Lamb Steaks baked with Baby Potatoes and Lemon

Welsh salt marsh lamb is the only meat that beats Welsh mountain lamb in my humble opinion!  It’s a delicious meat which works very well with samphire, as the animals graze on and alongside it on the salt marshes of West Wales.

It would be a travesty to cook such a lovely meat in a rich gravy or sauce, it really needs the lightest hand to bring out the best of its flavour.

Quantities depend on the numbers you are cooking for, you will need : 

Lamb steaks

Baby new potatoes

One or two slices of salt preserved lemon.  (not vinegar preserved, the grated rind of half a lemon could be substituted)

You could prepare the dish the evening before by laying the lamb steaks in a dish with one small clove of garlic and a sprig of rosemary alongside them.  You want the merest breath of garlic and rosemary, not a big hit.

The next day cut the steaks into chunks and pop into a basin, cut the baby potatoes into chunks and add to the lamb steaks.  Drizzle with the tiniest drop of olive oil and toss them together. 

Lay a sheet of greaseproof paper over a sheet of tinfoil on a shallow roasting tray and turn the potatoes and lamb pieces onto it.  Wash the salt preserved lemon slice and cut the rind into thick pieces and dot among the lamb and potatoes.  Wrap up to form a parcel and bake in a hot oven for 35 – 40 minutes.  Uncovering for the last 15 minutes for the meat to brown.

Serve with lightly steamed samphire dressed with lemon juice and butter, and garden peas dressed with butter and a sprinkle of fresh mint.

Cawl - Welsh Lamb Stew

The only real difference between a traditional Welsh Cawl and its Celtic cousin Irish Stew is the more broth-like consistency, lack of barley and inclusion of leek, swede/turnip and dumplings in the Welsh version.   

It’s a delicious stew which benefits from being made a day in advance so that it as it sits in the oven overnight the flavours meld and mature.

For two to three people :

2 lamb leg steaks

1 stick of celery
1 large or two small leeks
2 medium carrots
½ medium swede / 2 small turnips
2 medium potatoes

Scant ½ tb flour
2 pints of lamb stock
1tb olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

To make the dumplings you need :

1tb self raising flour
1tb suet
Salt and pepper to taste
Enough water to bring together to a slack dough. 

Firstly cut the leg steaks into large pieces, coat with the flour and fry in the olive oil to brown on all sides.  Remove to a plate as they are browned.

Slice the leek/s lengthways and rinse well under running water, then cut into slices approximately ½ an inch thick.  Finely chop the celery stick, peel the carrots and swede/turnip and cut into coarse dice and then do the same with the potatoes.

Add a little more oil to the pan if needed, and gently sweat the vegetables for 10 minutes.  Return the lamb to the pan and add the lamb stock then add the potatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Cover and cook on a very low simmer for two hours, or pop it into the oven to cook at 150^oC for two hours.

At the end of the cooking time make the dumplings by adding the flour, suet and seasoning to a small basin and mix with enough cold water to combine to a slightly wetter dough than bread or pastry.  Scoop tablespoonfuls onto the stew and pop back into the oven.  If you’re cooking ahead of time and you have an electric oven, you can turn the oven off now and the dumplings will cook in the cooling oven.  If you have a gas oven they will need about half an hour cooking before you can turn the oven off.

* I had this delicious Cawl recently on a short holiday to the lovely coastal town of Aberaeron, and they serve it in the 'Brecon Style'.  Instead of a suet dumpling, you get a lump of cheese on the side and a bread roll.  For those of us obsessed with maintaining our cheese intake, this method is highly recommended, and probably better for the cholesterol levels too!

(150^oC = 300^oF = gas mark 2)

Baked Stuffed Leg of Lamb

This lovely recipe is a marriage between two favourite recipes, Italian Stuffed Lamb from Jamie’s Italy and Delia’s Braised Lamb Shanks with Cannellini Beans from How To Cook, Book Three.

I picked up a small boned leg of lamb on offer, and knew that these two recipes would be the perfect way to cook it.  I’ve adapted the recipes to suit my needs, and the cooking time to suit the size of joint I have.

To suit my one and a half pound (750g) joint I used :

For the stuffing : 

3 thick slices of stale bread

1 anchovy

1tsp pine nuts

1 clove garlic

1 small sprig rosemary

1dsp chopped fresh mint and parsley (or 1tsp of dried)

For the roasting tin : 

2 large baking potatoes

1 large carrot

2oz dried cannellini beans (soaked overnight in water)

Approximately ½ bottle of red wine (you may or may not need it all)

To make the stuffing, simply pop everything into the food processor and blitz.  Wash and dry the lamb joint, and then push the stuffing into the boned cavity.  If necessary, you can make the hole a little bigger by cutting at it with a small sharp knife..  Rub all over with a little olive oil and season with a little salt and pepper.  Place in the roasting tin.

Peel and cut the potato and carrot into large chunks.  Drain and rinse the cannellini beans.  Arrange around the lamb joint in the roasting tin.  Pour over a tablespoon or so of the red wine.

Put the lamb into a hot oven (230^oC / 450^oF / gas mark 8) for 30 minutes.  After the initial cooking time, turn the oven down to 180^oC (350^oF / gas mark 4) and give it 30 minutes per pound of weight.

Baste the joint with the half bottle of wine, a tablespoon or so at a time, every half an hour until the lamb and the vegetables are cooked.

As the meat is cooked with carrots, potatoes and beans, you will simply need a green vegetable on the side.  I cooked a small sweetheart cabbage with mine.

If you want to try the original recipes, there are links below to help you locate them.

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/pulses/braised-lamb-shanks-with-cannellini-beans.html 

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/lamb-recipes/leg-of-lamb-stuffed-with-olives-bread-pine-nuts-and-herbs-cosciotto-d-agnello-ripieno-di-olive-pane-pinoli-e-erbe-aromatiche

Roast Lamb Chops with Diced Potatoes, Garlic and Rosemary

This is a lovely all-in-one dish, very quick to prepare and full of flavour!  All the pictures below show one serve, because my hubby won’t eat lamb!  Sometimes a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do and I had this while he had something he likes!! 

I can’t claim any credit for the potatoes, they are an old favourite of mine from Delia’s Summer Collection, I simply cooked the lamb chops in the tin with the potatoes!!

 

For two people you need :

 

2 large potatoes

2 cloves of garlic

1 generous sprig of rosemary 

4 lamb chops

1 clove of garlic

2 anchovies 

Appx 1tb olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste 

Firstly, lay your lamb chops on a chopping board and stab in several places with a good sharp knife.  Push slivers of garlic and pieces of anchovy into the stab holes.  Season on both sides with salt and pepper. 

Dice the potatoes and wrap in a tea-towel.  Dice the cloves of garlic and the rosemary. 

Heat 1tb of olive oil in a roasting pan on the hob, when the oil is hot sear the lamb chops on both sides and then add the diced potatoes, turn over and over in the hot oil.  Add the garlic and rosemary to the tin and toss around so that both the potatoes and lamb chops get a good share. 

Cook in a hot oven, I cooked mine at 200^oC (400^oF / gas mark 6) for 30 minutes.  The actual cooking time will vary and depend on your oven, the thickness of your chops, how you like them cooked (rare, well done etc), and the size of your potato dice! 

 

This can be quite a rich meal, with the meat juices cooking into the potatoes, so you might want to serve a nice crunchy green salad alongside, or a nice sharp fruit salad afterwards!

Irish Stew (my version)

As I was away on holiday on St David’s Day I thought I’d share a recipe with you to celebrate my Celtic cousins’ Patron Saint’s day instead – St Patrick’s Day. 

Traditionally Irish Stew contains pearl barley, but I prefer it without so this is my own particular version.  Actually, the purists in Ireland don’t use barley either and the version I had when we were in Ireland (County Mayo) contained only lamb, onion and potato.  I like to add carrot to my version and I’ve given it a little Welsh twist by using leek instead of onion but you could use onion if leek isn’t easily obtainable. 

For two to three people : 

2 lamb leg steaks

1 large or two small leeks

2 medium carrots

2 medium potatoes

1 small sprig of rosemary

1 bayleaf

1tb flour

2 pints of lamb stock

1tb olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste 

Firstly cut the leg steaks into large pieces and fry in the olive oil to brown on all sides.  Remove to a plate as they are browned. 

Slice the leek/s lengthways and rinse well under running water, then cut into slices approximately ½ an inch thick.  Peel the carrots and cut into fairly big pieces and do the same with the potatoes. 

Add a little more oil to the pan if needed, and gently sweat the leek and carrot for 10 minutes.  Return the lamb to the pan and add the tablespoon of flour, stirring well to absorb any juices in the pan.  Slowly add the lamb stock, stirring well to eliminate the risk of lumps forming.  Add the potatoes then season with salt and pepper and add the chopped rosemary and the bayleaf.  Cover and cook on a very low simmer for two hours, or pop it into the oven to cook at 150^oC for two hours. 

(150^oC = 300^oF = gas mark 2)

Grandma's Sea Pie

This recipe is the beef version of something my Grandmother used to make when I was a child with leftover lamb.   For some obscure reason, which I have never got to the bottom of, it was called Sea Pie.   

This is one of my absolute favourite dishes, and my regular way of using up leftover cooked meat.  I have recently started making it with beef as my hubby doesn’t like lamb very much.  I love this dish so much that I always cook more meat than I need, just so that I can make this with the leftovers.   

Quantities will vary depending on how many people you want to feed, and indeed how much leftover cooked lamb or beef you have but what I used for one person was:

1 quantity of cooked leftover beef (this particular leftover was frozen from a brisket pot roast I made a few weeks ago)

1 medium potato, peeled and cut into quite thin slices

1 large onion, peeled and cut into slices

A sprig of rosemary washed and chopped finely (you could use thyme if you prefer)

Salt and pepper to taste

1tb flour

½ pint or so of beef stock (if you are using leftover lamb, use lamb stock)

Cut the leftover beef into strips or small chunks and toss in the seasoned flour.  Place in layers in your casserole dish as follows : meat, onion, rosemary, potatoes, season, meat, onion, rosemary, then toss in the dregs of any leftover flour and then pour over the stock, you want enough stock to come two thirds of the way up the dish.  Finally add the top layer of potato slices and cover either with a lid or with foil.

Bake at 180^oC for an hour, uncovering for the final 15 minutes so that the top layer of potatoes can brown.

Shepherd's Pie

My absolute number one favourite pie!  Probably better known as cottage pie as I make it with beef mince and not lamb mince, it’s always known as shepherd’s pie to me!

A very versatile dish, it is traditionally made with minced leftover beef.  Indeed, my mother keeps leftover meat of all descriptions for her shepherd’s pie – chicken, lamb and beef.  I have to say, odd as that combination sounds, it is absolutely delicious!

I have made various toppings over the years, a combination of any of the following: mashed potato, swede (rutabaga in the US), celeriac, carrot, parsnip.  I usually just make it with mashed potato though, very buttery mashed potato.  I always sweat the green part of a leek in a little butter and mix that in with the mashed potato to top the pies too.  A grating of cheese finishes the dish beautifully.

You can also finish it with a rosti topping (part boil and grate some potato and mix with a little butter) or a Teviotdale topping (see earlier blog post on this one).

Like most pies this improves on keeping and can be made well ahead of time, a day or even two in the fridge won’t do it any harm at all.  I usually make this pie filling in the morning and prepare the topping later in the day.

The recipe I generally use is below, but is never cast in stone, just go with what you like and what you have to hand.  It will serve four people and will freeze.

500g minced beef (or lamb)

1 onion

1 carrot

Half a small swede (rutabaga in the US)

Chopped mixed herbs to taste (I usually use a mix of rosemary, thyme, parsley, a little sage)

1 bayleaf

1 anchovy

Worcestershire sauce

1tb flour

Half a pint of beef stock (or a little more depending on how much gravy you like with your pie, if using lamb mince use lamb stock)

Salt and pepper to taste

Chop the onion, dice the swede and carrot and add both to a pan with a little olive oil.  Sweat over a low heat for around 10 minutes or so. 

Add the anchovy and push around the pan until it ‘melts’. 

Add the minced beef and brown in the pan, cooking until the juices cook off. 

Add the tablespoon of flour and mix into everything.  Gradually add the beef stock stirring well. 

Add the chopped herbs and a dash of Worcestershire sauce and stir, season to taste with salt and pepper and pop in a bayleaf. 

Leave to simmer quietly on a very low heat for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring from time to time so that it doesn’t stick. 

Decant into your pie dish (or dishes if you are freezing some for another day).  If you are making this ahead of time, allow the dish to cool and then cover and pop in the fridge until you are ready for it. 

To make the topping simply slice the green part of a leek in half lengthways, and then in half again, chopping the quarters to dice them.  Soften in a little butter for 5 – 10 minutes.

At the same time, boil and mash some potatoes (the amount you need will depend on how you are treating the pies – making all four serves for now or stashing two, or three, in the freezer). 

Add the buttery leeks to the mashed potatoes and mix together. 

If you are topping the pie for immediate re-heating spoon onto the pie filling and fork across, the ridges made by the forking will brown nicely.  Add some (or a lot!) grated cheese and pop into the oven.   

If you are making the potato topping ahead of time too (and I often do!), leave to go cold before topping the pies. 

The hot pie filling will need 20 minutes or so, until the potato topping is nicely brown and crispy.  A chilled/cold pie filling will need 30 minutes.   

I always use enamelled pie tins to cook this so if you are using stoneware they might need a little longer.