Say The Star And Dove, who submitted this recipe…
“Lamb breast is an incredibly cheap and thrifty cut of lamb, but make no bones about it, it’s full of flavour but just lacks the fashion status of more trendy cuts. For the downstairs tavern, we cure our lamb breast. It develops a salty bacon-esque quality and carries the flavour throughout the dish extraordinarily well.
Additionally this is something that could be served all year around by adjusting the seasonality, however this is the time of the year when it really comes in to its own, the season of the new potato, with the peas and the broad beans really freshening this dish up.”
Ingredients
For the lamb belly cure…
– 1 lamb breast boned
– 630g salt
– 370g sugar
– 4 star anise broken up
– 4 sprigs rosemary
– 5 bay leaves
– 10 cloves
– 1 tsp of mace
– 2 allspice berries
For the main dish…
– Sliced lamb bacon – 240g
– Cooked Jersey royals – 300g
– Fresh peas – 100g
– Shelled broad beans – 100g
– Silverskin onions – 160g
– Meat stock – 400ml
– Curly parsley
– Mint
– Sherry vinegar – 50ml
– Free range eggs – 4
– Chopped cornichons
Method
For the lamb belly cure…
– Mix all the dry ingredients together, rub thoroughly all over the lamb breast cover and place in the fridge, turn and drain each day for 5 days twice daily.
– Wash thoroughly on the 6th day, pat dry and air dry in fridge overnight Light brush with white wine vinegar, hang for no fewer than 28 days.
For the main dish…
– Slice your lamb bacon as thin as you possibly can, then heat a frying pan till smoking hot, add a little oil and add your bacon slices, this will crisp up quite quickly so don’t leave it unattended at this point.
– Remove the bacon from the pan and drain on kitchen paper, whilst reserving as much of the fat in the pan as possible.
– Add a knob of butter to the pan till foaming, then roughly break up the cooked potatoes with your fingers and add to the pan along with the onions a little salt and freshly ground pepper till caramelized.
– Add the lamb bacon back in to the pan, along with the meat stock and cook for 5 minutes on a moderate temperature.
– Add the broad beans and peas and remove from the heat.
– Fold in your chopped cornichons, sherry vinegar, mint and parsley and season to taste.
– Served with a fried egg and some ripped bread.
Recipe submitted by…
The Star & Dove
Totterdown, Bristol
http://staranddove.co.uk