Posts Tagged ‘lamb’

Irish stew hits all the spots

Sunday, December 7th, 2008


The long winter evenings signal comfort food – lots of warm soups and stews, and there’s none tastier than Irish stew.

The mention of Irish stew can often provoke discussion about it s ingredients – should it include carrots, barley, celery, etc? There are many opinions, but all agree that the meat is always lamb (or mutton) and the stew should contain onions and potatoes.

I use carrots and celery in my recipe ,which adds to the flavour. I also add a lamb bone during the cooking process (available from your butcher)a s it definitely boosts the flavour of the dish.

You’ll need to skim the fat from the dish once you’ve removed the bone, but it’s worth the extra effort. I like to use homemade lamb stock, but shop-bought stock will suffice. If you can’t get lamb stock, chicken stock will do.

It’s not necessary to use the expensive cuts of lamb or mutton, but ask your butcher to cut lamb shoulder into cubes for use in this recipe.

The long, low cooking time will mean that the meat is really tender and juicy. You will need a large casserole dish with a lid. As with a lot of stews they are even better on the second day.

Ingredients

Serves 4

1lb lamb shoulder, cut into cubes
4 large Maris Piper potatoes (peeled and cut into four)
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
2 large carrots, cut into thick pieces
2 celery stalks (whites only, roughly chopped)
1l stock
Small knob of butter
Fresh parsley (roughly chopped)
2 bay leaves
Sprig of thyme
1 lamb bone, the larger the better
Salt and pepper

Before you start preheat the oven to 375F (190C/Gas Mark 5).

Method

1. Melt the butter in a pan over a fairly high temperature and fry the meat until it is sealed all over (should take about three to four minutes) then transfer the meat to the casserole dish.
2. Don’t wash the pan – fry the onions in it for about two minutes without allowing them to brown. Transfer them to the casserole dish also.

3. Pour half the stock into the same pan (again without washing it) and bring to the boil. Pour the boiled stock and the remaining stock over the meat and onions, add the bay leaves, the thyme and the lamb bone. Season with sea salt and pepper. Cover and put in the oven for one hour.
4. Remove the stew from the oven. Add the carrots and celery, mixing them in well with the meat. Add the potatoes to the top without mixing them with the meat and vegetables. (You can either mash the potatoes into the juices on your plate later or else enjoy mopping the juices with a piece of fresh crusty bread.)
5. Return the casserole dish to the oven and cook for a further 45 minutes or so, or until the potatoes are cooked.
6. Before serving, remove and discard the bone, thyme and bay leaves. Pour off the liquid into a jug and allow it to rest for a few minutes. This will bring the fat to the top and allow you to remove it by gently blotting the surface with kitchen paper. It may take a few goes to get all the fat away.
7. Return the liquid to the stew and mix the potatoes into the meat and vegetables. Add the parsley and cook in the oven for a further ten minutes.
8. Remove and serve in warm bowls.

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Slow down for a tastier Sunday roast

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

Sunday is the one day of the week when everyone comes together and we have time to make more of an effort preparing the meal.

A big part of the appeal of cooking a roast on Sunday is that everyone can pitch in – meaning the cook can enjoy the process as much as everyone else.

Lamb is coming to the end of its season (the game season is just around the corner),so take the opportunity over the following weeks to prepare a delicious roast lamb while you still can.

There are two methods of roasting – on a spit and in an oven – with spit roasting being the superior option. This is because the steam produced when roasting in a closed oven reduces the meat’s flavour. Spit roasting provides a drier atmosphere that enables the joint to retain its own particular flavour.

As most of us roast in the oven, I find using a longer period of roasting at a lower temperature yields the best flavour and makes the meat much more tender.

Another way to ensure tender meat is to choose a cut that has been hung for a sufficient period of time. Talk to your butcher a few weeks in advance and ask him to hang your chosen piece of meat for you.

As the meat will lose moisture and therefore, lose weight in the hanging process, it is normal for the butcher to charge you for the weight loss.

Roast leg of lamb

Ingredients (serves eight)
1 leg of lamb
2 bulbs of garlic, separated and peeled
Bunch of rosemary
Rock salt
Freshly milled black pepper
10ml extra virgin olive oil
2 carrots (washed, peeled and roughly chopped)
1 Spanish onion (washed, peeled and roughly chopped)
1 head of celery (washed, peeled and roughly chopped)
1 turnip (washed, peeled and roughly chopped)
2 litres of lamb stock

Method
Pierce the lamb with a knife and get your helpers involved in studding the leg with whole cloves of garlic. Rub olive oil around the joint and sprinkle with rock salt, black pepper and fresh rosemary.

It is important to place the leg of lamb on a trivet or something that will elevate the meat from the tray into which the chopped vegetables are placed.

Rub the base of the tray with olive oil and sprinkle the vegetables onto the tray. Place the leg of lamb on top and place the tray in a warm oven at 110C. Cook for 60 minutes per kilogram. If speedier cooking is required, cook at 170C for 35 minutes per kilogram.

Constant basting is important when cooking lamb – again, put your helpers to work here. For the last 20 minutes of cooking, turn the oven to a higher temperature (180C) until the lamb turns golden brown in colour.

Remove the lamb from the oven and rest for ten minutes before carving.

To make the sauce, drain the excess fat from the tray and keep a little of it aside for the Yorkshire pudding tray (see below). Place in a large pot along with the lamb stock and bring to the boil.

Reduce the liquid to half by simmering, then pass it through a fine sieve and skim any excess fat from the top.

Return the liquid to a pot and bring to the boil. Taste and correct the seasoning. Add the unsalted butter and serve.

Yorkshire pudding
Ingredients
500g plain white flour
7g sea salt
Fresh milled white pepper
1/2 nutmeg grated
4 free range eggs
1l milk
1/2l cream

Method
The day before you plan to eat this dish, sieve the flour into a bowl, then add the seasoning and nutmeg. Make a well and add the eggs, cream and milk and mix well. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve to remove any lumps. Cover and place in the fridge overnight.

To cook, heat a bun tray and rub with olive oil (the oil can be flavoured by mixing olive oil with a little of the fat left from the cooked lamb tray). Heat the tray by placing in oven at 170C for few minutes.

Remove tray and pour the Yorkshire pudding mixture into the bun moulds. Bake in oven at 170C until golden brown. Remove and serve with lamb, roast potatoes and veg.

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A good time for local lamb

Sunday, April 27th, 2008

Irish lamb is of a high quality and still relatively free range, as opposed to New Zealand lamb (also popular with the Irish consumer), which is intensively farmed. It is the only type of lamb that we buy for use at Thornton’s.

We are lucky to be able to source some of our lamb from the islands off the Kerry coast and it has a fantastic flavour, having been reared on grass which is salted by the sea. I also love to use Irish mountain lamb, available in September. It has a stronger, richer flavour and requires a longer hanging time to tenderise the meat.

Lamb is the meat of a domestic sheep which is less than one year old. Older meat is either mutton or hogget, which is better for casserole-style cooking as the meat is tougher.

As a general guide, Easter usually marks the beginning of the lamb season and the time when it makes its first appearance of the year on the menu at Thornton’s.
Of course this can vary, as Easter is a moveable feast. I like to use wild garlic with the first of the lamb (milk-fed), as they come in to season together and make for a wonder ful combination of flavours. We use hogget and mutton for stews or casseroles as the year continues.

Wild garlic is available in abundance now. I picked my first batch on Monday. For me it marks the real beginning of spring.

Ingredients – loin of spring lamb with potatoes maxim, baby spinach and wild garlic


loin of spring lamb

400g loin of lamb

4 small cleaned lamb chops

Sea salt

Fresh milled white pepper

Ingredients: potato

4 potatoes

100g braised white onions 50g clarified butter

Sea salt

Fresh milled white pepper

Ingredients – baby spinach

250g spinach leaf

2 diced shallots

1 bunch of chives

Sea salt

Fresh milled white pepper

5ml olive oil

5ml still water

Ingredients – wild garlic


44 garlic buds

Rock salt

15ml olive oil

Ingredients – sauce

1 shallot diced

20ml white wine

20ml white port

Half a litre lamb stock

Small bunch thyme

Sea salt

Fresh milled white pepper

Method: loin of spring lamb

1. Trim all the fat from the lamb.

2. Marinate the lamb. To make the marinade, take a glug of olive oil, a bulb of wet garlic, a small bunch of thyme, a few whole white peppercorns and a bay leaf. Cover the marinated lamb and rest it in the fridge (overnight if possible).

3. Remove from the marinade, season and saute´.

4. Brown the lamb on all sides and cook on a trivet in the oven for five minutes at 170 C. Remove and rest.

Method: potatoes maxim: (8cm Teflon Mould)

1. Wash and peel the potato.

2.Using a cutter, cut the potato into a 3cm ring and slice the potato on the mandolin. Season the potato and add butter. Season the mould and line the potato around the mould. In the middle, add a little braised onion on top of the potato. Cover with another layer of potatoes.

3. Cook slowly, turning when golden brown and finish in the oven.

Method: baby spinach

1. Wash the spinach and dice the shallots.

2. Heat the pan and add the shallots.

3. Saute´ off the spinach.

4. Cook and add a drop of still water. Season and cook for a further few minutes.

5. Place in a 6cm ring mould.

Method: wild garlic

1. Wash the buds.

2. Heat a pan and saute´ for three seconds with the rock salt and remove.

Method: Sauce

1. Roughly chop the garlic and shallots. Saut e´ without colouring.

2. Add the washed thyme and cook for two to three minutes without colouring.

3. Deglaze with the white wine and port and reduce by three quarters. Add the lamb stock and reduce by half.

4. Correct the seasoning.

5. Pass through a muslin cloth and fold in the butter. Taste and season.

To plate

Place the spinach in a 6cm ring in the centre of the plate and cover with the potato.

Arrange the garlic buds around the plate. Arrange the lamb on the plate. Sauce and serve.

Kevin Thornton is a Michelin-starred chef and owner of Thornton’s Restaurant on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin. www.thorntonsrestaurant.com

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