like Christmas, you’ve got to enjoy life and splurge now and again.  So if you’re going to do it, you might as well do it right here in the Poor Man’s Gourmet Kitchen!Rack of Lamb in a Mint Panko Crust

Don’t let the idea of this recipe intimidate you; not one bit.  This recipe is very simple, and it breaks down like this.  First, clean the meat.  Cut and trim away the flap and some of the fat.  Season then sear.  Smear with Mustard.  Roll in the seasoned bread crumbs and bake.  Sound easy enough?  Good, because it really is, and my video instructional, as always will walk you through it step by step and show you how simplified this rack of lamb recipe is.  Not to mention how proud of your self you’ll feel when you take your bow from the applause you receive from your guests.

Rack of Lamb Ingredients:

1 Trimmed Rack of Lamb
1 cup of Panko Bread Crumbs
1 cup Mint leaves
2 green onions
Horseradish Mustard or Honey Dejon Mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste (1/4 tsp salt 1 tsp black pepper)
Orange Chile Sauce for dipping or Mint Jelly

Cooking King Crab Legs

King Crab Legs

The Best King Crab Legs

The thing about King Crab Legs, or any crab legs for that matter, is that they are already cooked when you buy them.  I know, Shocker, right?  So all we need to do is reheat them and you just need to choose the method you’d like to prepare them.  Steaming is an easy way if you have a big enough pot that can be covered with a lid.  A few inches of boiling water in the bottom will get them done in about 4 minutes.  Just make sure that you get the water to a rolling boil before you actually add the King Crab Legs.  Most people don’t realize that you can actually cheat and take it a step further; you can usually have them steamed at the place of purchase when you are buying them.  Of course this means you need to be picking them up at meal time but if you’re waiting on the oven for bake potatoes, a quick trip to the grocery is perfect for that waiting time; just a suggestion.

Be Careful Grilling King Crab Legs

Grilling King Crab Legs leaves people oohing and awing every time you flip open the lid, but you need to be very careful not to dry them out.  Even though you tend to gain the Smokey flavor of the grill, you lose the natural flavors of the crab meat.  Remember this is just a reheat anyway so you don’t want them on the grill for too long.  10 minutes on low with the lid down, tops!

The oven will have a similar effect that grilling does if you don’t cover up the Crab Legs.  It will dry them out, and you will lose flavor.  The way I show you how to cook them in this tutorial is on a broiler pan covered with tin foil.  The reason I do it this way is because you get the best of both worlds.  By adding a half cup of water to the pan you get the steaming effect with convection as the heat rises from underneath the King Crab Legs, then the heat reflects off the foil, cooking the top.  It’s win-win.

You can do a reheat in the microwave, but I don’t recommend it.  In fact I don’t recommend that any meat go in the microwave for a reheat, EVER!  I’ll get into that at later time.

King Crab Legs and Santolla Reds

Now, the crab legs that I’m introducing are not your traditional King Crab Legs.  These are called Santolla Reds.  The reason I’m using these instead of the other is they are practically the same thing.  First off, they are almost exactly the same size; same look and everything that way.  The only difference that I’ve noticed is they are a little bit saltier, so I just use unsalted butter.  Second, it’s about the cost.  I wouldn’t be living up to my reputation as the Poor Man’s Gourmet Kitchen showing you recipes at “A Low Budget Wonder”, if I was showing off recipes that aren’t affordable.  Santolla Reds, if you can find them, are usually at least half the price of regular King Crab Legs.  I can pick them up at Smith’s right now, for $6.99 a pound, and that’s year ‘round!  Try getting more than a pound and a half of king crab legs at any restaurant these days for under $26 bucks!  It’s worth doing it at home, and worth knowing a few tricks to cooking King Crab Legs and other gourmet meals at a low budget wonder.