Roast Lamb Guard of Honour with Mustard Recipe

This is a beautiful way to cook and serve a complete row of lamb cutlets. You will need to buy the cutlets from your butcher or the butchery department of your supermarket since, normally, lamb cutlets are sold already separated. To serve four, you should ask for two racks of lamb each with six cutlets. A rack of lamb is the best end of neck and it is important that you ask your butcher to 'chine' it (remove the backbone from the rack) otherwise you will find it difficult to cut into individual chops when it has been served onto the plates.

How to make Roast Lamb Guard of Honour with Mustard:

Use a sharp knife to trim off any fat from the ends of the lamb bones and scrape the bones clean. There should be between 1" and 2" (2.5cm - 5cm) of bone exposed. Stand the racks, fat side outermost in a lightly oiled roasting tin and interlock the exposed bones just as you would interlock your fingers. Rub the olive oil into the fat along with plenty of salt and freshly ground pepper.

Peel and crush (mince) the garlic cloves and mix together with the mustard and rosemary, then brush or rub this mixture all over the fat part of the oiled lamb. Leave this to stand at room temperature for between 1 and 4 hours so that the flavour marinates into the lamb.

Sprinkle the joints with more salt and pepper, cover the exposed tips with foil, then roast for 15 minutes in a preheated moderately hot oven (Mk 6 - 400ºF - 200ºC) for 15 minutes. Lower the oven to Mk 4 - 350ºF - 180ºC and roast for a further 45 minutes. Serve hot with new potatoes tossed in butter and sprinkled with chopped parsley and a few matchstick carrots.