The distinctive flavour or Manuka works beautifully with this dish.

Ingredients

• 2 racks lamb, trimmed (each with 8 racks)
• about 1 ½ - 2 cups manuka wood shavings (from the hardware store)
• 1½ cups fresh white breadcrumbs
• ¾ cup roughly chopped macadamia nuts
• 75 grams butter, chilled
• 2 Tbsp manuka honey
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh marjoram

Manuka honey jus

• 2 cups mild-flavoured beef stock
• 1 cup pinot noir
• ¼ cup port
• 1 small bouquet garni
• 2 tablespoons manuka honey
• cornflour to thicken
• 25 grams butter, approximately

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Place the lamb racks on a roasting rack.
2. Scatter the manuka shavings over the base of an oven tray and place near the bottom of the preheated oven. Allow the shavings to smoke, then turn the oven to 120ºC. Sit the lamb racks on a roasting rack and place at the top of the oven and smoke/cook for 8 minutes. Quickly remove - beware of any smoke alarms! Cool the lamb, cover and refrigerate until required. Allow the manuka shavings to cool and stop smoking before discarding.
3. In a food processor put the breadcrumbs, macadamia nuts, butter, honey and marjoram, and process until all ingredients are finely chopped. Press equal amounts of the crumb firmly to the meaty part of the lamb racks.
4. Bake at 200ºC for 25-30 minutes. Stand 5 minutes before carving. Serve with the Manuka Honey Jus, sauteed diced pumpkin and green vegetables.

Manuka honey jus

1. Place the beef stock, wine, port, bouquet garni and honey into a saucepan and simmer gently until reduced to 1-1¼ cups. Remove the bouquet garni.
2. Mix about 2-3 teaspoons cornflour with a good dash port and use to thicken the jus to your liking. Season with salt and pepper and, just before serving, whisk in the butter.