Herb Crusted Lamb with Minted Peas, Pancetta, and Lettuce

April 28, 2014 — Leave a comment

This dish is fast, simple, light, full of flavour and wonderful colours. A rack of lamb dish like this really is very quick to put together and makes a perfect fast lunch or dinner that tastes really fresh and succulent. The cool, sweet, subtle tastes and textures of the herbs and vegetables compliment the meaty, salty lamb and pancetta really well – and the herb crust on the lamb adds a wonderful textural element to the meat, and imparts some great extra flavour punchiness. Just a quick note for the sake of total disclosure – the vegetable part if this dish was inspired by the cooking of the immense Dominic Chapman from a recipe in which he pairs it with a confit of duck. I’ve changed the amounts and adjusted the flavours slightly, by omitting spring onion which he includes, as I felt the spring onion would be a flavour too far with the herb crust of the lamb.

INGREDIENTS

Herb Crusted Lamb

Small, trimmed rack of lamb (mine was 300g)
150g of dry bread crumbs
Sprig parsley
Sprig thyme
Sprig coriander
Sprig rosemary
1 tablespoons English mustard
splash of olive oil

Braised peas, lettuce, bacon, mint

A large handful of garden peas
4 baby gem lettuce leaves
100g of diced Pancetta
20g of fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
30g of butter

MUSIC I COOKED TO:

Preparation Method:

Place your herbs on a large chopping board and finely chop them together with the garlic.
Add them to the bread crumbs in a bowl.
Add light olive oil until the mixtures becomes well coated and fluid.
Place mixture into a mortar and pestle and crush into a fine crust. Set aside.
Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC
Place lamb on a cutting board. Generously season the lamb with salt and pepper – ensuring it’s thoroughly coated all over.
Heat some light, frying olive oil in an oven safe pan. Seal and brown the lamb all over.
Transfer the lamb in the pan into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. Start to prepare the vegetables while the lamb is cooking.
In a large pan, start to fry the diced bacon on a medium heat until golden. Remove the bacon from the pan and keep in a warm place until required.
Remove the lamb from the oven and brush the top of the rack generously with the mustard. Dip the lamb into the crust mixture coating the top. Dip several times to ensure an even coating. Allow meat to rest for a bit.
Place it back into the oven for 3 minutes, remove, and allow to rest until ready to serve.
Increase the heat under the veg on the hob, add the butter and and small dash of water, stirring to emulsify in the pan. Add the 4 lettuce leaves and cook until just tender, but still green.
Next, add the peas and return the bacon back to the pan and cook for 2 minutes. Strain off any excess liquid in a colander, season to taste and add the fresh chopped mint to finish
Crave the lamb into individual chops.
To serve place the lettuce leaves on the centre of the plate, next add the minted peas and Pancetta. Place one or two chops on top of the vegetables and Pancetta.

Red Wine Jus Steak & Celeriac/Sweet Potato Fries with Honey Glazed Carrots

April 8, 2014 — Leave a comment

Simple, hearty, earthy, juicy! What more is there needed to say about this awesome dish. Easy to put together with lovely strong flavours and great textures this is proper comfort food. There aren’t much better things in food than a big, juicy, well cooked steak covered in a rich, deep red wine sauce. Enough said.

INGREDIENTS

For the Red Wine Jus & Steak

Two large filet steaks
2 chopped shallots
175 ml port
175 ml red wine
1 sprig rosemay
1 bay leaf
759 ml good beef stock
salt to tase
2 tbs butter

For the Celeriac and Sweet Potato Fries

1 large celeriac (1.3kg/3lb total weight)
2 large Sweet Potato
3-4 tbsp groundnut or vegetable oil
1 tbsp paprika

For the Honey Glazed Carrots:

4 small, thin and conical carrots
125 g unsalted butter
1 Tbsp runny clear honey
1 tbp D’Jon mustard
2 Tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
Salt
750ml chicken stock
White Wine (OPTIONAL)

MUSIC I COOKED TO:

Preparation Method:

Pre heat an oven to 230C/Gas 8/fan 210C
Peel the celeriac, slicing off the top and bottom and sweeping down the sides with a heavy, sharp knife to remove the tough skin. Cut the celeriac into thumb-thick slices and then into chips. Peel and chip the sweet potato
Bring a very large saucepan of salted water to the boil, throw in the chips and blanch (boil rapidly, uncovered, for 1-2 minutes). Drain the chips, pat dry with kitchen towel and throw back into the saucepan. Add the oil, paprika and sea salt. Toss until well coated.
Spread the chips over a large heavy baking sheet, leaving plenty of space (you may need 2 sheets). They take around 30-35 minutes to cook – wait until they are caramalised and crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.
For the red wine jus pan fry the finely diced shallots over a medium high heat until caramelised
Add the port, red wine and herbs. Simmer until reduced by half.
Add the stock and reduce by half.
Strain through a sieve into a bowl. Add back to the pan and set aside.
Remove the green leaves from the carrots, leaving some greens still attached. Wash them well under cold running water and peel them.
In a small bowl, add the honey, the mustard and the lemon juice and stir well until combined.
Add the butter and heat over medium-high heat. When the butter has almost melted and is foaming place the carrots into the pan. Pour the honey-mustard-lemon juice mixture over the carrots and add salt to taste. Allow the carrots to cook for about 30 minutes over medium heat, until they are softened and caramelised, making sure to turn them every now and then in order to cook evenly. Continue to baste and cover them every so often with the cooking juices, when the pan starts to get a little dry you can deglaze it with some white wine if you have some to hand (or you can use a just a little water or vegetable stock). Never add too much liquid to the pan.
When they are ready, remove them from the pan and arrange them on a platter. Pour some of the melted butter-mustard sauce on top.
Heat a grill or pan to hot, smear the steaks with oil and salt and cook them, turning once, 3 mins each side.
Bring the jus back to boil and remove from heat then whisk ( ‘monte’) in the butter.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
To plate up place the steaks next to the carrots in the centre of a plate, scatter some fries next to them and drizzle over some of the red wine jus.

Duck Breast Salad & Candied Soy Walnuts on a Sweet Potato Pancake with Raspberry Vinaigrette

March 30, 2014 — Leave a comment

This bright, fresh, fruity and light duck salad is a great spring dish. It makes a great light lunch to enjoy in the early spring sun. It also makes a good first course of you’re doing one of those dinner party things 🙂 The savoury notes of the rich, tender duck meat, sweet potato pancake and the asparagus combine beautifully with the sharp fruit flavours of the raspberry vinaigrette and the caramelised walnuts. All the stages are pretty quick and easy to put together – make sure you’re careful with the duck and don’t overcook it or you’ll end up with tough, leathery meat. Not nice. If you did want to save a little time and effort you could always omit the sweet potato pancake… though I wouldn’t! You could also replace this element with a fritter or sweet potato bread or roti too.

INGREDIENTS

For the Duck:

2 duck breast
salt
mixed salad leaves to serve

Sweet Potato Pancakes:

500g of sweet potato
3 tbsp of milk
3 tbsp of single cream
3 tbsp of plain flour
3 eggs
4 egg whites
750ml of chicken stock
sunflower oil
salt
black pepper

Asparagus

4 asparagus spears
1 tbsp of unsalted butter

Honey Soy Walnuts

150g of walnuts
20ml of light soy sauce
2tbsp of honey
sea salt

Raspberry vinaigrette

1 punnet of raspberries
1/2 tsp of Dijon Mustard
200ml of olive oil
50ml of red wine vinegar
sea salt
pepper

Preparation Method:

To make the potato pancakes, peel and quarter the potatoes then cook them in a pan of boiling salted water/stock until tender.
Drain, then while still hot put them through a blender or use a masher to purée and set aside to cool. Do not over blend to avoid the texture becoming gluey
Once the potatoes are completely cool, put them in a mixing bowl with the milk, cream and flour. Beat in the whole eggs one at a time
In a large clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form then fold them into the batter.
To cook the pancakes, heat a blini pan with some sunflower oil until hot, then tip out the oil.
Put a ladle of pancake mixture in the pan, leave on the heat for a few seconds, and then place in the oven (or under the grill) until the pancake is firm to the touch and lightly browned. Keep warm while you repeat with the remaining batter
Preheat the oven to 175˚C/gas mark 3 1/2. Mix walnuts, honey, soy sauce and salt.
Place onto a baking tray and bake for 5 minutes, remove and place back into their original bowl to mix with any left over mixture. Be careful to keep an eye on these so they don’t burn. Allow to cool on the tray.
Combine the raspberries, red wine vinegar and Dijon mustard in a bowl. Whisk gently, slowly pouring in the olive oil until thoroughly combined. Season to taste and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 180˚C/gas mark 4
Place a dry pan over a medium high heat and sprinkle with a couple of pinches of salt.
Lightly score the skin and place the duck breasts, skin-side down, in the pan
The fat will slowly render out of the skin. As it does so, remove with a spoon to allow the skin to crisp up nicely- this will take 4-5 minutes
Add the duck breasts to the tray. Cook in the oven for 4-5 minutes, then remove and allow to rest for a further 5 minutes before serving.
To cook the asparagus, snap off the woody ends and peel the stalks
Blanch the spears for 1-2 minutes (depending on thickness) in a pan of boiling salted water, then drain and refresh in iced water. Drain again then trim the spears so that they are all the same length
Melt butter in a large skillet and add asparagus. Sautee over medium-high heat, until the asparagus begins to blister, around 2 minutes.
Combine the salad leaves and asparagus in a large bowl and mix in some of the raspberry vinaigrette.
Arrange the sweet potato pancake on the centre of the plate. Place the salad and walnuts around the pancake in the middle of each plate. Place the sliced duck breast on top of the pancake and then finish with the asparagus. Drizzle with some more vinaigrette, some flaky sea salt and serve immediately.