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Pinot Noir Cookbook
Rack of Lamb on Pear Puree with Blue Cheese Bread Pudding and Port Wine Sauce
by Dean Fearing
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 28 rib racks of lamb (have your butcher French cut them for you)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Sprigs of fresh thyme or Italian parsley for garnish
Pear Puree
- 4 medium Bartlett or Anjou pears
- 1/2 cup white Port wine
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
- 1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter
- Salt and lemon juice to taste
Port Wine Sauce
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 1 stalk celery, chopped
- 1/2 medium carrot, chopped
- 2 shallots, peeled and chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
- 1 cup Port wine
- 1 sprig fresh thyme
- 1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 cup veal demi-glace or rich veal or chicken stock
- Salt and lemon juice to taste
Blue Cheese Bread Pudding
- Butter for coating ramekins
- 1 French bread baguette
- 1/2 cup blue cheese, crumbled
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- Salt and white pepper to taste
Season the lamb with salt and pepper and set aside, refrigerated.
To prepare the pear purée, roughly chop pears into 1-inch pieces. Put the pears, wine, chicken broth and ginger in a medium stainless steel saucepan and simmer until pears are soft, about 20 minutes. Purée the mixture in a blender or food processor until smooth, adding the butter at the end. Season with salt and lemon juice and hold in a warm spot.
To prepare the Port wine sauce, heat the oil in a heavy saucepan. Sauté the onion, celery and carrots until golden brown. Add shallots and garlic and cook about 1 more minute. Add the Port wine, bring to a boil and reduce by half. Add the pepper, thyme and veal demi-glace or stock. Simmer the sauce about 30 minutes, then strain it through a fine sieve. Season with salt and lemon to taste.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. To prepare the blue cheese bread pudding, butter small individual ceramic ramekins or soufflé dishes. Slice baguette into 1/4-inch slices. Place a slice of bread in the bottom of the ramekin, then sprinkle some blue cheese on top, alternating bread and cheese until almost full. Be sure to press down tightly after each layer. Combine eggs and cream with garlic, shallots, salt and white pepper to taste. Whisk mixture until smooth. Pour over the bread and cheese and let it soak in for about 5 minutes. You may need to add more of the mixture as it is absorbed. Place the ramekins in an ovenproof pan. Pour hot water into the pan until it reaches a level about 2/3 up the side of the ramekins. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until custards are puffy and golden brown on top. Remove ramekins from water bath and let rest for at least 5 minutes before unmolding. Keep them warm until time to serve.
Raise oven temperature to 400 degrees. Heat oil in a heavy flameproof roasting pan. Over high heat, sear the meat until browned, about 3 minutes. Place lamb in oven to roast until medium rare, about 12 minutes, or until its internal temperature reaches 130 degrees.
For each serving, place a generous spoonful of pear purée slightly off-center on a large dinner plate. Carve the lamb rack into chops and arrange them, slightly overlapping, on top of the purée. Unmold the bread pudding and place to the side. Sauce the chops generously and garnish with a sprig of fresh thyme or Italian parsley.
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 Dean Fearing
The Mansion on Turtle Creek
in Dallas, TX
Dean Fearing was a guitar-strumming, 23-year-old who worked nights burning steaks in a Holiday Inn when he enrolled in a class that brought his aspirations into clear focus. It was a community college course taught by a retired chef in Louisville that turned the trick. He subsequently attended the Culinary Institute of America to study classical technique, graduating in 1978. He began his career in Cincinnati at Maisonette, followed by The Pyramid Room at The Fairmount Hotel in Dallas. When The Mansion on Turtle Creek opened its doors in 1980, Dean came to the restaurant as executive sous-chef, a position he resigned to become chef and part owner of Agnew's. There his daring experiments with products and recipes indigenous to the Southwest drew the attention of Craig Claiborne, the influential food editor of The New York Times. This marked the beginning of Dean's rise to international prominence.
In 1985, Dean returned to The Mansion on Turtle Creek as executive chef. More than a decade later, he continues to garner the top awards in his profession. In 1994, he won The James Beard Foundation's Award as Best American Chef: Southwest, and in 1996, the restaurant at The Mansion on Turtle Creek received its fifth star from the Mobil Guide. Dean has been featured in numerous articles in the nation's food and wine press and is the author of two cookbooks, The Mansion on Turtle Creek Cookbook and Dean Fearing's Southwest Cuisine: Blending Asia and the Americas. At this writing he can be seen demonstrating some of his signature Southwest recipes on PBS's Cooking with Master Chefs series with Julia Child.
This all-American chef, who still plays guitar and wears flashy cowboy boots, sees his career as similar to those of the master chefs of France. "It is typical," he says, "for a master chef to work at the same restaurant for 30 years, where his fortune is intertwined with that of the restaurant. I expect to be at The Mansion for at least 20 more years."
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