Rack of lamb and broccoli rabe

The last Costco trip yielded a rack of lamb, that despite being purchased at Costco, was quite delicious. I can claim some credit for this, since I made the broccoli rabe, and seasoned the lamb - Ed just did all the cooking of it. Its a caveman instinct, I'm sure, that need to be the one dealing with the meat.

Anyway, there was a big sheath of fat over the back of the lamb, which you have to remove - not all of it, because you definitely need some fat for the flavor, but if you leave too much you'll have chunks of gristle in your mouth, and that is NOT pleasant. So, I trimmed the fat until it looked like this:
and then seasoned it with salt and pepper - lots of salt and lots of pepper, rub it into the meat with your fingers.

As I said, Ed took over the cooking, so I tried to take a picture. Its blurry. He left it cooking one each side until the pepper had made a nice little crust. To test if its done, first you poke the meat, it shouldn't feel raw anymore, not as squishy as when it was raw, but mostly raw, since overcooking it has got to be one of the major sins in the world. Anyway, cut off one of the lollipops, and decide if that is cooked enough for your tastes. It'll cook a tiny bit more when you pull it out of the pan to let it rest, but not that much more. I think we ended up cooking it in a hot pan for 4-5 minutes on each side. If you don't wiggle it around too much, it'll get that delicious crust.

Slice some garlic, throw it in a pan with olive oil and some salt. Then add the broccoli rabe, which you've already blanched for a couple minutes in boiling water. Toss it around for a while, taste a piece, and serve.

We had some other stuff with this, lentils and onions and some random baby artichoke hearts that Ed found at Russo's and wanted to cook RIGHT NOW NO IT CAN'T WAIT FOR TOMORROW. I've gotten those urges too, best to just play along... But doesn't that piece of meat just make your mouth start watering? The great thing about lamb is you can basically eat everything, the fat just melts into the meat and into your mouth, there is none of that gristle that you get with steak.

And then you can boil the bones for a while and get lamb stock. Two meals for one!