After a very lazy Saturday, Lolz and I decided we would add another string to our middle-class bow by visiting the Parsons Green Farmer's Market on Sunday morning. Surely that would deliver a hit of inspiration to save me from this 15 minute meal slump that I am going through? Well, I did make one important and rather momentous discovery (details to follow in my next post...) but, unless you are looking for home made cakes or artisan breads, it was rather lacking in the inspiration department.
Our walk home did however take us past the highly acclaimed butchers The Parson's Nose, so we decided it was a good opportunity to cook this spring lamb dish that we'd been mulling over for ages, and hopefully do it with a good quality bit of meat. It looked like a hearty, Sunday afternoon type meal.
As the cooking got underway, it became evident that hearty was quite the understatement. The potatoes and leeks barely fitted in my largest pan, whilst the preparation of the salad resulted in a food processor breakage of yet-to-be-determined severity. It was a surprisingly challenging dish to cook. The processor is required for two separate functions, you have two pans on the stove and you are making the salad on the side, plus you have to make the gravy once the lamb comes out of the pan.
There were several issues with the dish. According to my extensive research, lamb neck fillet is best cooked slowly in stews as it is quite tough. This pan frying method doesn't really do it justice. The gravy also isn't as epic as Jamie promises. There is more flour than is needed to absorb all the lamb juices, so when you add the cider it turns out all lumpy - I ended up having to strain it through a sieve. The overwhelming flavour is the mint sauce. The worst part though is the mash, which ended up quite soggy. Here comes the science bit: Dr Lolz informs me that the best way of making mash is to boil the potatoes in as large chunks as possible, so as to reduce the surface area and therefore minimize the absorption of water. In this recipe however, you are told to slice the potatoes - this reduces cooking time but increases water absorption. End result, soggy mash.
Lolz gave the dish 7/10. Difficulty rating 7/10.
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