🎵we're lambin' … and I hope you like lambin' too.

The last couple of days have been a veritable lamb feast. Lamb for breakfast. Lamb for lunch. Lamb for dinner. You gotta love your lamb around ‘ere.

Yesterday’s lamb shoulder made a reappearance for one of today’s dishes, the Epaule d’Agneau Champvallon. Or Betty’s Hotpot. Layers of lamb, onions, thyme, tomatoes and potatoes. Glazed in reduced jus at the end and sprinkled with chopped parsley. Mega!

Lamb shoulder with potatoes, onions and tomatoes

We had to cook Navarin d’Agneau aux Petits Légumes. This is basically a lamb stew made with the neck fillet in a rich lamb jus with green beans and broad beans. Served with turned and glazed mooli and carrots.

Butchering the neck fillet away from the bones was easy. I don’t think anyone was particularly looking forward to turning vegetables again so soon. One person on the team has been shaving eggs for weeks to get the wrist action down pat. Let me remind you—think vegetable grenades. Turning is carving out little grenade shapes that are 50mm long and 20mm wide in the centre with 7 sides. Today chef said that actually it can be 5, 6 or 7 sides. Well, that makes it a lot easier. Seriously. Then he showed us a little trick to carve out the presentation-side profile and cut around that. Then put the remaining sides at the back. Soooooo much easier. I was chuffed to bits with my grenades.

The lamb stew is amazing. Simple and just delicious.

We were challenged to think about a starch to serve with it (because the recipe omitted such a thing). Chef said a rosemary polenta. There were a few different versions of knödeln. I went for my favourite serviettenknödel. The best answer was baguette. Perhaps not what was expected but a decent chunk of dipping bread would work a treat.

🎵lambin' till the lamb is through.

Credit to chef for the lammin’ riff on Bob Marley’s song.

Stewing on it