Rack of Lamb

Our last night in Calgary, S's mom cooked us a delicious dinner of rack of lamb, baba ganoush and taboulleh, pictured here with a pile of pita triangles. I've already blogged about the baba ganoush recipe. Here are the others:

Rack of Lamb
(serves 4)

2 racks of lamb
1/3 C balsamic vineagar
1/3 C red wine
1/3 C soy sauce
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced

Marinate the racks of lamb in all of the ingredients listed above except the peppercorns for one-and-a-half to two hours.

Grind some peppercorns and coat the racks of lamb with a peppercorn crust. In a 400 - 450 F oven roast the racks for about 20 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 140 F. Turn once after 10 minutres if you are broiling them (roasting them on the top shelf of the oven).

After the meat has rested for a few minutes, cut the racks into four equal pieces. We had four ribs each.

And now the taboulleh...

Taboulleh
serves 6
Prep time: About 1 hour, but mostly waiting for bulgur to soak

1/2 C fine bulgur wheat
6 to 7 roma tomatoes,
6 small spring onions or 4 fat ones
2 bunches of parsely
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 C olive oil
1-2 Tbsp dried mint or fresh mint, chopped, to taste
salt and pepper to taste
a sprinkle of sugar

Rinse the bulgur wheat six times (or fewer if you are in a rush). More than cover with boiling water and let soak for 1/2 hour to one hour.

Prepare the vegetables: Quarter the tomatoes and seed them so the juices run out. Thinly slice the spring onions on the diagonal. Pinch off the florets on the parsley bunches, wash them and squeeze dry in a paper towel, then chop finely.

When the bulgur has soaked, combine all the ingredients and serve.