Quick and easy – Lamb and mash with Salsa Verde

Had a good few days food wise – some fantastic food down in Cornwall (picnic and the Minack courtesy of Kingsley Village at Fraddon), and some great barbecue food at the in-laws and family friend's - you know who you are! – oh and some fish and chips from Barencutt's in Wadebridge and a pleasant hour or so sampling the local wines at Camel Valley Vineyard – dead good!

I also came back from Kernow with about a kilo of fresh damsons and had my first bash at jam making – rather successfully as it turned out! Had to re-heat it and add a touch of lemon juice to get it to set fully (it was jam, but a touch runny), but it tastes bloody great!

Tonight’s offering is one of my all-time favourite dishes – very quick and easy to do and very, very tasty.  The dish comes from the ‘All About Meat’ course I did at Bordeaux Quay in Bristol a few years ago, a course i would very highly recommend.



Ingredients (serves 2)
2 tbsp finely chopped each of fresh basil, parsley and mint
3 cloves garlic
5-6 anchovies (preserved)
2 tbsp preserved capers, rinsed
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (for the salsa verde)
1tsbp white wine vinegar
2 lamb steaks
2-3 medium potatoes
1 tbsp butter
Milk as needed to texture the spuds


Method
Mash the garlic, anchovies and capers in to a paste (with a touch of salt if needed, depending on how salty your capers and anchovies are – if they’re in salt rather than oil or vinegar).  Combine the paste with the herbs in a pestle and mortar and mix in the white wine vinegar and add the olive oil in stages – it shouldn’t be runny, it should be nicely moist.

Taste it at this point and adjust the flavours to taste – don’t be afraid to add more herbs, especially the mint and basil, if you want it quite fresh.  Put the Salsa Verde in the fridge while you do the rest to let the flavour develop.

Quarter the spuds and boil in cold water until tender, then mash and combine with the butter and as much milk as required to get the potatoes to the desired consistency. Keep warm.

While the potatoes are boiling, preheat a heavy frying pan. Oil and season the lamb steaks, then fry on a medium/high eat until the fat is mostly rendered but the meat is still pink inside – no more than 3-4 mins a side depending on the thickness of the steak.

Serve the lamb on a bed of mashed spuds, topped with the salsa verde.  It also tastes great with a touch of balsamic or balsamic reduction – you can either do this in the pan after the lamb has come out, or there are some great reductions on the market – my current fave is an apricot one from an italian market in hammersmith from a couple of years ago…

enjoy!