Posts Tagged ‘Lamb’

1 leg or shoulder of lamb
250g fresh plums, diced
1 tbsp. tomato puree
peel of 1 lemon
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp sweet chilli sauce

Score the meat so that it will absorb all the flavours whilst cooking. Place in a crock pot.

Combine all the rest of the ingredients and pour over the meat.

Cook on low for about 8 hours.

Remove the lamb and carve. Drain the liquid into a saucepan and reduce. You can add some cornflour to thicken if you prefer. Serve with the meat and your preferred accompaniments.

Serves 4

400g mirabelles
30g butter
a pinch of sugar
4 racks of lamb
8 sprigs thyme
2 tbsp. olive oil
pinch of fleur de sel
pepper

Preheat the oven to 240C. Place the racks of lamb on a large baking dish and sprinkle with the thyme, fleur de sel and freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and place in the oven for 10 minutes, basting frequently.

Remove the racks of lamb and leave to rest, covered in foil for 5 minutes.

While they are resting, pour off the fat from the pan. Add a spoon of hot water and deglaze the juices. Bring to the boil and whisk in 10g of the butter.

Halve the mirabelles, removing the stones. Heat the rest of the butter in a pan over a medium heat. Sauté the plums, stirring gently for a few minutes. Sprinkle with the sugar and carmelize lightly.

Now simply plate the racks, surrounding them with the mirabelles and the jus on the side.

Gigot de Sept Heures (7 hour lamb) is a delicious, slow-cook recipe for incredibly tender meat. Try it on Easter Sunday!

Serves 6-8

3kg leg of lamb with bone
8 cloves of garlic, peeled
60 ml olive oil
3 large carrots, peeled, cut in chunks
2 medium yellow onions, peeled, quartered
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, quartered
1 bouquet garni
240 ml red wine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Fresh thyme and rosemary sprigs

Preheat your oven to 200C, gas mark 6.

Crush 3 cloves and garlic and massage into the lamb with a good amount of salt and freshly ground pepper. Put in a large cast iron casserole dish and surround with carrots, onion, tomatoes and the rest of the garlic. Drizzle over the olive oil and roast, uncovered for 30 minutes.

Reduce the temperature to 180C, gas mark 4 and roast for a further 30 minutes. Take the dish out of the oven and turn the temperature down to 125C while we work some magic with the lamb…

Transfer the lamb to a plate. In the casserole dish, add the bouquet garni and red wine. Bring to a boil over a medium heat  and scrape up all the lovely juices and carmelised bits from the bottom of the pan. Put the lambe pack in the dish and cover with the lid or alumium foil. Return to the oven and cook for a final 6 hours.

After this cooking time, remove the dish again from the oven and transfer the lamb to a chopping board, loosely covered with foil.

Throw away the herbs before blending the vegetables, wine and lamb juices.

Slice the lamb and serve with some of the sauce poured over. Garnish with rosemary or thyme sprigs.

Serve with creamy mashed potatoes and vegetables.

Jane Clarke is one of the UK’s must trusted nutritionalists. She not only knows what’s good for you, but as a trained Cordon Bleu Chef, know’s how to make it taste fantastic. Her belief is grounded in the simple statement that “food nourishes your life, not just your body”. This week, find out her views on the greatest of spring meats – lamb…

“One of the easiest and yet most delicious meals to throw together when you have meat-loving friends round is lamb chops; if you can get them as a small rack, they look impressive (with or without the little white curly hats) – small enough to satisfy, but not over fancy and they’re very easy to cook. And nothing could be simpler or more delicious to serve with them than new potatoes and a big serving bowl of steamed greens-drizzle over some extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with plenty of freshly ground black pepper, throw in some very finely chopped mint, add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to bring out the flavours, and lightly mix together.

Or you could give your lamb meal a North African theme by serving the chops (or any other cut of lamb) with couscous, maybe flavoured with lots of chopped herbs such as parsley, coriander and the classic served-with-lamb herb, mint.

Lamb, like most meat, needs a little fat on it to help give it flavour, but because like any other animal fat it’s high in saturated fat, a little balancing is necessary. It’s important to avoid animal fat in the rest of your meal, so skip butter on the vegetables and go for a dash of virgin olive oil instead.  I wouldn’t overpower vegetables or your meat with buttery sauces either, otherwise you will find that your lamb meal contains a lot of animal fat, which can increase the amount of bad LDL cholesterol in your blood.

Without sacrificing anything in flavour, this can all be avoided if you cook your lamb chops on a raised grill, so that the excess fat runs off. If it’s a leg of lamb you’re wanting to tuck into, drain the juices off from the bottom of the pan, allow to cool, and then, using either a spoon or one of the fancy but oh-so-useful brushes or pipettes that you can buy in cooking shops, remove the excess fat before using the juices in the gravy.

Nutritionally, lamb is a great source of protein, which is needed to build, repair and maintain body tissues, organs and cells in all parts of the body. Mineral-wise, although it contains less than beef, lamb is still a good source of iron a mineral needed for healthy blood, and for brain development in babies and important for many functions in the body including growth, sperm production,  our sense of taste and smell, maintaining a strong immune system and wound healing – so lamb is deliciously good news all round.”

Keep up to date with Jane Clarke at www.janeclarke.com where you’ll find tips on healthy eating and a weekly diary. If your mouth is watering at the thought of tender, succulent (and nutritious) lamb, click here to view our selection!

For those who were 70s and 80s kids, the universally-popular card game ‘top trumps’ will still linger in the nostalgic mind. Memories of beating your brother, sister and friends with your favourite fast car or dinosaur provided boundless fun, however, not forgetting the enjoyable education that was acquired at the same time.

So, here at Natoora we thought it would be as insightful as amusing for us to adapt this treasured pastime by incorporating some of the select meats that we sell – sharing our expertise so you can become victorious in breed top trumps!

This month we will focus on Welsh Mountain Sheep; showing you the key features from how much they cost, to what they like to eat.

Mountain Sheep

The Welsh Mountain breed have evolved over hundreds of years to deal with the extreme harsh conditions that are often presented in the valley. The best cuts are between August and March, and this breeding cycle means this particular sheep is a well-sought after delicacy across the UK. The male has an impressive coat and distinct curled horns, whereas the female is hornless.

They remain outdoors and feed happily on grass, hay and sugar beet nuts in the colder months. This staple diet results in the breed being constantly healthy and fit; benefiting from the goodness of their habitat, such as wild herbs, creating a naturally lean meat with notable floral flavours. The sheep are more diminutive than other breeds, so expect slightly smaller joints when you buy from us or a butcher.

Specification:

Max Weight (pounds)                                                                  178

Max Engine capacity (food consumption) 2 times its own body weight

Max cost when new (£)                                                               250

Miles per gallon (mpg)                                                              n/a

Health (good to poor)                                                                  Good (they eat grass and sugar beet nuts)

Farm yard factor                                                                          95%

A classic looking animal proving an equally classic taste!

Now that you’ve won this round of top trumps, why not take a look at our quality lamb choice cuts to celebrate

When it comes to the meat we sell, we like to know everything there is to know about it. We pride ourselves on providing the best cuts of lamb both for flavour and quality, and if you share our passion for all things lamb, you might be interested to know exactly where these amazing cuts come from. So, every month we will highlight the various edible parts from our select animals, and more specifically, how best to prepare and cook them.

Sheep thrive in a variety of climates and have been the principal meat source across North Africa and Eurasia for centuries. The Industrial Revolution sparked an increased demand for meat and led to the increased breeding of sheep for meat in the UK. We can now reap the reward of several generations of selective breeding for taste and texture; well-reared lamb today is likely to be better than any eaten at any time in the past. Approximately 80% of lamb sold in the UK is from animals between four months and a year old. Lamb is a fantastic source of zinc, iron and Vitamin B. So, delicious and healthy all at the same time!

Here at Natoora we are advocates of ethical rearing, and all of our lamb cuts have been expertly reared and where the highest animal welfare standards are upheld. We love lamb so much that we thought we’d give you a breakdown of the finest lamb choice cuts we receive from our butcher.

Leg

Our legs of lamb are perfect for that scrumptious Sunday roast, as well as popular dinner party cuts. Our tip when preparing for a roast is to make several small incisions in the leg and then stuff it with loads of garlic and rosemary. Yum!

Culets

The great thing about quality lamb cutlets is they’re immensely delicate, which means you can’t overcook them. Our little tip is to brush them lightly with oil, season with salt ad black pepper and seat quickly on a griddle.

Chops

All our Lamb Chops are derived from the British Isles, including classic breeds from Shetland to Yorkshire. Chops are extremely tender and juicy and we recommend you marinate them in fresh rosemary and then cook them on the griddle.

Neck

Many people use Neck of lamb for stewing as the bones provide unique and delicious juices to the stock. Fantastic for gravies and soups to really warm the cockles this winter!

Shank

As one of the most popular cuts, the lamb Shank is best braised to really appreciate its tenderness and richness. We think that Sunday lunch was made for lamb shank!

Rack

The Rack of lamb is cut from the saddle of the lamb and has the perfect balance of fat to meat ratio, which means when in season is the sweetest of all the meats.

Shoulder

The Shoulder of lamb is one of the larger cuts and is hugely rich in flavour. We have always thought the shoulder is highly underrated, and at such great value, believe you should savour this select piece to really appreciate its complex flavours.

Next month’s choice cuts: Rabbit

The Telegraph last week featured an absolutely outstanding recipe from Francesco Mazzei and we were so pleased to see our fiery and irresistible N’duja sausage as a main feature! N’duja is probably the ultimate salami from Calabria, with it’s rustic and powerful flavour it is perfect for Francesco’s lamb ragu cavatelli. The flavour of this intense sausage is at first quite sweet, which then explodes with the full force of Calabrian chilli pepper. Absolutely delicious. View the whole article here or see below for the recipe.

1lb 2oz/500g lamb mince
Olive oil
3 tbsp red wine
1 tbsp finely chopped celery
1 tbsp finely chopped onion
1 tbsp finely chopped carrot
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Sprig of rosemary
Sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf
14oz/390g tin plum tomatoes, drained
2 sprigs of mint
2 tbsp n’duja or soft chorizo
4 tbsp smoked ricotta or hard pecorino cheese, plus extra for serving
1lb/450g fresh cavatelli or orrechiette pasta (dried will be fine, too)

Fry the minced lamb with 2 tbsp olive oil until it is well browned, then put aside. In a small pan, boil the red wine until reduced by half.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan and add the celery, onions, carrots, garlic, rosemary, thyme and bay leaf. Sweat together for a couple of minutes. Add the minced meat, red wine reduction and tomatoes and simmer for about 4-6 hours. Add the mint leaves for the last 15 minutes of cooking time.

Stir the n’duja or chorizo into the ragu and finish with grated smoked ricotta or pecorino cheese. Season with salt and pepper.  Cook the pasta and stir into the ragu. Serve with extra cheese to sprinkle on top.

For those who were 70s and 80s kids, the universally-popular card game ‘top trumps’ will still linger in the nostalgic mind. Memories of beating your brother, sister and friends with your favourite fast car or dinosaur provided boundless fun, however, not forgetting the enjoyable education that was acquired at the same time.

So, here at Natoora we thought it would be as insightful as amusing for us to adapt this treasured pastime by incorporating some of the select meats that we sell – sharing our expertise so you can become victorious in breed top trumps!

This month we will focus on Devon Closewool Sheep; showing you the key features from how much they costs, to what these particular sheep like to eat.

The Devon Closewool is the ideal commercial or pedigree sheep, or as many farmers believe, the ‘most effective lawnmower in the UK!’ This breed of sheep has been in existence for over 100 years and is now primarily a low maintenance grassland sheep, but provides a high quality meat. We salute all Devon Lamb, particularly the Closewool!

Specification:

Max Weight (pounds) 140
Max Engine capacity (food consumption) 1.5 times its own body weight
Max cost when new (£) 200
Miles per gallon (mpg) n/a
Health (good to poor) Good/Strong (they eat just grass and grain)
Farm yard factor 85%

The epitome of British livestock!

Next month: the American Saddle Back Pig