Braised lamb tenderloin with buttered lamb gravy, nettles, tomato and lemon jelly

Spring is all about lamb, that’s a given, and here’s a recipe that’s not to be missed. In this dish you’ll learn how to cook lamb crépinette, simply explained; crépinette is a very old sausage technique. If you want to make this at home, you’ll probably have to get some help from a skilled butcher to get hold of the crépinette itself, it’s not something you’ll find at your usual supermarket. Enough for about 10 guests

Lamb

• 1 kg Lamb tenderloin
• 300 g Crépinette
• Rapeseed oil

Season the meat with salt and pepper. Brown all around in a hot pan until golden. Transfer to a baking sheet and leave to cool. Soak the crépinette sheet in cold water. Look through it to make sure there are no holes!

Duxelle

• 300 g Mushrooms
• 1 Banana shallot
• 2 Garlic cloves
• 20 g Butter

Peel and slice the shallots and garlic and finely chop the mushrooms. Fry the mushrooms in rapeseed oil and butter to a nice color. Add the onion and sweat until everything is soft. Season with a little salt and pepper. Fill a piping bag for easy handling in the next step.

Stuffing

• 300 g Chicken mince
• 10 g Salt
• 1 Egg
• 200 ml of Double Cream
• 30 g Spinach
• 2 Banana shallots
• 2 Garlic cloves
• 30 g Thyme
• 30 g Rosemary

Finely chop the shallots, garlic, thyme and rosemary. Sweat in rapeseed oil until soft, let cool. Mix the minced chicken, salt, egg, cream and spinach with the onion mix until smooth. Fill in a piping bag.

Assembly

Place a damp towel on the work surface, place a crépinette sheet on top. Spread the mince evenly on the crépinette, spread it out with a palette knife. Add the mushroom filling and place the meat in the center. Roll up tightly (if you want a perfectly round roll, you can fix it with plastic film). Cook in the oven at 120°C to 52°C internal temperature. Allow to rest. Fry until golden before serving.

Lamb sauce

• 200 g Carrot
• 200 g Yellow onion
• 5 cloves of Garlic
• 10 g Black pepper
• Thyme, rosemary
• 1 Lamb shank
• 350 g Chicken stock
• 350 g Veal stock
• 350 g White wine
• 250 g Water
• 30 g Butter (room temperature)
• 5 g Kampot pepper

Peel and chop the onion, garlic and carrot into large pieces. Roast the leg of lamb together with the vegetables in the oven at 180°C for about 35 minutes until golden. Place in the pressure cooker with the garlic, black pepper and herbs. Pour in the white wine, water and stock. Turn the pressure cooker on to maximum heat. When it starts to sizzle, lower the heat and cook under pressure for 50 minutes.

Remove the meat from the sauce, leave to cool and cut into smaller pieces. Reduce the broth and reduce to a flavorful sauce. Strain the sauce and let it simmer. Mix in butter and kampot pepper just before serving. Season with salt and vinegar.

Tartlet dough

• 230 g Flour
• 63 g Water
• 63 g Butter
• 20 g Egg yolk
• 8 g Salt
• 5 g Sugar

Mix ingredients in a dough mixer, work it for 3 minutes. Knead lightly, vacuum pack and let rest in refrigerator 20 minutes. Roll out (we used a pasta machine), fill tartlet molds (we used molds about 8 cm in diameter) and bake at 180°C for 30 minutes.

Tomatoes and courgettes

• 35 cocktail tomatoes
• Salt
• Sugar
• Thyme
• 3 mini courgettes

Halve the tomatoes and place on a baking sheet. Season with salt and sugar. Add the plucked thyme and bake in the oven at 180°C for 40 minutes. Slice the zucchini on a mandolin and set aside for later. Save all the end pieces for the next step.

Nettle cream

• 150 g Blanched nettle leaves
• The offcuts of the courgettes
• 1 Banana shallot
• 30 g Spinach
• 50 g Olive oil
• 1 Clove of garlic
• 30 g cheese (Guldklimp, Arla)
• 1 Egg

Peel and chop the shallots, garlic and courgettes and sweat them in a pan until soft. Add the spinach and nettles and let everything sweat for another minute. Put the fried onion and zucchini mixture in a blender jug. Add the olive oil, grated cheese and eggs and blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt. Fill the tartlet shells with plucked lamb meat and top with nettle cream. Add tomatoes and zucchini slices and bake at 135°C for 30 minutes.

Lemon jelly

• 1 salted lemon (it also works with regular lemon!)
• 150 g Raw tomato juice
• 150 g Water
• 4 sprigs of rosemary
• 15 g Sugar
• 2.5 g Agar-agar

Scoop out the inside of the lemon. Bring the tomato juice to the boil with the lemon, water, thyme, rosemary and agar-agar. Leave to boil for about two minutes, stirring constantly. Strain the mixture over a plate and leave to set in the fridge. Finally, blend to a completely smooth cream and fill into a piping bag.

Garnish

• Nasturtium cress

When serving, slice up neat slices of the lamb and place on plate on a mirror of sauce. In our plating each guest was served half a tartlet. A top tip here is to halve the tartlets before garnishing them with shaved courgette and nasturtium.