Tim Wilson Of The Ginger Pig Shares His Lamb Crown Roast Recipe
Recipe: Lamb Crown Roast
The crown roast of lamb is a real 1970s party dish. Originally, the centre of the crown was filled with lamb or pork stuffing - sometimes sausage meat - but the result was normally very greasy. My way is to prepare three racks, trimming off any excess fat, as when the crown is made the fat ends up in the middle, thus never crisping.
Serves up to 8 and takes 1.5-2 hours.
Ingredients:
1.7kg lamb Crown Roast
Enough new potatoes to fill the centre of the crown, parboiled and tossed in butter
A small handful of pre-cooked chestnuts
Four or five stone-less prunes, roughly chopped
Method:
Remove your lamb crown roast from the fridge. Parboil your new potatoes. Then preheat the oven to 200°C.  Avoid using lamb or pork mince to fill the centre, but place the crown in a roasting tin with the potatoes, chestnuts and prunes piled in the middle. Season with sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste.
Cook for 20 minutes at 200°C, then reduce the heat to 170°C for a further hour. Although the cooking time results in a more medium cook to the lamb, it does enable the fat to render down and run away. If your preference is for very pink lamb chops, choose to cook a guard of honour instead. This is taking two racks of lamb, lining them up facing each other and pushing the rib bones between each other. Again, quite an impressive joint, but the heat can get exposed to the fat quicker, enabling it to melt away.
For a richly coloured autumnal platter, serve with a mix of your favourite steamed or roast seasonal vegetables.Â
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