Farmgate Café Corned Mutton with Caper Sauce

Kay Harte shared this recipe with us - delicious corned mutton or corned beef feature all the time on the menu at the Farmgate Café in the market, otherwise there would be lots of disappointed customers.

Butcher Paul Murphy in the Market corns the mutton for about four days and it's absolutely mouthwatering.

1 leg of corned mutton Béchamel sauce - see recipe capers

Weigh the leg of mutton and boil for approx 20 minutes per lb in a large saucepan. Remove from the saucepan and place on a serving dish. Keep warm. Keep the cooking liquid.

Make the béchamel sauce making up the liquid with half milk and half mutton cooking liquid. Add a little mustard to the sauce (you could use English mustard or Dijon mustard) and some chopped fresh capers. Slice the mutton and serve with the sauce.

Kay serves it with steamed jacket potatoes and mashed carrot and turnip. She cooks the vegetables in some of the mutton cooking water to give a delicious flavour.

Béchamel Sauce: ½ pint (300ml) milk or half milk and half meat cooking liquidA few slices of carrot A few slices of onion A small sprig of thyme A small sprig of parsley 3 peppercorns 1½ ozs (45g) roux (see below) Salt and freshly ground pepper

This is a marvellous quick way of making Bechamel Sauce if you already have roux made. Put the cold milk (or half and half) into a saucepan with the carrot, onion, peppercorns, thyme and parsley. Bring to the boil, simmer for 4-5 minutes, remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Strain out the vegetables, bring the milk back to the boil and thicken with roux to a light coating consistency. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, taste and correct the seasoning if necessary.

Roux: 4 ozs (110g) butter 4 ozs (110g) flour

Melt the butter and cook the flour in it for 2 minutes on a low heat, stirring occasionally. Use as required. Roux can be stored in a cool place and used as required or it can be made up on the spot if preferred.