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.

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.

MUSIC I COOKED TO:

TWICE COOKED, TWICE FLAVOUR, CHINESE CHICKEN WITH CHILLI AND SPRING ONION

March 23, 2014 — Leave a comment

This bright, colourful, simple Chicken dish has been passed down through my mum’s family. The distinctly asian flavours and aromas are deep, and strong but quite fresh. The dish is simplicity itself to put together and cook. Julienning the ginger and vegetables beforehand will make things easier for you. If you have the time, the only difficult decision you have is whether to take a break from the cooking after the Chicken has braised in the first section of prep and let it marinade for a few hours… though obviously this turns a dish that is quite quick to cook into an all day affair (though you can obviously just leave the chicken marinating and go and do your own thing). Twice cooking the chicken is an important process for the flavours and textures – the first slow braising step imparts rich colour and flavour to the chicken as well as making the flesh succulent and tender. Roasting the chicken after this and basting it gives the chicken an indulgent crispy sticky covering that holds a real flavour punch. Served with fresh tangy spring onions ,spicy chillies and simple boiled rice this dish springs off the plate and into your mouth with a awesome medley of complimenting tastes and textures –

INGREDIENTS

For the chicken:

Small whole chicken
Cup of Water
Cup of chicken stock
3 small yellow onions
4 spring onions
5 garlic cloves, peeled, bruised
6cm piece fresh ginger
3 star anise
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 cup Chinese rice wine
6 tbsp Light soya
4 tbsp Dark soya sauce
2 long red chilli, thinly sliced
heaped tbsp sesame seeds
Steamed jasmine rice to serve

For the marinade:

1 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1/4 teaspoon Chang’s sesame oil

For basting:

500ml of Chicken stock.

Preparation Method:

Wash chicken and pat dry skin and body cavity with kitchen paper towel. OR leave to air dry for about 30-40 mins.
Butcher the Chicken into its disassembled pieces – breast, wings and legs and thighs.
Slice the ginger and onion into thin strips around 5-6 cm long.
Heat oil in a pan and fry the ginger and yellow onion until starting to colour. Add half the sliced chilli and fry for around a minute.
Place garlic + chicken pieces in pan in a single layer. Brown on one side, then turn over all the pieces and brown the other side.
Sprinkle rice wine onto chicken and add stock and water into wok with chicken. Then add soya sauce (light and dark), oyster sauce, star anise and the sugar.
Turn heat to medium-low then cover wok and braise chicken until cooked; turning frequently to avoid burning skin. When the liquid in the wok becomes thicker then leave uncovered and continues to cook on low heat and spooning the liquid onto chicken to colour the skin. This gives the chicken a lovely brown colour on the skin and cook the meat in a way which is succulent and tender. It takes appox. 35 mins. to cook the chicken.
At this stage – if you want you can let the dish cool and place into the fridge with all the pan juices for 4hrs (or even up to 12hrs.) – Though it will add flavour to the dish, its not really necessary.
Transfer to a roasting pan, skin side up. Pat dry with paper towel.
Meanwhile, make marinade Combine hoisin sauce, honey, five spice, soy sauce, chilli and sesame oil in a bowl. Reserve 1 tablespoon mixture.
Roast for 10 minutes or until browned. Remove from oven. Rotate chicken. Brush chicken with remaining marinade. Cook for 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and dark brown. Baste throughout with chicken stock and any leftover marinade.
Meanwhile toast some sesame seeds in a pan.
Transfer the chicken to a plate. Cover with foil. Set aside to rest for 10 minutes.
Thinly slice remaining spring onion. Place individual portion of chicken on a plate, sprinkle a pinch of toasted sesame seeds on top. Garnish chicken with spring onion and chilli.
Serve with rice and drizzle over some of the pan juices.