M&S recipe inspiration
Herb crusted rack of lamb with fondant potato, pea puree, English asparagus and a thyme jus
If you don’t want to make the sauce yourself, replace the thyme jus with M&S lamb gravy instead.
Ingredients
- 500g M&S chicken wings
- 250g M&S lamb leg steaks, cubed
- 45ml M&S olive oil
- 1 M&S brown onion, diced
- 1 M&S carrot, peeled and diced
- 1 M&S leek, diced
- ½ head M&S garlic, halved
- 4 sprigs M&S cut thyme
- 5 sprigs M&S cut rosemary
- 1 tsp M&S cumin seeds
- 1 M&S cinnamon stick
- 2 M&S plum tomatoes, diced
- 1 tbsp M&S tomato purée
- 300ml M&S chicken stock
For the thyme jus
For the lamb
- 2 M&S organic racks of lamb
- 3 tbsp M&S olive oil
- 2 tbsp M&S Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp M&S cut rosemary, chopped
- 15g M&S cut thyme, leaves chopped
- 150g M&S panko breadcrumbs, toasted
- 25g M&S cut flat leaf parsley, leaves chopped
- 2 cloves M&S garlic, peeled and crushed
For the fondant potatoes
- 4 M&S baking potatoes
- 50g butter
- 1 tbsp M&S olive oil
- 1 clove M&S garlic, peeled and crushed
- Sprig M&S cut thyme
- 1 sprig M&S rosemary
Pea purée and asparagus
- 375g M&S frozen peas
- 100g M&S baby spinach
- 180g pack M&S asparagus spears
- 10g M&S unsalted butter
- 2 tsp M&S olive oil
Method
- For the thyme jus: Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan. Place the chicken wings and lamb on a roasting tray, season and roast in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan and sauté the onion, carrots, leeks, garlic, thyme, rosemary, cumin seeds and cinnamon stick with some seasoning for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and tomato purée and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Put the roasted chicken wings, lamb, compote of vegetables, 500ml water and chicken stock in to a large pressure cooker.
- Bring to the boil, cover with the lid and cook for 15 minutes on a high pressure. When cooked, pass through a fine sieve and reduce by half until it’s a thick sauce.
- For the lamb: preheat the oven to 210°C/190°C fan. Remove excess fat from the lamb. Score a criss-cross diamond pattern into the fat and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Put 1tbsp olive oil in a medium frying pan set over a high heat and brown the lamb rack on both sides until golden brown. Brush all over with the Dijon mustard then press on the rosemary and thyme.
- In a food processor, blend the breadcrumbs into a fine crumb. Add the parsley and garlic then pour in the remaining olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and press onto the fat side of the lamb. Place in a baking tray and roast for 15 minutes (medium rare). Leave to rest for 10 minutes under foil.
- For the fondant potatoes: Halve the potatoes vertically. Using a 4cm round cutter, cut out a cylinder from each half and slice them off to an even height. You can save the scraps for something else like mash.
- Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan. Melt the butter and olive oil In a small frying pan set over medium heat and add the potatoes, garlic, thyme, rosemary and a seasoning of salt and pepper. Brown the base of each potato cylinder well before turning them over.
- Add 1-2 tbsp water and cover the pan with buttered paper. Place the pan in the oven and cook for 25 minutes or until the potatoes are soft in the middle. Remove and leave to stand in the butter, garlic, thyme and rosemary until required. They should be golden on all sides and tender in the middle.
- Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the peas and boil for 1 minute, and remove with slotted spoon. Refresh the peas in ice water then remove and place in a blender. Blend to a fine purée. Add the spinach and baby asparagus to the same pan of boiling water, blanch for 1 minute then place in the ice water. Remove the asparagus and spinach to drain and dry on kitchen paper.
- Pour the peas into a medium pan, add the butter, season well and simmer over low heat. Just before serving, heat the oil in a small frying pan. Add the spinach and asparagus. Season.
- To serve, slice the rack into cutlets allowing two cutlets per person. Spoon the pea purée onto the plate and arrange the lamb, potatoes and asparagus alongside. Pour the jus into a little serving pot for each person to pour over.
