Here we will start with the lamb. We got some three bone racks of lamb. We made sure that they were well trimmed and that a lot of the excess fat had been removed. You butcher will do all this for you if you ask him nicely. The lamb was sealed in a hot pan placed on a baking tray and then well seasoned.
The next part of the dish is the spaghetti vegetables. This does involve some fiddly cutting. I used a mandolin. This does most of the work for you but you have to very careful as it is very likely that you will cut your finger at some point. If you do not have a mandolin, you can prepare the vegetables by hand. I used carrot and courgette. The carrot should be peeled and then carefully sliced length wise to a couple of millimeters thick. Then placed flat on the chopping board and then cut again along its length to provide nice thin long strips. The same thing should be done with the courgette.
I have served the dish here with some roast potatoes. They were peeled and then we cut through them with a 4cm round cutter.
This gave us tubes of potato. The rest of the potato can be saved to make mash. The bottom was cut straight across so the potato would sit flatly on the plate and the other end was cut at a slant. I have done three per person. These potatoes were put into a bowl, seasoned with salt and pepper and a little olive oil. They were then placed on a tray lined with greaseproof paper, standing up and then roasted in a medium hot (180) oven for about forty minutes or until cooked.
The lamb was cooked the oven at the same temperature for about fifteen minutes and then removed and allowed to rest. This makes the meat much more tender and a more even colour to the meat. The veg was cooked in a large pan of lightly salted water.
The carrots were put in first and simmered for three minutes and then the courgettes were added for a further minute. These were then well drained and mixed with a little salt and pepper and a little butter.
While the lamb and potatoes are cooking you can make the jus. This is the sauce that goes with the lamb. Once the lamb has been sealed in a hot pan, you can add into it some chopped onion, a little sliced garlic and some chopped fresh rosemary. Once this has cooked for a few minutes add a good splash of red wine. This will come up to the boil. Reduce the heat and allow half of the wine to evaporate. Into this you can add your gravy. This can be home made, or even a convenience product like bisto. The wine and rosemary reduction will flavour the sauce. Allow this to gently simmer for a few minutes before pouring through a strainer to remove all the bits. Check the seasoning and the sauce is now ready to serve
We placed a pile of the vegetables in the middle of the plate. The put three of the potatoes round the edge with the slanted tops pointing up in the center . We then carefully sliced the racks of lamb to give cutlets and placed one on top of each of the potatoes. We spooned a little of the sauce around the plate and over the lamb. You can also serve extra sauce in a sauce boat. That is the dish ready to serve. If you prefer to use other vegetables to make the spaghetti that is fine, just try not to over cook them as all you will be left with is a bit of a soggy mess. Enjoy.
Paul Vincent, Head Chef.
