Roast rack of hogget with roast onions and caper sauce — a Rowley Leigh recipe

There was a time — a long time ago, mind — when rack of lamb was not especially expensive. It was a great favourite in restaurants, usually served for two and possibly preceded by an avocado with prawns, a chicken liver pâté, an artichoke vinaigrette or even scallops in the shell, with a nice border of mashed potato. This was “French” cooking of a sort, which means it was what you got in a London restaurant with a French name that was operated by enthusiastic English people.

Chez Moi was one such, in a discreet Holland Park street — next to the vet’s surgery in Addison Avenue. The vet is still there but Chez Moi has gone, just like the worthy La Pomme D’amour around the corner, driven out by rising rents. There is nothing especially sad about this: restaurant years are like dog years and when our own Kensington Place folded last year at the grand old age of 30, it was, like its founders, qualifying for its old age pension.

But the rack of lamb at Chez Moi was especially good. It was always on the menu and always perfectly executed, the covering fat well-rendered and crisp and the eye of the meat a beautiful even pink, with none of the flabby rawness that afflicted the practice of some more authentically French establishments. A discreet little garlic flavoured jus, a neat pile of bright green French beans and a little gratin dauphinoise on the side ensured its constant popularity.

The lamb itself would be sweet and tender, meat from young animals and usually from Southdown or similar lowland breeds. Whereas there is plenty of such meat about, the emphasis has moved away to the more richly flavoured (and better subsidised) hill lamb, a little leaner, a little older and a little darker. I have always wavered between the two although I have definitely given up taking part in the race to get the first new season’s meat on the table by Easter. What you see here is hogget — not easily defined, but at least eight months old and still well short of mutton — and all the better for it.

Being stronger in flavour, hogget can cope with the traditional accompaniments to mutton, onion and caper sauces, redcurrant jelly and mint sauce. If this last strikes anyone as a little naff, just quote Paul Verlaine, who appreciated English food more than most Frenchmen. ‘J’adore la mint sauce’, he opined, and he was not wrong.

Roast rack of hogget with roast onions and caper sauce

A rack is perfect for two. Double up if you are entertaining

1. Peel the onions, keeping the base firmly attached. Run a knife down through the middle but only a little (say 1cm) below the middle and repeat so as to quarter it. Force the segments very slightly apart and add the butter and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper. Place on a little mound of coarse salt and bake in a hottish oven (200C) for 30-40 minutes. The segments will open out like petals of a flower and the heart of the onions will be perfectly tender.
2. Season the rack very well with salt on all sides and with black pepper on the exposed meat parts. Place fat side down in a hot, heavy pan and let this render for a few minutes to release the fat and colour very well. Turn the rack over and roast in the same oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and rest for 10 minutes.
3. Chop the garlic finely, mix with the breadcrumbs and season generously with salt. Mix the mustard with a teaspoon of cream and coat the top of the rack. Dip this into the breadcrumbs, pressing them down on the meat. Sprinkle a few drops of olive oil on the crumbs and return to the oven for five minutes. A skewer should emerge tepid in the middle (around 52C if using a meat thermometer) before resting. Leave in a warm place with a protective sheet of foil loosely placed over the top.
4. To make the sauce, soften a finely chopped shallot in a teaspoon of butter before adding the wine. Reduce by half, add the stock and reduce again. Add the cream and reduce gently, seasoning with salt and a few drops of wine vinegar. Just before serving, add the well-drained capers. Carve the rack — which should be a juicy medium rare — and serve with the onion and the caper sauce. A brassica is the best green accompaniment (purple sprouting broccoli, perhaps).

Wine

The rich and slightly fatty meat needs a red with a good level of acidity. Despite Tuscany being steak country, I always think a good Chianti Classico (or Brunello if you have it) is the very best accompaniment for mature lamb.

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