![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
highlyeccentricStephanie Alexander's new cookbook 'Home' has a recipe for "Witty Lamb", or Epigrammes d'Agneau. My long-suffering partner managed to aquire me a bone-in lamb breast/flank/flap, and we embarked upon a long-drawn out cookery endeavour. Trying to gluten-free-ify the crumbs on the fly, when I didn't have good GF pank crumbs, was... a trial.
This recipe is: gluten-free if you have access to gf breadcrumbs, and/or gf cornflakes/rice bubbles. GF bread may or may not turn to crumbs in a food processor (mine turned to too-large, too damp clumps). Dairy-free. Egg-free versions could probably be easily managed.
This recipe isn't: quick, easy or any of those nice things.
This recipe requires: pots, long cooking time, faffing about, shallow-frying, and possibly deboning of meat.
1 bone-in lamb breast, 800g-1kg. Some looking around online suggests you may be able to buy already-fileted lamb breast; these recipes skip straight to the marinade stage, and would I think be a bit less tasty than the slow-cooked version.
Salt, pepper
1/3 cup oilive oil
1/3 cup grainy mustard
2 eggs
About 1.5 cups of a mixture of breadcrumbs and food-processor-blitzed cornflakes or rice bubbles. If you have access to the Ograms GF panko mix, which already has tiny rice bubbles in it, go straight to that.
About a cup of a gluten-free flour - i used some GF buckwheat (plus other flours to balance) pancake mix. Almond might be a good touch? Or any old GF cake flour. NOT pure maize flour, that goes too goopy.
For the broth: A small handful of fresh thyme, a bay leaf, 1 onion, 1 celery stalk in slices, 1 carrot in chunks, 3-5 garlic cloves peeled, a dash of pepper, about a cup of dry white wine, water to cover.
1. Begin by placing all the herbs and vegetables in a large oven-proof pot, preferably one that is also stove-friendly. Add lamb, cover in wine and water. Bring to a simmer; move to the oven and cook at 150 degrees for 3 hours (at least. this is lower and slower than the original suggested; we suspect the low-slower the better).
2. Remove when a skewer slips easily through the meat; cool for 20min in broth, and then remove the meat and allow to drain. Strain the broth and set aside for use as stock.
3. As soon as the meat is cool enough to handle, debone it. Stephanie's instructions bore no resemblance to what I was actually faced with, so... good luck. This Youtube Video showing how to debone a raw lamb breast may help. Cut the lamb into smallish pieces - ideally they'd all be nice triangles or some such, but we aren't all perfect French hostesses are we. Cut off large chunks of fat as you go.
4. In a bowl big enough to hold the lamb chunks, mix the oil and mustard together with salt and pepper. Toss the lamb chunks through this mixture. Refridgerate 2+ hours or overnight.
5. Whisk the eggs and dunk the lamb chunks in the egg; then coat in breadcrumbs, and finally roll in flour.
6. Heat some oil, about 1-1.5cm deep in a frying pan. Shallow-fry each side of the lamb chunks. (I did half of mine by frying after the breadcrumbs, then rolling in flour and frying again. Unsure if that seemed to work better because my attempt at breadcrumbs was terrible, or if that's actually a cunning plan. Try it out if you like.)
7. This will still be too wet and not crispy enough. Lay the lamb bites on a baking tray, and toast them in the oven at about 80 degrees, turning occasionally. When crispy (maybe half an hour?) turn the oven off, but keep them warm in the oven until ready to eat.
Ed: H/t tokayloulee, who actually owns the Stephanie Alexander book in question.
This recipe is: gluten-free if you have access to gf breadcrumbs, and/or gf cornflakes/rice bubbles. GF bread may or may not turn to crumbs in a food processor (mine turned to too-large, too damp clumps). Dairy-free. Egg-free versions could probably be easily managed.
This recipe isn't: quick, easy or any of those nice things.
This recipe requires: pots, long cooking time, faffing about, shallow-frying, and possibly deboning of meat.
1 bone-in lamb breast, 800g-1kg. Some looking around online suggests you may be able to buy already-fileted lamb breast; these recipes skip straight to the marinade stage, and would I think be a bit less tasty than the slow-cooked version.
Salt, pepper
1/3 cup oilive oil
1/3 cup grainy mustard
2 eggs
About 1.5 cups of a mixture of breadcrumbs and food-processor-blitzed cornflakes or rice bubbles. If you have access to the Ograms GF panko mix, which already has tiny rice bubbles in it, go straight to that.
About a cup of a gluten-free flour - i used some GF buckwheat (plus other flours to balance) pancake mix. Almond might be a good touch? Or any old GF cake flour. NOT pure maize flour, that goes too goopy.
For the broth: A small handful of fresh thyme, a bay leaf, 1 onion, 1 celery stalk in slices, 1 carrot in chunks, 3-5 garlic cloves peeled, a dash of pepper, about a cup of dry white wine, water to cover.
1. Begin by placing all the herbs and vegetables in a large oven-proof pot, preferably one that is also stove-friendly. Add lamb, cover in wine and water. Bring to a simmer; move to the oven and cook at 150 degrees for 3 hours (at least. this is lower and slower than the original suggested; we suspect the low-slower the better).
2. Remove when a skewer slips easily through the meat; cool for 20min in broth, and then remove the meat and allow to drain. Strain the broth and set aside for use as stock.
3. As soon as the meat is cool enough to handle, debone it. Stephanie's instructions bore no resemblance to what I was actually faced with, so... good luck. This Youtube Video showing how to debone a raw lamb breast may help. Cut the lamb into smallish pieces - ideally they'd all be nice triangles or some such, but we aren't all perfect French hostesses are we. Cut off large chunks of fat as you go.
4. In a bowl big enough to hold the lamb chunks, mix the oil and mustard together with salt and pepper. Toss the lamb chunks through this mixture. Refridgerate 2+ hours or overnight.
5. Whisk the eggs and dunk the lamb chunks in the egg; then coat in breadcrumbs, and finally roll in flour.
6. Heat some oil, about 1-1.5cm deep in a frying pan. Shallow-fry each side of the lamb chunks. (I did half of mine by frying after the breadcrumbs, then rolling in flour and frying again. Unsure if that seemed to work better because my attempt at breadcrumbs was terrible, or if that's actually a cunning plan. Try it out if you like.)
7. This will still be too wet and not crispy enough. Lay the lamb bites on a baking tray, and toast them in the oven at about 80 degrees, turning occasionally. When crispy (maybe half an hour?) turn the oven off, but keep them warm in the oven until ready to eat.
Ed: H/t to
kayloulee, who actually owns the Stephanie Alexander book in question.