Leiths week 6 - pistachio crusted rack of lamb, boulangere potatoes & a chocolate fondant

This week was my last week at Leiths cookery school (sob) and most probably the most challenging week of the whole course. We were presented with a rack of lamb, complete with chine bone and shown how to remove the fat, the rubbery piece of tendon called the paddywack (no joke, this is actually what it's called - amazing) and how to scrape the bones clean. A pretty gruesome job... but it was Halloween so it seemed apt.

Once clean, naked and beautiful, the lamb was coated with a crust of ground pistachios, butter and thyme (very liberal amounts of butter were used in my case) and left to set in the fridge. In the meantime we made boulangere potatoes - thinly sliced potato and onion, layered covered in white stock (made from chicken and veal bones) and yet more butter and cooked for 2 hours. The recipe (in the Leiths Bible) stated to cook the lamb for half an hour... this seemed excessive so mine was cooked for 15 minutes and was still very pink inside (I do like it practically bleating...)

The final dessert of my Leiths adventure was a classic chocolate fondant. Really simple to make, these little chocolate pots of amazingness cannot fail to impress. Sadly I got melted chocolate (and butter) all over my recipe in the class and hoped it would be in my Leiths technique bible at home so I could share it with you... sadly it's not - I will try to be less messy in future...

The melt-in-the-middle chocolate fondants were served, warm from the oven, with a raspberry coulis (with added zing from the zest and juice of a lime) and obligatory cream

Spiced moroccan lamb tart with pomegranate, feta and mint

As part of my test runs for South Lambeth Market (in 2 weeks!!), I 've been practicing making a variety of different savoury tarts (and testing them on my neighbours/ husband/ whoever else I can find to be my guinea pigs). 

The idea for this particular tart is to lightly spice the lamb with the flavours of Morocco - cinnamon, ground coriander, cumin and the warmth of chilies.  This, combined with the saltiness of the feta, the sweetness of the pomegranate and the coolness of the mint seem to work really well together... well, that's what my guinea pigs said... recipe follows below

 

500g lamb mince 

1 large red onion, sliced

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 large cloves of garlic

A splash of balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon chili powder (hot)

1 teaspoon ground coriander (dried)

Small piece of feta cheese, crumbled

Half a pomegranate, seeds removed

Small bunch of mint, chopped

Make your pastry (see recipe here) and put in the fridge. Meanwhile, fry the red onion slowly in olive oil until it starts to turn golden brown. Add the cumin seeds and fry for a further 5 minutes. Add the splash of balsamic and stir until it reduces and turns the onion dark and sticky. Remove onions from the pan and set to the side. 

Add the lamb mince to the pan and brown until no pink remains. Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 - 3 minutes. 

Take your pastry out of the fridge and roll out thinly. Line a 25cm tart tin with pastry and blind bake in an oven preheated to 180C for 10 minutes. 

Remove the greaseproof paper and return the tart base to the oven, cooking for a further 10 minutes until golden brown. 

Add the lamb mixture to the tart tin, taking care to press the lamb down tightly (this will help it to stick together when you cut it). Add the crumbled feta on top and bake for a further 10 minutes. 

Leave the tart to cool and then add the pomegranate seeds and chopped mint. Serve with a cool yoghurt dressing (I use natural yoghurt mixed with mint sauce but you could use cucumber and chopped mint)