Culinary Hotline - 16 November 2022
Today on the menu on our Culinary Hotline we have our delicious festive meals, stovetop leg of lamb and mushroom, hazelnut and leek-stuffed spiced rack of lamb with charred onion petals.
Stovetop leg of lamb
Recipe by: Khanya Mzongwana
Ingredients:
5 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp coarse salt
2 Tbsp cracked black pepper
900 g–1 kg bone-in free-range leg of lamb
30g fresh rosemary
300g baby onions, peeled and halved
1 Tbsp paprika
20 g Woolworths steak rub
1 head garlic, halved horizontally
100g tomato paste
1 tsp brown sugar
Method:
1. Heat a large saucepan until extremely hot and add the olive oil. Rub the salt and pepper all over the lamb and gently place it into the pan. Seal it on all sides, or brown the meat, getting the skin as caramelised as you’d like.
2. Add half the rosemary and half the onions and cook until the edges start to burn. Season the lamb with the paprika and top with enough water to cover the lamb.
3. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and simmer for 2½ hours. Remove the lid and try to break off a piece of lamb using a fork. If the lamb breaks away easily, it’s ready. Add the remaining onions and allow the remaining cooking liquid to reduce until the lamb is left to crisp up in the remaining fat.
4. Add 2 cups of water to deglaze the pan and stir in the tomato paste and sugar. Simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from heat. Carefully place the lamb on a serving platter and spoon over the onions and sauce. Serve immediately.
Chefs Tip: An important thing I learned from my gran was to always have a plan B. On big cooking days, her small oven would be overrun with roasting the chicken, keeping the fish warm, baking scones and bread, broiling potatoes… so this scrumptious recipe utilizes the stovetop beyond its wildest potential.
Mushroom, hazelnut and leek-stuffed spiced rack of lamb with charred onion petals
Serves: 4-6
Recipe by: Abigail Donnelly
Ingredients:
For the stu¬ffed rack of lamb:
200g baby leeks, washed and sliced
400g brown mushrooms, diced
60g butter
100g anchovies, chopped
120g Woolworths herb stu ffing
50g hazelnuts, chopped
1 x 850g Woolworths free-range spiced rack of lamb, French-trimmed
30g sage, deep-fried
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the onion petals:
4 white onions, peeled and halved
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Pan-fry the leeks and mushrooms in the butter, then stir in the anchovies, herb stu¬ffing and hazelnuts.
Place the rack of lamb on a baking tray, then stu ff as much filling between each slice as you can. Truss the meat to hold it together. Season and roast for 45 minutes, then rest for 15 minutes.
To make the white onion petals, place the onions in a dry, heavy-based pan and cook until slightly charred.
Cut the bottoms off the onions and gently separate the petals. Serve the lamb with the onion petals and sage. Season to taste.
Chefs Tip: If the stuffing seems a bit dry, add more butter. You can replace the nuts with soaked chickpeas or omit them.
A rack is extra tender and it doesn’t take as long to cook. The herb-and-anchovy stuffinng will have everyone begging you for the recipe.