Saddle of Walton Lodge Farm new season lamb

Cocina at Casa Hotel, winner of multiple Chesterfield Food & Drink Awards, share their recipe for Saddle of Walton Lodge Farm new season lamb with broad beans, peas and a redcurrant and rosemary jus.

Ingredients

For the lamb

• 400g Boneless lamb shoulder
• Salt and pepper, to season and for coking the peas and beans
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 1 litre of duck fat, or chicken stock if you prefer to braise rather than confit the shoulder
• 500g peeled Maris Piper potatoes
• 200ml double cream
• 75g unsalted butter
• 100g Parmesan
• 4 x 200g portions lamb saddles (ask your butcher to bone and roll the lamb for you) – we use Walton Lodge lamb
• 100g fresh peas – frozen will do if you can’t get fresh
• Water, for cooking
• 12 baby carrots, peeled and cooked

For the sauce

• Rapeseed oil, for cooking
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 100g chopped shallot
• 2 sticks chopped celery
• 2 gloves garlic
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 peppercorns
• 500ml red wine
• 100ml port
• 1 litre fresh lamb or beef stock
• 30g redcurrant jelly
• Salt and pepper, to season

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 140 degrees centigrade.

Season the lamb should with salt and pepper and in an ovenproof dish. Add the garlic then pour over the duck fat or hot chicken stock if you’re braising it. Make sure the lamb is totally submerged in the liquid.

Cover the dish with foil and place into the oven. The lamb will take roughly 90 minutes to cook.

You want it to be so tender it is falling apart, so if this isn’t happening return to the over until it is. When it is tender, remove from the oven, allow to cool then flake all the meat down, removing any fat.

Place to one side.

Cook the potatoes in salted water until cooked all the way through. Drain into a colander, allow all the steam to evaporate then mash.

Put the cream, butter and Parmesan into a pan, stir together and simmer until the cream has become thick. Slowly beat the cream into the potatoes a little at a time – you don’t want the mash to be too runny. Season and set to one side.

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium to high heat, add a little oil and all the sauce ingredients except the liquids and redcurrant jelly. Colour them well, being careful not to let them burn.

When you have a nice brown colour to the vegetables – after about 10 minutes – add the red wine and allow this to reduce until the wine has nearly evaporated. Add the port and repeat the process.

When the port is nearly gone, add the stock and redcurrant jelly and again reduce the liquid until it has thickened to a sauce-like consistency.

Pass the sauce through a fine sieve, pressing down the vegetables well so you get all the flavour from them. Season and set aside till plating.

For the saddle, turn the oven up to 180 degrees centigrade. Season the meat with salt and pepper. In a frying pan, render down as much fat as you can from the outside of the lamb. When it is a nice golden brown, place on a baking tray and put into the over for roughly 8 minutes, turning once or twice during cooking.

After the 8 minutes are up, press the meat of the saddle with your finger. It should feel the same a medium-cooked steak – that is, the meat should be tender but should ‘spring back’ when pressed rather than leaving an indent. If so, remove from the oven and leave it somewhere warm for the meat to relax.

Cook the peas and broad beans in boiling salted water until tender and drain them when cooked.

Place the lamb shoulder into the still-hot oven to heat and crisp up slightly – about 3 – 4 minutes.

Reheat the mashed potato and the lamb sauce.

When the shoulder is hot, add it to the pea and broad beans and keep them warm.

Heat the baby carrots up in the lamb sauce, slice each piece of lamb saddled into 3 even pieces and then serve as shown in the photo.

If you make this at home, please share your final piece with us through our Facebook or Twitter pages!