It's all in the Planning

I'm hosting a dinner party this Sunday night. Well, my wife is hosting the party, I'm doing the cooking. A few weeks ago I blogged about some menu ideas and last night I turned my kitchen into a test kitchen. I tested out two lamb recipes and baked my first angel food cake from scratch to see if it was worth the extra effort to make my own angel food cake or if I should be one from the market. It was worth it, I think. The cake was delicious and moist, full of sponginess and great flavor. I guess I should have bought one at the store to compare. Anyway, I decided that I'm going to bake another one Sunday morning and serve it for dessert with a fresh lemon curd and sweetened berries. I'm using Alton Brown's Angel Food Cake recipe and Emeril Lagasse's Lemon Curd recipe.

So I tried out two lamb recipes, one prepared with a walnut crust and the other with a rosemary scallion crust. I purchased one 8-bone rack of lamb from Whole Foods Market and split in half to try the two recipes. The whole rack was already trimmed and frenched, but after I seared the two halves I realized I probably could have trimmed it a little more, removing some more of the fat cap. While they both were delicious, the walnut crusted rack of lamb was much better in taste and post-oven crust consistency. I will be making the Rack of Lamb with Walnut Crust on Sunday. I plan on serving the lamb with some roasted baby potatoes as well as some haricot verts and baby carrots.

Rack of Lamb with Walnut Crust

Rosemary scallion crust on the left, Walnut crust on the right.
Sauteed Haricot Verts on the bottom.

One delicious Angel Food Cake