Imagine; your dinner party is looming and the oven explodes. It may sound like the plot from an episode of ‘Keeping up Appearances’, but this week I face that very challenge after the glass door of my cooker shattered whilst Tuesday’s pork belly dinner gently roasted away. As my initial panic subsides, I am left with the challenge of developing a wonderful main course that can be cooked on the hob, without the need for the oven. Enter this tasty little delight; sweet tender lamb cutlets and peas, complemented by the punchy taste of feta cheese and a rich wine sauce. It looks and tastes sophisticated, but is surprisingly easy to recreate.

Rosemary and garlic lamb cutlets with potato fondant, pea mousse, feta puree, pea and mint oil and a lamb sauce
Serves 6
Ingredients:
For the lamb sauce:
250g diced shallots
2 diced celery sticks
1 peeled, diced carrot
4 cloves of crushed garlic
4 tlbs olive oil
Sprig of fresh rosemary
400mls red wine
400mls lamb stock
1tlbs redcurrant jelly
Knob of butter

For the Pea mousse:
300g frozen peas
Pinch of salt
Pinch of caster sugar
75g of the pea cooking water
1 ¼ sheets of gelatine leaf
1tsp lemon juice
100ml double cream
Salt and pepper

For the fondant potato:
6 medium sized potatoes
225g butter
120mls chicken stock
4 garlic cloves
Sprig of fresh rosemary
Salt and pepper

For the lamb:
12 lamb cutlets
A good glug of olive oil
6 garlic cloves
Salt and pepper

For the feta puree:
100g feta cheese
3 tlbs crème fraiche

For the Pea and mint oil
100g frozen peas
100ml olive oil
Small bunch of mint

Method:
The day before, but at least 6 hours before you plan to eat, marinate the lamb cutlets. Place them into a plastic bag along with the rosemary, seasoning, lightly crushed garlic cloves and a good glug of olive oil. Leave in the fridge, until you are ready to cook. Take them out of the refrigerator when you start the sauce in order to allow them to reach room temperature.
The rich red wine sauce takes a while to reduce down, so this is your first job (this sauce can be made a day or so in advance and just heated through on the night – save the butter for after re-heating). Heat the olive oil in a non-stick pan before sautéing the shallots, celery, carrot and garlic over a medium heat. The vegetables wants to caramelise, but avoid burning. Add the rosemary and red wine, reduce the heat and cook down until it takes on the consistency of a rich sticky syrup. This will take a while, so you can move onto other jobs – but keep an eye on it. Once you have your syrup, add the lamb stock and reduce again until you have a rich sauce – this will generally take about 45 minutes; but keep an eye on it. Finally mix in the redcurrant jelly and whisk in the butter just before serving.
Your next job is to prepare the pea mousse as this needs some time to set. Soak the gelatine leaf in cold water. Bring 100mls of water to the boil before adding the peas and a pinch of salt and caster sugar. Cook for 3 minutes and drain, reserving the cooking liquid. Transfer the peas to a bowl of iced water as this will help them to retain their colour. Measure out 75g of the cooking water and stir in the gelatine. Add this to a food processor along with the drained peas and 1tsp of lemon juice before blitzing. (If you don’t have a food processor you can do this in a large bowl with a stick blender). Pass the mixture through a sieve to remove the pea shells. Whip the double cream, fold in the pea mixture, season and place in the refrigerator to set. This can be made a day or so ahead of the dinner and stored in an air tight container in the refrigerator.
The fondant potatoes need to be made on the night. Peel the potatoes and cut into barrel shapes using a biscuit cutter. You want the tops and bottoms to be nice and flat. Melt the butter in a non-stick frying pan until foaming before frying the potatoes for 5-6 minutes on each side, until nice and golden. Pour in the stock and add the rosemary, garlic and seasoning. Reduce the heat and cover the pan (if your frying pan doesn’t have a lid make a cover using a piece of tin foil). Cook the potatoes until tender, which will take between 30 and 45 minutes.
To make the pea and mint oil, bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the peas for 3 minutes. Drain the peas and add to a food processor along with the oil and mint before blitzing (again, this can be done in a jug with a stick blender). Pass the mixture through a fine mesh sieve or muslin cloth, retaining the green oil. Store this in a squeezy bottle or jug in the fridge until you are ready to plate.
Finally make the feta puree. Add the cheese and crème fraiche to a food processor and blitz until smooth. You are looking for the texture of Greek yogurt – you can add more cheese/ crème fraiche until you have the desired texture. Store this in a squeezy bottle or jug in the fridge until you are ready to plate.
You want to cook the lamb at the very last minute, so wait until your fondant potatoes are perfectly soft before cooking. You can keep your potatoes warm under some foil. Heat a griddle pan until hot – you don’t need any oil as you oiled the cutlets in the marinade. You want to start the cutlets upright, with the fat in contact with the pan. I’ve tried various methods of keeping them upright and I generally achieve this by wedging them in-between some heat-proof metal rings. Depending on the size of your griddle pan you may need to batch cook the cutlets, in which case keep them warm under some foil until you are ready to plate the dish. The majority of the cooking will take place on the fat, as you want this to be rendered down and the skin crispy; which will take between 5 and 10 minutes. Remove the metal rings and cook the cutlets for 2 minutes on each side. This should give you succulent pink cutlets with unctuous crispy skin.
You are ready to plate. I use some lovely black slate, as this contrasts well with the green pea and the white feta; but use whatever you have – the dish will still taste amazing. Start by leaning two cutlets against each other – a bit of height looks great. Add quenelles of the pea mousse to the side – a quenelle is an elegant, football-shaped scoop of ice cream, sorbet, whipped cream, crème fraiche or mousse. There are plenty of videos on-line if you are uncertain of the technique. But don’t worry too much, a simple spoon of the mousse will taste just a nice. Place a fondant potato on the plate, and artistically dot the feta puree and drizzle the oil. Serve the lamb sauce in individual jugs, or a large one for the table.

Lyn Shackleton