Cannon of lamb and haggis wellington with neeps’n tatty cake, young leeks, sprout leaves and haggis crumb, and a lamb jus

It’s birthday o’clock. Yip, today is my birthday. And by all accounts, it’s a big one. The big FIVE-OH. As in Oh for OMG.

And wouldn’t ya know it—we’re all stuck in lockdown.

I must confess, even before this pandemic thing, I didn’t really have a plan for my birthday. That’s not to say I didn’t want to mark the occasion and celebrate my socks off. I did. I do. I just hadn’t nailed it down. I want to do something different to a big party. Rather than a wham-bam one-off event I’m leaning toward celebrating throughout the year by visiting some of my “bucket list” restaurants around the UK and Europe—with friends hopefully. And wouldn’t it be fab to go on a wine-tasting tour through one of Austria’s beautiful wine regions with friends willing to mount a bicycle with a hangover? Come on!

That said we had booked a wee warm-up soirée in Vienna in early April with Dan and Jeff. It was to be joint festivities, with dear Jeff not far behind me with his 50th in May. The plan? Hit the Steiermark Frühling festival—an opportunity to don lederhosen in Springtime is not to be missed. Next onto Steirereck, a two Michelin starred restaurant in Vienna’s Stadtpark, for a lunchtime tasting menu extravaganza. I’ve been before—a lovers lunch for Roberta’s 50th. It was amazing. I thought the food was almost Fat Duck-like but what I seem to remember the most are the trolleys. What! They have a champagne trolley, a cheese trolley, a bread trolley, and obviously a schnapps trolley just for Roberta—like stupendous selection boxes on wheels. I would seriously kill for their bread trolley! So many different breads; so good. Then a jaunt to Beef & Glory for steak club on the Saturday night.

I guess I now have more time to nail exactly what I want to do. It was never critical to celebrate on my actual birth date so I’m not bothered about the delay. We’ll just have a little fun a bit later. I remain an optimist.

Anyhoo today was a nice relaxing day. Comfortable. Quiet. And chilled. I thought I’d drink more—famous last words—but I got engrossed with mise en place. Birthday dinner was something special—lamb haggis Wellington. Technical execution. Delicious tasting. Sign me up! Something for me to get my teeth into, in both ways. A welly requires sobriety. At least until it’s on the plate. Too much can go wrong during the build without the assistance of intoxication.

It all started yesterday with a cannon of lamb, which is the loin fillet. There are 2, one running each side of the spine. It’s the most expensive cut. I got mine from HG Walter; about £16 for around a 300g cut. Here it is in all its glory; worthy of a full-page spread, wouldn’t you say?

The cannon is a flattish rectangular cut and I wanted a good robust cylinder. Cue the meat glue. Dun-dun-daaaaaaa!! With a dusting over the top, the cannon was folded along its length and tightly rolled in clingfilm, ends tied, and into the fridge overnight for the meat to bind.

Crêpes next. The flour was sieved into a bowl. In another bowl, the eggs were whisked with the milk and a pinch of salt before joining the dry ingredients with a little oil. Whisk until smooth but don’t over whisk. There’s nothing like a good crêpe, as they say! (Especially dans le matin; giggles.) Sans the schoolboy humour—a good crêpe must be thin and circular. The first crêpe is usually sacrificial. Too thick? Mad shape? Scorched? No matter. Nom nom. Was the pan hot enough? Was there enough oil? Was the batter distributed quickly and evenly around the pan? It’s all in the wrist action. Or should I say wrists—ladle pouring from one hand, pan rotating in the other. It’s like trying to rub your tummy while patting your head. The crêpes were stacked up with parchment in between, wrapped in clingfilm, then into the fridge.

Finally, for now at least, onto the mousse. Chicken breast was blitzed for a minute with egg white and salt. Don’t blitz for longer because friction warms the meat and egg white and you don’t want that. When making mousse, keeping everything ice-cold stops the mousse splitting. Tip: put the food processor blade and bowl in the freezer ahead of time. Also, getting the salt right is key to the mousse setting. But you’ll only know by cooking a small piece wrapped in cling film in barely simmering water for a few minutes or until it reaches 72C. The blitzed chicken and egg white was passed through a fine drum sieve into a bowl over ice. A little double cream was beaten in, still over ice. Nowhere near as much as we used at Le Cordon Bleu. Then crumbled haggis was folded in. I wish I’d added a lot more haggis. The mousse was loaded into a piping bag and placed in the fridge.

Back to today. Birthday. Build day.

For once, I decided not to make my own puff pastry given the challenge obtaining flour these days. What flour I do have is destined for other things. So I used shop-bought puff pastry. Nowt wrong with the shop stuff. I just orefer to make my own because I enjoy it and it’s good practice.

Stage 1. Seared the lamb cannon and brushed with Dijon mustard. Rest and cool. I’d have liked more colour on the lamb. Hotter pan next time. Rookie error. Crêpe onto clingfilm. Mousse piped onto crêpe and smoothed out with a palette knife. Cannon on top then rolled tightly within the mousse-lined crêpe and clingfilm. Firm up in the fridge.

Meanwhile, got the lamb jus going; made with the few lamb trimmings, mirepoix and chicken stock.

Onto my neeps’n tatty cakes.

Swede and potato were cut into macedoine and confit’ed separately in duck fat. The duck fat included a splash of dry Riesling to moderate the temperature and a couple of long peppers were added to the potato. The swede and potato were drained, spread onto kitchen roll to absorb the excess fat, and seasoned with salt and cracked black pepper. When cool they were pressed into moulds and placed in the fridge. They would be warmed through in the oven for service and removed from the moulds at plating.

Build, stage 2.

Puff pastry was rolled out to about 2mm thick. I wanted it thin. Fridge. 10 minutes or so later, the cylinder of lamb wrapped in crêpe was rolled tightly in pastry, sealed, and egg washed. Back to the fridge.

Here’s a tip from Gordon Ramsay. “Brush the meat as well as the pastry with egg wash. This will make the top layer of pastry stick to the meat and stop it from rising and leaving a gap.” In my case I’d brush the outside of the crêpe. I didn’t do it this time and I got away with it. I’ll try it next time.

While the first egg wash was drying, another piece of puff pastry was rolled out, again 2mm thick, and a lattice created using a small sexagonal cutter. Fridge. The wellington was egg washed a second time and the lattice carefully attached and trimmed. Fridge. The lattice was egg washed 2 more times being careful not to get egg wash down the sides of each sexagon. Doing so would hinder the rise.

I got both my ovens going. One at 250C, the other at 160C. Puffing the pastry, getting colour onto it, and not overcooking the lamb was going to be tricky. A grand understatement if ever there were one. The wellington had 5 minutes at 250C. Then 12 minutes at 160C. Basically it was going to have as long as it would take for the lamb to reach a core temperature of 32C, as advised by the original method. In reality I caught it at 34C. Carryover cooking would continue to raise the core temperature during a long rest.

Thar she blows!

Lamb and haggis wellington straight out of the oven

I wasn’t entirely happy with the overall colouring on the pastry; it was a little blond towards the base. Nothing too bad though.

I let the welly rest for a few minutes before trimming the ends to release any steam. It was left to rest for a further 15 minutes.

Time to slice!

Use a sharp serrated knife and don’t saw back and forth too much. Use the full length of the knife. Try to remove each slice with one stroke forwards, then back.

Relief at that first glimpse inside the lamb and haggis wellington

Note to self and top tip: Don’t leave the slices standing vertically, the escaping juices pool at the base and quickly make the bottom soggy. Lay each slice face down on a board and leave to rest for 30 seconds to a minute before serving, but first carefully dab the downward face on a jay cloth to remove the immediate juices. And monitor that juice situation—you may need to dab again. Don’t leave the slices face down on the jay cloth; it will suck all the juices out of the meat.

The welly was served with a neeps’n tatty cake, young leaks cooked in butter (they’re propping up the welly, out of view), blanched Brussels sprout leaves with a haggis crumb, and the reduced lamb jus.

What a main course! Pimped up comfort food. Sumptuous. Jaw-droppingly delicious. Utter filth. I loved it.

This was followed by a tip-top dessert. One of my faves—Mississippi Mud Pie made by Roberta. Crazy good. I go weak at the knees over a biscuit crumb. Hard not to scoff the lot in one go. This was brought out with candles lit to a “tuneful” rendition of Happy Birthday from my friends on Zoom. I’m a lucky boy. Surreal but totally brilliant. Thanks everyone for keeping us company, chatting, sipping and toasting. I felt really bad scoffing that mammoth wedge of mud pie while everyone could only look on. Sorry ‘bout dat.

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, …

The next day there was the matter of leftovers to address. I always seem to have excess mousse. I cooked it sous vide then wrapped it in blanched Savoy cabbage leaf and puff pastry. It was served with leftover swede and potato, charred Baby Gem lettuce, and a whisky cream sauce. Damn fine for a follow-up.

And the day after that, staring into the fridge mid-morning (as I’m prone to do), I couldn’t resist a slice. Just a waffer-thin one. I couldn’t be bothered to warm it up. It was like the BEST sausage roll EVER!! This is the gift that keeps on giving. FTW.

Lamb haggis wellington