Easter Sunday On Saturday - Crown Roast of Lamb

jfm0830

At the last minute some scheduling conflicts came up where my family could not all get together on the same time if we ate together on Sunday. Noon Saturday worked for everyone and so it was. The bill of fare was a crown roast of lamb based on an Aalton Brown recipe. Twice Baked (& smoked) Sweet Potatoes from a Cook's Country recipe and some biscuits hailing from South Carolina called Angel Biscuits from a recipe from America's Test Kitchens Homegrown Favorites. The Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes had the advantage of being able to be made ahead for a good chunk of the recipe. The pictures will start on Friday:

FRIDAY:

The sweet potatoes were microwaved until soft.

The sweet potatoes were halved and the pulp was scooped out. Two shells were discarded & 6 got used going forward.

The 6 shells were cooked in the oven for 10 minutes until the skins were dry and crisp.

Meanwhile the pulp was run through a food mill.

The milled sweet potatoes were combined with egg, butter & parmesan cheese & salt.

The filling went back into the sweet potato shells. At this point the filled potatoes were covered and refrigerated overnight.

The topping was started next. 4 strips of bacon were diced up into 1/2" x 1/2" pieces and browned.

The bacon was removed from the pan and some of the bacon grease was reserved. The bacon, bacon fat, some diced bread chunks, pepper & thyme were combined to make the topping.

the topping was covered and kept at room temperature overnight.

SATURDAY MORNING:

The Angel Biscuits used: All-purpose flour, buttermilk, instant yeast, salt, sugar, Crisco, baking soda and baking powder.

The dough is turned out, kneaded, and rolled out to a 1/2" thickness disc.

The dough was cut into 2 1/2" rounds with a cookie cutter, creased with a ruler in the middle and folded over in half.

The formed rolls were put in a 200 degree oven for 30 minutes where they rose to 2x their original height.

The rolls cooked on the Egg at 350 for 20 minutes. I used the AR set up for indirect with the oval pizza stone. Midway through I swapped the two trays vertically and rotated them 180 degrees.

The rolls were brushed with butter. They smelled wonderful and crackled when the butter went on.

jfm0830

Time to start the lamb. The rub for the lamb used: Ground coriander, minced garlic, salt, pepper, and chopped fresh thyme.

The 3-rack crown roast has been rubbed.It is off to my second Egg which has been preheated to 375 and some Jack Daniels oak wood chips were used for smoke.

The filled Sweet Potatoes are back out of the fridge and are ready to receive the topping and some parmesan cheese.

The rack of lamb is done after cooking for 45 minutes at 375 indirect. It was taken to an internal temperature of 130 degrees. It will go inside and cool for 20 minutes.

The topped sweet potatoes are finished cooking after 35 minutes at 325 degrees.

Time to eat!! The lamb was filled with some Spring veggies.

The Sweet Potatoes were amazing, people liked them as much as the lamb.

The rolls were amazing. They had wonderful buttery flavor and a light texture.

This was an amazing meal!!. Every single aspect of it went like clockwork. Everyone loved the food and said they weren't sure which item they liked better. Dsys like this make up for the days when you have problems. Every one enjoyed the time spent with family, remembered the day and shared a good meal. That is what it is all about.

Jim

JohnInCarolina

Amazing cook Jim!  Lamb and everything else looks phenomenal.  Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into these posts.  

buzd504

Whoa. That all looks amazing.

Little Steven

Looks incredible Jim. Why the bone down part? I'm sure there is a good reason but I have been drinking.

jfm0830

Thanks for looking and commenting guys!

@JohnInCarolina‌ thank you as always for your encouraging words about my posts.

@Little Steven the recipe for the pork crown roast I did at Christmas suggested doing this. Instead of being nestled down in the bottom of the pan with all of veggies and everything else, by inverting it you get better airflow which helps cook the center evenly. I decided to do this on this roast to help keep the herb paste up out of that the dripping fat. Also it raised higher than the level of the sides of my cast-iron pan, which allowed the air to circulate more freely. All I know is the roast cooked very evenly, and doing it this way certainly didn't hurt.

hapster

Another outstanding cook and post!!!

Tjcoley

Looks fantastic!  Great all around cook.

DIAD

Impressive! I'm speechless. Nice job

DMW

I'm not worthy...

travisstrick

Happy freaking easter. 

MGBBob80

That looks absolutely incredible - not to mention delicious!  Cheers, Bob 

Dyal_SC

B-) Bada$$...

Terrebandit

Wow!

Conneggticut_Yankee

Amazing, absolutely amazing. Great post. Thanks Jim. 

jfm0830

Thanks again guys for all of your kind words. I can be a real fussy guy when it comes to my cooks But I can honestly say I can't think of anything I would change about this one. I hope all of you have great success with your Easter endeavors and get to share a wonderful meal with your families. Start your Eggs!!.

SGH

@jfm0830‌
Your food looks outstanding! Your photos are incredible as well. Sir that cooking the rack inverted is a great idea and I thank you for sharing it.

johnmitchell

What more can be said...I love the attention to detail..Awesome !!!!!

jfm0830

@SGH

Thank you sir for your kind remarks. I have to thank the folks at America's Test Kitchens for the idea of inverting the rack. At Christmas time I made their recipe for a pork crown roast, I just adapted the idea to this rack of lamb. In case you were thinking of it for a pork crown roast, there was more involved than I did here. They had you cook the pork bones down at 475 until you reached 110 degrees internal and then flip the roast and finish it off at 350 until you reached 140 degrees internal. The crown roast was cooked so evenly at Christmas it seemed like the thing to try here. I could see no downside to the experiment here.