Well, we're not really going to talk about the Favas and Mushrooms. After committing to the Lamb recipe, it was discovered that fresh Favas and Chanterelles were not going to be in the cards. Substitutions were done, compromises were made, the results were okay, but certainly not representative of what the recipe could be.
The lamb on the other hand, was unbelievable. And the Basic Meat Sauce - Holy S**T! I'll be making triple batches of that stuff. We did a double batch of the lamb racks (we were expecting a couple more people). By the end of the meal we were holding lamb "lollipops" by the bone and dipping it straight into the sauce. There was much double dipping! I'm almost glad we need to redo the Favas - it's a great excuse to make the lamb and meat sauce again.
The entire recipe was quite easy and well laid out. We made the Basic Meat Sauce base the night before, and the Malted Barley Crisps just before searing the lamb. The malted barley crisps gave us some trouble, as they weren't really holding together. We messed around with it a bit and ended up with some good ones.
The lamb racks smelled amazing within seconds of hitting the hot oil. We were easily able to sear two racks at the same time. While they were searing we made a nice little bed of rosemary, thyme and garlic.
The most important timing was cooking the mushrooms such that they were ready just as the lamb had finished resting. We started them shortly after the lamb came out of the oven. We cooked the lamb to 130F and thought it was perfect - though some of our more squeamish meat eaters would have preferred a little more doneness. Overall an amazing meal.
Advice: Make sure you can get fresh chanterelles and favas before committing to the recipe. Make the meat sauce base the day before. Also consider doing the crisps the day before so you can make sure to get them right.
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