Chicken Savoyarde

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This is another recipe I cooked over Christmas in the Peak District in Yorkshire. It's from Tasamin Day-Lewis cook book 'Supper for a Song'. I did find the title of the book slightly misleading as the ingredients for this recipe can testify. The emphasis of the book is more towards using up leftovers - or making more then one meal using the same ingredient. She has some great ideas for leftover mash - mmmm mash. Tamasin does make the very good point that often cheap ingredients are a false economy - both for you and for the farmers and animals involved. You can't make a silk purse from a velour bag you got in Penny's, so the saying goes! 

I followed the recipe faithfully - so here's the link to Tamasins version. It's a wonderful rich dish and if you like Spaghetti carbonara - you're sure to be pretty fond of this too.

In other VERY exciting news, I'm off to the Cooks Academy for four weeks starting in the morning. I hope I can sleep. I'm hoping to be able to write a few posts about my time in the school - and if you're on twitter I shall be tweeting regularly about my progress.

Guest Chef No. 3

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The multi talented Ms. Doris K!

Roast Rack of Lamb with a Mustard and Herb Crumb Crust

I am visiting my Dad and his partner Doris in Kerry. Doris is originally from Germany and is a great and a very instinctive cook and has an amazing way of improvising and throwing things together to make something really tasty. A lot of her dishes have a slight German twist, and this one is no exception. She explained that its quite a German thing to coat meat with a stuffing type crumb mixture as this seals in moisture as well as giving a lovely crunchy texture.

This meal was absolutely delicious! Doris also made my favorite gratin potatoes which were the perfect accompaniment. Harley the greyhound was almost as happy as me due to all the bones that he got to eat afterwards!

Ingredients:

1 rack of Lamb (enough for 4 people, about 3 chops per person on each side)

4 tbsps whole grain or dijon mustard

a few sprigs rosemary & thyme

about 4 slices wholemeal bread

2 cloves garlic

salt and pepper

Sear the rack of lamb in a hot pan in olive oil to seal it, then coat the outside skin with the mustard and leave to rest for about 10 mins. In the meantime, put the bread into a food processor, add a few glugs of olive oil, the garlic, rosemary, thyme, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Whizz this into a kind of crumbly paste.

When the lamb is cooled, press the mixture onto the lamb, over where you have already spread the mustard.

Roast in the oven at 220c for about 40 mins, for pink meat, or 50 if you prefer it well done