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This has to be the simplest Roast Lamb I have ever done and I wanted to make sure I passed it along to my readers. As I was cleaning up the kitchen, I began to think about Sustainable Farming and how the lamb I ate impacted the environment as I am no were near New Zealand. Now don't get me wrong I love our planet but I am not a crazy environmentalist who says you cant eat a lamb because your carbon emissions is to great. But It did get me thinking about how better off my food and my budget if i could eat more local foods. This particular rack of lamb had a twin and in total cost me $17.00 as it was on sale. So with this in mind, off to the Internet I went and I was surprised at what I found on Sustainable Farming. I was surprised to find an article about Factory Farming because me growing up in the Mid West and in Maine, farming was done by families not by Corporate America. So what is Factory Farming? Well the government calls these facilities Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). Again what does this mean? well The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines a CAFO as "new and existing operations which stable or confine and feed or maintain for a total of 45 days or more in any 12-month period more than the number of animals specified" in categories that they list out. In addition, "there's no grass or other vegetation in the confinement area during the normal growing season." Doesn't sound pretty does it? I found this information pertaining to CAFO's on Sustainable Table, take a look and see for yourself.
Though this sounds like a terrible way of farming, there is hope in helping farming families. Buy at your local Farmers Market. The prices are usually less expensive than what you would find in the store. However this seems like the same solution that is given every time I hear about how I can support my local growers. I found a program that sounded really helpful called CSA. CSA is Community Supported Agriculture. What's that you say? Well it is a community of local farmers that connect directly with consumers, which helps develop a regional food supply and strong local economy. Basically what that means is that CSA cuts out the middle man and lowers the price of food. Often these CSA's use organic farming methods which helps with the argument of "healthy food is expensive food" Take a look at the link above and search for your local CSA you might be as surprised as I was!Now back to my Lamb recipe. It was so tasty and I am not a big fan but this was delicious! The meat was medium rare and juicy. You know how sometimes you get that gamie flavor? It wasn't so with this cut. The fat content was not present. For me that's where I pick up on that flavor the most. I hope you try this!
Ingredients
I Rack of Lamb (7-9 Ribs)
10 to 20 Flavored Crackers (I used Archer Farms Simply Balanced Asiago Rosemary & Pepper)
2 tbls of olive oil
2 tbls of garlic powder
2 tps of onion powder
1/2 tps of Rosemary
Oven Temp 450 15 minutes
Directions.
1. Crush the cracker into fine breadcrumb like texture. Add all your spices with the Cracker Crumb Mix.
2. Take the 1tbl of Olive Oil and mix with the mixture until it becomes wet but not soggy. 3. Season your lamb with salt and pepper and apply the Cracker Crumb Mix to the rack of lamb.
4. Take the remaining olive oil and sear your rack of lamb until nice and brown on the outside. This will crisp up your Cracker Crumb Mix. Put the additional Rosemary on top before putting in the oven
5. Put in the oven at 450 and bake for 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before slicing.
*Cooks Note* For safety, the USDA recommends cooking roasts to 145 degrees fahrenheit (medium rare), 160 degrees fahrenheit (medium), or 170 degrees fahrenheit (well-done).
information on CSA obtained from http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/csa/
information on Factory Farming obtained from http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/factoryfarming/
image of tomatoes are from the Morgue Files