Category: mustard

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carrots lamb mint mustard potatoes tomato

spring lamb, vegetable platter, mint sauce and chianti gravy

spring lamb

 

 

I thought I’d tried all the Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals that I wanted to, until the photo-ninja Nga commented about the spring lamb recipe… I couldn’t believe I’d missed it! So I tore off to try it.

It’s a relatively simple recipe, with seared & roasted lamb, and a big bowl of pots ‘n’ veg boiled up. But it’s a great way to multi-task without actually too much effort, and the result is dis-proportionately good. If you’re at all skittish about whether you can manage the 30 minute thing or not, give this one a whirl as it’s not too busy (I should point out that Jamie did a fondue in with his full recipe but that was simply microwaved chocolate and chopped fruit). Well worth a go.

Jamie recommends rack of lamb and neck fillet here. I find rack of lamb really hard to find now, hardly anyone stocks it and it’s very expensive when you do. Lamb chops aren’t as fancy but very tasty. A rack of lamb is a cut of meat from the rib section of a lamb. It is made up of a row of bones with meat on the top and sides. The rack of lamb is a popular choice for roasting and grilling but can be pricey.

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Spring lamb, vegetable platter, mint sauce and chianti gravy

A refreshing yet wholesome dinner.
Course Main Course
Cuisine British
Keyword quick
Servings 4
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

For the lamb:

  • 4 lamb chops
  • 3 sprigs rosemary
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • White wine vinegar
  • 300 g cherry tomatoes on the vine

For the gravy:

  • 4 rashers smoked bacon
  • 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • ½ glass red wine

For the veg:

  • 400 g baby new potatoes
  • 4 carrots
  • Stalks from a bunch of mint
  • 1 chicken stock cube
  • 300 g fine beans
  • ½ Savoy cabbage

For the mint sauce:

  • ½ a lemon
  • Leaves from a bunch of mint
  • 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon caster sugar

Instructions

  • Get the oven on 220C, a frying pan and saucepan over high heats and get that kettle a-boilin'.
  • Add some olive oil to the pan. Season the lamb all over and pop it in.
  • Wash the potatoes, chop the carrots into nice chunks and add to the saucepan. Cover with boiling water and toss in the mint stalks and stock cube.
  • Turn the lamb well and make sure it's browned all over. While it's finishing bash the garlic and rosemary together in a mortar and pestle. Season, add the mustard and spread the lot over the  lamb. Transfer the lamb to a roasting dish with the tomatoes and slam in the oven for 9-14 minutes until done to your liking (for me, internal temp of 55°C before resting). Keep the frying pan on the heat and add the bacon, chopped.
  • Re-using the mortar from before, add the mint leaves with vinegar, sugar, pinch of salt and a splash of water from the veg pot. Mix it together for the mint sauce.
  • Add the red wine to the frying pan to deglaze the pan, scraping around. Add the flour and rosemary to the gravy pan, and stir for a minute to coat everything in flour. Add a few ladles of cooking water. Cut the Savoy into thin wedges and add to the boiling pot with the beans.
  • The lamb should be done about now, so get it out of the oven to rest for a minute while you sort out the veg. Once the beans are tender, drain the lot and return to the pot. Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil, some salt and pepper and the juice from the lemon. Toss well and serve. Cut the lamb into chops, check the gravy for seasoning and get stuck in!

Notes

The lamb can be any cut of lamb you like that fries quick, or would work pretty well with beef steaks - though the mint sauce wouldn't work for me then. It's your dinner though!
Categories
chicken mustard potatoes

mustard chicken with potato dauphinoise

This recipe is taken from Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals. It’s a tale of two halves really; the chicken is brilliant, punchy mustard yet restrained creamy leeks. And the dauphinoise is… OK. And far too anchovy-y. Even as a fan I think these are too stinky. And the potatoes didn’t cook in time, so I’d much rather give it longer and do it right.

Mustard chicken with potato dauphinoise (serves 2):
For the dauphinoise:
1 red onion
500g Maris Piper potatoes
¼ nutmeg
2 cloves garlic
150ml tub single cream
2 anchovies
Parmesan
1 bay leaf
Fresh thyme
For the chicken:
A few sprigs of rosemary
2 chicken breasts
1 teaspoon English mustard
1 leek
2 cloves garlic
White wine
Splash of cream from the dauphinoise
1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard

  1. Preheat the oven to 220°C. Peel and halve the red onion. Leaving the skins on, slice the potatoes in the food processor along with the red onion. Tip into a sturdy roasting dish and grate over the nutmeg, crush in the garlic and pour in most of the cream. Add the anchovies and grate over a layer of parmesan. Add the bay and thyme and pour over 200ml boiling water. Give it a quick mix and cover with tin foil, then put on a medium hob.
  2. Put a frying pan on a medium heat. Spread the mustard on the chicken and pat over the rosemary Season, drizzle over olive oil and put in one side of the pan.
  3. Remove the tin foil from the potatoes and transfer it to the oven until it is golden brown and bubbling (about 15 minutes).
  4. Trim the leeks and finely slice. Add to the other side of the chicken’s pan. After a couple of minutes frying crush the garlic into the leeks and stir about. The chicken probably needs flipping at this point, so after that add a few splashes of white wine. When the chicken is cooked through remove to a board to rest for a minute. Add the remaining cream to the leeks and stir in the mustard. Season to taste and serve with the chicken.
Categories
mustard onion rosemary stock worcestershire sauce

perfect onion gravy

I was asked to devise the ‘perfect onion gravy recipe’ and that’s a challenge I don’t take lightly.

So what should it be? For me rich and nourishing, with sweet and complex flavours. The onions are obviously key, but the stock makes a massive impact. Above all the gravy should positively drip umami. Lots of full, rounded savouriness.

I used a couple of resources to nail the perfect solution. I had to look at how the star of the dish, the onion, was treated. First, which onions? You can get good gravy out of red onions but not for the longish cooking time that I was after. No, it has to be the medium British brown onion. Perfectly round with appealing ivory skin, with a balanced sweet/sharp flavour, it has to be British onions, supporting British farmers. As for the cooking, I stumbled over this fascinating article at Serious Eats which really picked apart caramelizing onions. I gave it a try and I definitely had to incorporate elements of it in the final dish. It allows for delicious, sweet onions with perfect colouring.

I looked to my old pal Heston Blumenthal and his chicken gravy technique, involving roasting off a chicken carcass, separately frying off mushrooms and onions and combining in a pressure cooker with white wine. Personally I wanted a beefier, herbier background so that gave me ideas to use beef bones in the stock. This provides the structure of the dish. Chat up your butcher for some beef bones – if you can’t I find may supermarkets with an instore butcher will sell them for a nominal fee, 20p or so. You don’t need to make the stock yourself necessarily (it’s a bit of a time-hog) but if you have the time it’s amazing.

There’s also an alcoholic backnote I wanted to include: red wine is fairly typical, as is a stout, or my old chum marsala. But I recalled a great onion soup recipe from Giorgio Locatelli where cider was included And it’s perfect because it’s tangy and boozy with fruity hints. It’s the final element that crowns the gravy.

It’s rich, it’s sweet, it’s irresistible. I served mine with a steak and it sure didn’t last long.

Perfect onion gravy (makes about 1 ½ pints):

For the stock:

4 or 5 beef bones

Tablespoon of tomato puree

4 or 5 chestnut mushrooms

1 stick of celery, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

3 onions, halved

Sprig each of thyme and rosemary

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Put the veg in a heavy baking tray and lay the bones on top. Smear the bones all over with tomato puree, then tuck the herbs round and about. Roast the lot in the oven for 30 minutes to give a rich intensity to the stock.
  2. Transfer the lot to a deep pot and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 ½ to 2 hours with a loose fitting lid. Remove the lid and boil hard for half an hour to reduce it down. Transfer to a large bowl or jug and chill until needed.

For the gravy:

1 teaspoon sugar

3 British onions, halved and sliced into half-moons (I recommend using a food processor with medium slicing attachment for uniformity)

1 tablespoon butter

1 star anise

¼ teaspoon baking powder (rarely for me, I advise you to be careful with this measurement as if you overdo this it will be bitter and chemical-tasting)

1 sprig rosemary, finely chopped

300ml Aspall’s organic cider

1 teaspoon English mustard

1 tablespoon flour

Beef stock as above (or 1 ½ pints of your favourite organic beef stock)

  1. In a wide frying pan heat the sugar over a gentle heat until it turns to liquid, and quickly before it burns add the onions, baking powder and butter. Turn the heat up to medium and stir well to coat the onions in sugar and butter. After a minute add the star anise and rosemary. Cook for a further 8 minutes or so until the onions start to turn a lovely shade of brown. Keep stirring to ensure they don’t burn.
  2. Start to deglaze the sticky stuff from the pan with the cider a splash at a time. Don’t add too much as it will reduce the heat in the pan each time. Once the liquid goes add the next splash until it’s all gone. The onions will now be glazed with a gorgeous appley shine.
  3. Add the mustard and flour and stir well to incorporate for a minute. Once all the white bits of flour have gone add the stock and bring to a simmer. Cook for at least another 5 minutes and then reduce until it is the desired consistency, then check the seasoning. Salt and pepper here are crucial, and perhaps a splash of red wine vinegar to balance the tartness. Remove the star anise before serving.
Categories
cabbage mustard potatoes sausages

sausage & sauerkraut

This particular Bavarian feast was inspired by EssexEating wandering through a German Christmas market and being tempted by the wurst and sauerkraut on offer. I could take his Tweets no longer, and dove off to the supermarket to build it up. I’ve not made true sauerkraut, but dressed cooked white cabbage in a sharp and tangy sauce instead. I’ve tried to amp up the notes by introducing a few foreign elements too: horseradish to add fiery depth, and soy sauce for hits of umami goodness.

Sausage & sauerkraut:

1 Matheson’s smoked pork sausage , sliced on the diagonal

1 white cabbage, shredded finely

2 floury potatoes, diced

For the sauce:

2 tablespoons creme fraiche

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon creamed horseradish

1 teaspoon dark soy sauce

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

To serve:

Soy sauce

Balsamic vinegar

  1. Get the cabbage and potatoes on to boil until both are tender.
  2. While they cook stir together all the sauce ingredients and adjust the seasoning as required.
  3. In a frying pan heat some garlic oil (if you have it, normal oil if not) and fry the sausage slices for a couple of minutes aside.
  4. To serve, mix the sausage, cabbage and potato with the sauce. Grind over a nie bit of black pepper and drizzle with soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.
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