Lamb rack and spinach

Posted by Gary

If you want to jump to the recipe, skip the introduction. 

Introduction 

Dear Reader, 

I hope you had a good week. Mine was busy with lots of stakeholder meetings.

What have I been listening to this week? 

I listened to a book by neurologist David Perlmutter titled “Grain brain: the surprising truth about wheat, carbs, and sugar – your brain’s silent killers” (Perlmutter, 2019). The author focuses mainly on the role of gluten in neurological disease; he also advocates for a low carbohydrate, healthy fat eating lifestyle. He is a proponent of the concept that gluten sensitivity is a spectrum rather than a binary abnormality. By that, many will say that proper gluten sensitivity is coeliac disease. If a diagnosis of coeliac disease cannot be achieved using conventional criteria, then the patient doesn’t have gluten sensitivity. Perlmutter proclaims that gluten sensitivity and coeliac disease should not be bound solely as gastrointestinal diseases but also neurological ones. He cites many examples from his own clinical practice and helpfully also shares citations from the observations of other neurologists (Cherbuin et al., 2012; Li et al., 2023).

I’ve also been listening to “Kitchen Confidential” (Bourdain, 2000) by Anthony Bourdain (1956 – 2018). I had picked up a bit about Bourdain based on his TV shows and what I’d read in the news. Listening to him read his book authenticates the stories he’s telling. I never realised how many illicit drugs he was snorting, smoking, ingesting, and injecting.

What’s on the menu tonight?

I was scrolling through low carbohydrate, healthy fat eating groups on Facebook. I noticed some were enjoying a rack of lamb. It got me drooling.

Recipe 

Equipment 

  • Oven
  • Meat thermometer
  • Frypan

Ingredients 

  • Lamb rack
  • Iodised salt
  • Spinach
  • Cream
  • Olives
  • Cherry tomatoes

Instructions 

  1. Turn the oven on and set the heat to 160 °C.
  2. Season the lamb with salt.
  3. Insert the thermometer.
  4. Put the lamb on a rack and into the oven and cook until the internal temperature is about 54 °C.
  5. Slice the rack into cutlets.
  6. Wilt some spinach in rendered lamb fat and then add some cream.
  7. Add the other bits of vegetation.
  8. Put the food and the vegetation on a dinner plate.
  9. Give thanks to the Lord. 
  10. Eat with a steak knife and fork. 

Thoughts on the meal 

I love lamb, and I love a rack of lamb. I chose a frame with lots of fat. It was delicious. I’ll have plenty of lamb cutlets left for lunches during the week.  

Final thoughts 

  • Do you have gluten sensitivity? Do you think it’s affected how you think?
  • Do you like watching Anthony Bourdain’s TV shows?
  • Are you a fan of lamb? Do you like lamb fat?

Photographs 

Roast rack of lamb with spinach, olives, and cherry tomatoes
Rack of lamb
Rack of lamb
Roast rack of lamb
Roast rack of lamb
Roast rack of lamb
Roast rack of lamb
Roast rack of lamb with spinach, olives, and cherry tomatoes
Roast rack of lamb with spinach, olives, and cherry tomatoes
Roast rack of lamb with spinach, olives, and cherry tomatoes
Roast rack of lamb with spinach, olives, and cherry tomatoes

References 

Bourdain, A. (2000). Kitchen confidential: Adventures in the culinary underbelly (1st US ed). Bloomsbury.

Cherbuin, N., Sachdev, P., & Anstey, K. J. (2012). Higher normal fasting plasma glucose is associated with hippocampal atrophy: The PATH Study. Neurology, 79(10), 1019–1026. https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0b013e31826846de

Li, C., Guo, J., Zhao, Y., Sun, K., Abdelrahman, Z., Cao, X., Zhang, J., Zheng, Z., Yuan, C., Huang, H., Chen, Y., Liu, Z., & Chen, Z. (2023). Visit-to-visit HbA1c variability, dementia, and hippocampal atrophy among adults without diabetes. Experimental Gerontology, 178, 112225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2023.112225

Perlmutter, D. (2019). Grain brain: The surprising truth about wheat, carbs, and sugar – your brain’s silent killers. Hodder & Stoughton.

16 Responses

  1. I do love lamb, but I’ve never made a rack of lamb before. I love that you had extra to nosh on during the week. That’s an essential thing for me when I cook.

    Reply

  3. The lamb and vegetables look fantastic! I really enjoyed Anthony Bourdaine’s show, No Reservations–and I thought he was a terrific writer.

    Reply

  5. I eagerly followed Anthony Bourdain for over a quarter century and, like many friends, was aghast at his suicide unable to watch his programmes for over a year. I am again catching up on series I have missed relishing his thoughts and learning from them in retrospect. As I am currently studying mind/body and other natural forms of medicine in the States I come up against dr Perlmutter’s thoughts rather often. As only roughly .64% of the population suffers from coeliac disease but hugely more believe it fashionable to be on the bandwagon and thus miss out on essential food chemicals I am pleased this has thoroughly missed me by !!! Love lamb – no use telling you half your plate should be full of delicious vegetables !

    Reply

  6. I love rack of lamb too. Sous viding works very well for rack of lamb. There is a Mediterranean Rub from Cape herb and spices (South African) which we can get in the UK from Asda and Morrison’s supermarkets. This goes particularly well with lamb. I am definitely gluten intolerant and probably have been since childhood. It gives me abdominal pain, brain fog, mouth ulcers, iron deficiency anaemia, and poor resistance to infection. I haven’t been formally tested for coeliac and never will be. If I can’t face a slice of bread then how would I manage to eat six portions a day for six weeks! Since wheat is not an essential or even, as far as I am concerned, a desirable part of a diet, I don’t see the point of even trying for anyone who thinks they are intolerant. Just stop the wheat.

    Reply

    2. Hi Katharine,
      I’ve cooked sous vide rack of lamb previously and loved it.
      I was surprised when I saw this rack on the shelf because it had such a great looking fat cap.
      I can understand the lack of need for a formal diagnosis if the process will aggravate your symptoms and make you feel sick. You’re effectively treating the problem through diet anyway.
      Since stopping the grains and other sources of carbohydrate apart from the low carbohydrate vegetables, I feel so much better.

      Reply

  7. Hi Gaz, I’m not that big a fan of lamb but that olive, spinach and cherry tomatoes salad looks yum!

    Reply

    1. Hi Emma,
      Thanks. It’s good how hot olives are as good as cold ones. They go well with cooked tomatoes

      Reply

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