Name: Racks of Lamb Çiragan Palace
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Turkey
Ingredients: 1 large white onion, finely chopped (enough to make ½ cup juice); 1 cup whole milk or half-and-half; 2 racks of lamb (3 to 4 pounds in all); Salt and freshly ground black pepper; 2 long, slender eggplants (about 1 pound in all); 2 tablespoons (¼ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature; 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, or more to taste; 1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt; 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1 clove garlic, minced; 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil; 1 small green bell pepper

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Complex

Appears in

The Barbecue Bible

By Steven Raichlen

Published 1998

About

The Çirağan Palace (pronounced Chee-raan) is one of the world’s most celebrated hotels, an eleven-acre pleasure palace (former summer home of Sultan Abdül Aziz) located on the banks of the Bosporus on the outskirts of Istanbul. There you can get an exquisite Ottoman meal at the hotel’s Turkish restaurant, Tugğa.

I’d spent the week sampling grilled lamb at kebab parlors and street stalls. What a refreshing change of pace to enjoy it in a formal dining room surrounded by chandeliers a