Rack of Lamb in Port Wine Reduction w/ Blue Cheese

[Stone]

Rack of lamb with port wine reduction and blue cheese sauce, and wilted garlic spinach.

O.k., it looks kind of gross in the picture, but it tasted pretty good. Here's what I did, what I did wrong and what I didn't like.

S&P the rack, seared it. Skillet should have been hotter, but I've got btu issues. I'm always worried about overcooking the meat. Stop. Took it off the skillet, put it in a different pan and bunged it in a 400 degree oven. Deglazed the pan with a good shot of cognac. Whoa. Flames are cool. Threw in about 3 tbls chopped onion. Too much. Didn't let the onion get brown enough. Added about a cup (and a half-ish) of port. Let it reduce. Crumbled a few tbls of Cowgirl blue cheese. It melted well.

Whilst doing this, sauteed some garlic and onion in a little evoo. Should have given it more time. Added a pound of spinach and wilted it. Should have drained off the excess water (or let it cook off).

The meat was up to 140 in the center. Took it out to rest.

Finished the sauce by taking off heat and adding two tbls cold butter. Whisk a bit.

Cut the rack. Very rare, but no problem for me. Threw three chops back on hot oven pan for the friend. Plated. Crumbled a little more blue cheese on top.

Meat should have been seared more, cooked longer.

Too many onion in the finished sauce -- thought about a blender or my little Braun hand-mixer processor. Too much effort.

The sauce wasn't dark or meaty (complex?) enough. I used a regular calphalon skillet (not non-stick), but didn't get a lot of fond. Maybe need beef stock? It was a purplish red. A little too sweet -- probably from not browning the onion enough. Very rich from the cheese, but not creamy enough (not watery, but wouldn't have coated a spoon). Spinach had too much liquid.

Suggestions? Comments?

[Stone]

foodman, Mar 10, 2003]

Rack of lamb with port wine reduction and blue cheese sauce, and wilted garlic spinach.

O.k., it looks kind of gross in the picture, but it tasted pretty good.  Here's what I did, what I did wrong and what I didn't like.

S&P the rack, seared it.  Skillet should have been hotter, but I've got btu issues.  I'm always worried about overcooking the meat.  Stop.  Took it off the skillet, put it in a different pan and bunged it in a 400 degree oven.  Deglazed the pan with a good shot of cognac.  Whoa.  Flames are cool.  Threw in about 3 tbls chopped onion.  Too much.  Didn't let the onion get brown enough.  Added about a cup (and a half-ish) of port.  Let it reduce.  Crumbled a few tbls of Cowgirl blue cheese.  It melted well.

Whilt doing this, sauteed some garlic and onion in a little evoo.  Should have given it more time.  Added a pound of spinach and wilted it.  Should have drained off the excess water (or let it cook off).

The meat was up to 140 in the center.  Took it out to rest. 

Finished the sauce by taking off heat and adding two tbls cold butter.  Whisk a bit.

Cut the rack.  Very rare, but no problem for me.  Threw three chops back on hot oven pan for the friend.  Plated.  Crumbled a little more blue cheese on top.

Meat should have been seared more, cooked longer.

Too many onion in the finished sauce -- thought about a blender or my little Braun hand-mixer processor.  Too much effort.

The sauce wasn't dark or meaty (complex?) enough.  I used a regular calphalon skillet (not non-stick), but didn't get a lot of fond.  Maybe need beef stock?  It was a purplish red.  A little too sweet -- probably from not browning the onion enough.  Very rich from the cheese, but not creamy enough (not watery, but wouldn't have coated a spoon).  Spinach had too much liquid.

Suggestions?  Comments?  (I may have to start a new thread to get the help I need.)

Stone-

Your sauce is what interests me. How did the blue cheese go with Port in a sauce?? I would think they would be two strong flavors working together (or not!!). did it taste ok?. Even blue cheese and lamb does not strike me as a good combination (beef is another matter ), but that's just me.

skillet not hot enough? I normally would heat the skillet until a drop of water evaporates in two - three seconds to sear/finish in oven type dish.

Maybe use shallots instead of onions next time for a smoother flavor.

Hope this helps

FM

[Stone]

Your sauce is what interests me. How did the blue cheese go with Port in a sauce?? I would think they would be two strong flavors working together (or not!!). did it taste ok?. Even blue cheese and lamb does not strike me as a good combination (beef is another matter ), but that's just me.

Perhaps that was one of the problems. I had bought some good blue the day before, and wanted to use it up.

But anyone have comments on whether I made the sauce correctly? The few times I've done wine reductions, the end product came out more purple (from the wine of course), than brown.

[Bux]

Sautee the onions before you deglaze the pan with any liquid. You might also consider shallots rather than onions.

To my taste, blue cheese is too strong a flavor for rack of lamb.

The sweetness probably comes from the port. What kind of port? I mean a lot of wine from various parts of the world call themselves port. I don't know very much about port and rarely cook with it. I suspect some glace de viande is what you need for a dark meaty reastaurant type sauce.

How long did you wait to serve the sauce after you whisked in the butter? The sooner the better lest it separates. Obviously any water in the spinach will end up diluting the sauce on your plate.

Above all else. Don't you know better than to match the colors of your food with that of your plates?

[JAZ]

Any time I 've made a port reduction, the recipe has called for another ingredient along with the port -- broth usually, or balsamic vinegar -- to give it some depth.

[Stone]

Above all else. Don't you know better than to match the colors of your food with that of your plates?   

Yeah, that was unintentional.

What kind of wine would be good for a reduction to serve with lamb? Or should I stick to a stock?

Anyone ever try Better than Boullion? I've used it for brisket, but I'm hesitant for something where the stock is the main flavor.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Edited March 10, 2003 by Stone (log)

[Sandra Levine]

I think you would have been better off with a dry red wine rather than port. When you reduced the port, you concentrated the sweetness. The saltiness of the blue cheese compensated in part, I am sure, but I agree with the others that blue cheese and lamb are not a happy combination. To make a nice reduction sauce, you could start by de-glazing the pan with some beef broth, using enough to have some left after it thickens, then adding some red wine, reducing further, removing from the flame and then whisking in the butter enrichment.

[jackal10]

Personally I'd leave out the blue cheese. If you must have it concentrate it in one place as part of the garnish, such as a blue cheese pastry puff or tomato stuffed with blue cheese.

As you observe, the sauce was short of Umani - meatiness. Just browning the lamb wouldn't be long enough to give enough juices in the pan, and if it was long enough you wouldn't want to eat the meat.

You need to add it seperately, either from a demi-glace, or even from a little soy.

Ther are several ways you can go with the sauce depending on what style you like. You could just reduce it until it is syrup. Personally I hate over-reduced meat glaze, making everything taste of Bovril.

Redcurrant jelly and some lemon juice would be one way (think cumberland sauce) , cream (or creme fraiche) another, tomato concasse, or a classical thickening agent, such as buerre manie.

You could even serve two sauces - one a jus, and the other a portwine/citrus/mustard cumberland style reduction.

Good bread to mop up the juices.

[Stone]

Personally I'd leave out the blue cheese. If you must have it concentrate it in one place as part of the garnish, such as a blue cheese pastry puff or tomato stuffed with blue cheese.

Nobody likes the blue cheese? O.k. -- it was there. Unfortunately, the beef stock was not. Very last minute meal, trying to show a friend some stuff.

[Suzanne F]

A lot of what you should have done, you know already. Hotter pan, less onion, drain spinach better, etc.

So I'll weigh in on the other stuff along with everyone else:

Searing and finishing the meat: don't switch the meat to a different pan. If you're concerned that it will overcook in the same (hotter) pan in which you seared it, pick it up and place a baking rack underneath. But you want to keep ALL the fond in one pan. Of course, this means that the searing pan has to be "ovenable." There should be no time problem finishing the sauce while the meat rests.

Port Sauce: hey, if you reduce ruby port, you get a purple reduction. No way around it. If you don't want that color, or quite that level of sweetness, use tawny port. Or, as Sandy suggested, add some red wine for acid to offset the sweetness. (Or else reduce the port way way down all by itself, to about a half-cup from one bottle, put it in a squeeze bottle, and squiggle a little on the plate, instead of turning it into a pan sauce.) But if you DO make a pan sauce, try tawny, and add some lamb stock, or chicken stock as a distant second. Not beef -- too assertive. Yeah, shallots might be better, but onion will work fine, just use less, and mince it very fine so it cooks enough in a short time. Then add your wine(s) and stock, and cook down. Season. Finally monter au beurre at the end, just as you did.

Blue cheese: Sound GREAT to me with the lamb and sauce. Only, not IN the sauce, and not plopped on the meat. More likely in a potato gratin or puree on the side -- to soften the effect but still let the flavor come through. And it's one more thing to dip in the sauce.

[elyse]

I like the bleu, but have no advice.

[vengroff]

Another vote for shallots and stock. I think veal stock would be fine. The port should be a flavoring agent in the sauce, not the whole of the sauce.

I don't have Tom Colicchio's Think Like a Chef in front of me, but I think his section on making pan sauces is excellent.

[Stone]

So when a menu says "port wine reduction", does that usually mean stock (or other stuff) as well? I think I've seen a bunch of recipes that call for a wine reduction that don't involve stock. Is that because of the difference between port and wine, or am I not paying enough attention

Looking back, the blue probably would have been better with a stronger beef dish.