Gary does Gordon

Well, it has been a busy period over the past couple of weeks, however it is safe to say that the hump is now over and it is all downhill from here… at least that is what I keep telling myself. We went on much deserved break last week, which involved a very tiring but enjoyable holiday to Disneyland. Our little boy loved it which is the main thing, but to say I am knackered would be a major understatement! We must have walked miles, and my legs are still a bit sore from all the trapsing between rides and the many attractions on offer, but that’s by the by as I have regained my enthusiasm for cooking as a result and decided to complete this lamb dish this past weekend. How did this happen, well, after eating out for a week you quickly begin to appreciate just how good, and necessary, homecooked food really is. I was craving normal food on the second day there, and by the last day it was verging on becoming a critical situation.

As mentioned in my previous post, one of the components of this dish, the lamb jus, applies to a number of dishes within Gordon’s book so I had already made this. What was left therefore was the lamb itself, the vegetables and the puree. Sounds simple eh, so I got cracking on with it all.

Lamb jus

The first hurdle was the lamb. One of the components for the dish was a little disc of confit lamb shoulder which required slow cooking the lamb shoulder in fat for a couple of hours, shredding it, rolling it into a log, chilling it, cutting it into discs, and then re-heating. Now here’s the thing… I had a lamb shoulder ready to be used in my freezer already. Once thawed out, it became apparent that I couldn’t use it. It was freezer burnt to hell and back which was a shame, not to mention it was quite pungent as well. I’m pretty certain it would have been okay to eat, but just in case I decided not to use it. This was a bit of a bummer as I had planned to do everything needed for this dish, and the first thing I set my sights on didn’t happen. Still, it was only a small component of the dish (You are only talking about a disc the size of 50p coin at most) so hopefully not too much of an omission.

I then focussed my attention on the pesto. The dish requires a dab of pesto here and there but the recipe calls for a humongous amount of pesto to be made. It seemed overkill to be honest to make so much pesto, but I figured it could be used with pasta etc later on in the week anyway. This was simple to make really… I added basil leaves, toasted pine nuts, olive oil, garlic and parmesan to a food processor and blitzed the hell out of it until a paste had formed. This was then transferred to a container and kept in the fridge till later. It smelt wonderful… so aromatic and verging on being intoxicating. I’ll be making that again!

Preparing the pesto

Final pesto

Next up was the celeriac puree. Bizarely the title of the recipe calls for celeriac, but the recipe itself refers to turnip. A typo me thinks Gordon. I went with the turnip as this sounded better for the dish and happily sliced up some turnip and added this to a pan with some cream. This cooked away until softened after which I added it to a blender and blitzed this to a fine puree. This was then passed through a sieve and what was left was a ultra smooth, distinctly peppery turnip puree. I kept this in a separate pan in a warm place for later.

Cooking the turnip

Next was the vegetables.  A variety of veggies are used for this dish, including baby carrots, a fennel bulb, beetroot, onions and turnip. I couldn’t find baby onions, so shallots had to to. I couldn’t find baby turnips, so diced turnip had to do. Such compromises are needed when you live out in the sticks. I quickly blanched each vegetable in a large pot of salted water, cooled in iced water and then set aside for cooking with the butter closer to the time of plating.

This really hasn’t been a difficult dish at all so far, just a series of separate components which I suppose is what most dishes consist of really. Next was the thyme jus. Now the jus had already been prepared in a previous post and all that was needed was to reduce this a bit further with some added thyme sprigs. Whilst this was reducing I sliced up the lamb loin and then added this to a hot pan with olive oil to get some colour. Whilst this was cooking I added the vegetables with the exception of the onions to another pan with some butter and gently cooked these as well. For the onions I added some butter and sugar to an oven proof pan and then baked the onions in the oven for a few minutes, rolling the onions in the sugary-buttery mixture every now and then. I heated through the turnip puree and it was ready. This I suppose is where things get tricky, having to get all the components together at the same time, and for this dish there are a lot of components.

Vegetables in butter

Onions caramalising

It was time for the plating. I started off by adding some puree to the centre of the plate, and then using a scatter approach simply scattered the vegetables and lamb discs on the plate. Well when I say scatter there was some order to it all, but it was certainly not a precise plating like some of the other dishes I have done so far. Oh and a couple of dabs of pesto were added and I then spooned over some lamb jus and finally chopped up a few herbs (Chives, chervil and tarragon) and scattered these on the top. It was done.

The final dish

Wow! This is a good dish. It really is a fantastic dish and to be honest I feel I have cheated as it wasn’t really that difficult either. The lamp was stupidly tender, and the tarragon complimented it perfectly. In fact the turnip puree with it’s pepperyness also worked wonders with the lamb as did the beetroot with it’s deep earthy flavour. It was all good. This will become a classic in my household as I can already foresee this being a popular dinner party dish.

Navarin of lamb with buttered vegetables, celeriac puree and thyme jus… Done!

Next up: Pear tarte tatin with gorgonzola ice cream

Previous post: Lamb jus