Weekend food with Darina Allen
Spring lambs are born before Christmas and are at their best at 3-4 months old, weighing 9-10kgs. Usually one needs to order ahead from your local butcher to be sure of some precious young lamb like this.
Spring lamb needs just a few flakes of sea salt rubbed into the skin before roasting. Spikes of garlic, sprigs of rosemary and spices like cumin or coriander which greatly enhance the flavour of the hogget we’ve been enjoying up to recently overpower the delicate young lamb.
For starter it’ll be new season asparagus on toast with Hollandaise Sauce. This year there was some new season’s Irish asparagus on sale in the beginning of April — the earliest I have it. Usually we have to wait until the end of the month or the beginning of May to savour the first tender spears. This year one west Cork grower harvested the first of his outdoor asparagus at the end of March. Nothing compares to the exquisite flavour of fresh Irish asparagus.
We usually have a rhubarb tart for pudding on Easter Sunday after the feast of roast lamb and fresh mint sauce. We’ve got a really good old-fashioned variety in Ballymaloe that has been passed down through the generations, but it’s widely available in local shops and farmers markets as well.
This year I’m going to make my favourite rhubarb tart. Everyone should know about this pastry; it’s made by the creaming method, so even if you are convinced that you have ‘hot hands’ and can’t make pastry, this recipe will make you into a ‘domestic goddess’.
I’ll serve the rhubarb tart with some softly whipped cream and a sprinkling of dark brown sugar melting over the top — how delicious does that sound!
After a generous slice (or maybe two) we’ll all go for a long walk in the blue bell wood overlooking Lough Ine. Can you image a lovelier way to celebrate Easter Sunday.
Serves 6-8
1 leg of spring lamb – about 2.7kgs
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Gravy:
1 pint (600ml) lamb or chicken stock
A little roux (see recipe)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Mint sauce (see recipe)
Remove the aitch bone from the top of the leg of lamb, or ask your butcher to do it for you. This makes it so much easier to carve later. Then saw off the knuckle from the end of the leg. Season the skin with salt and freshly ground pepper. Transfer into a roasting tin.
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/regulo 4. Roast for 1-1¼ hours approx. for rare, 1¼ -1½ hours for medium and 1½-1¾ hours for well done, depending on size. When the lamb is cooked to your taste, remove the joint to a hot carving dish. Rest the lamb in a low oven at 50-100°C for 10 minutes before carving.
Meanwhile, make the gravy. Degrease the meat juices in the roasting tin, add the stock. Bring to the boil and whisk in a little roux, just enough to thicken slightly. Taste and allow to bubble until the flavour is rich enough. Correct the seasoning and serve hot with the lamb, roast spring vegetables and lots of crusty roast potatoes.
Traditional mint sauce made with tender young shoots of fresh mint takes only minutes to make. It’s the perfect accompaniment to spring lamb, but for those who are expecting a bright green jelly, the slightly dull colour and watery texture comes as a surprise.
Makes 175ml/6 fl ozs approx.
25g (1oz) finely chopped fresh mint
2 tablespoons sugar
110ml (4fl oz) boiling water
25ml (1fl oz) white wine vinegar or freshly squeezed lemon juice
Put the sugar and freshly-chopped mint into a sauce boat. Add the boiling water and vinegar or lemon juice. Allow to infuse for 5-10 minutes before serving.
4oz (110g) butter
4oz (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. It will keep at least a fortnight in a refrigerator.
The gravy should be made in the roasting tin because that is where the flavour is. Usually there is not a great deal of juice in the roasting pan — there will be some caramelised meat juices and lamb fat. This is precious because it is the basis of the gravy. Tilt the roasting tin so the fat collects in one corner. Spoon off as much fat as possible. Then pour icy cold stock into the roasting tin. This will cause the last few globules of fat to solidify so they can be quickly skimmed off the top with a perforated spoon. Then continue to make gravy as in the recipe.
Serves 4
16-20 spears fresh green asparagus
Hollandaise sauce, (see recipe)
4 slices of homemade white yeast bread
Butter
Garnish: sprigs of chervil
Hold each spear of asparagus over your index finger down near the root end. It will snap at the point where it begins to get tough. Some people like to peel the asparagus but we rarely do. Cook in 2.5cm (1inch) of boiling salted water in an oval cast iron casserole. Cook for 4 to 8 minutes or until a knife tip will pierce the root end easily. Make the toast, spread with butter and remove crusts. Place a piece of toast on a hot plate, put the asparagus on top and spoon a little Hollandaise sauce over. Garnish with a sprig of chervil and serve immediately.
The version we use here takes less than five minutes to make. Once the sauce is made it must be kept warm: the temperature should not go above 70-80C/180F or the sauce will curdle. A thermos flask can provide a simple solution, otherwise put the sauce into a delph or plastic bowl in a saucepan of hot but not simmering water. Hollandaise Sauce cannot be reheated so it’s best to make just the quantity you need.
2 egg yolks, preferably free-range and organic
125 g (5ozs) butter cut into dice
1 dstsp cold water
1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice, approx.
Put the egg yolks in a heavy stainless saucepan on a low heat or in a bowl over hot water. Add water and whisk thoroughly. Add the butter bit by bit, whisking all the time. As soon as one piece melts, add the next piece. The mixture will gradually thicken, but if it shows signs of becoming too thick remove from the heat and add a little cold water if necessary. Do not leave the pan or stop whisking until the sauce is made. Finally add the lemon juice to taste. If the sauce is slow to thicken it may be because you are cautious and the heat is too low. Increase heat slightly and whisk until the sauce thickens to coating consistency.
Keep the sauce warm until service: Try a Pyrex bowl over hot, but not simmering, water (do not have gas jet on).
Serves 8-12
This is such a terrific pastry. If I’m in a mad rush I make it in a food processor — it’s a little more difficult to handle if you use it right away, but works fine even if you have to patch it a bit. Make some little Easter chicks and bunnies to decorate the top.
Pastry:
225g (8 oz) butter
55g (2 oz) caster sugar
2 eggs free-range and organic if possible
350g (12 oz) flour
Filling:
680g (1 1/2lb) red rhubarb
250 — 275g (8 — 10 oz) sugar approximately
Egg Wash:
1 beaten free-range organic egg with a little milk, to glaze
1 x 23cm (9 inch) tin with 4cm (1 ½ inch) sides
First make the pastry. Cream the butter and sugar together in a food mixer, add the eggs and beat for several minutes. Reduce the speed and add in the flour, little by little, to form a stiff dough. Flatten into a round, cover with cling film and chill for at least 1 hour. This makes the pastry much easier to handle. Otherwise just put all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until just combined.
Roll out half the pastry to about 3mm (1/8 inch) thick and line a round tin measuring 20.5 x 30.5cm (8 x 11.5 inches).
Slice the rhubarb into 1 cm (½ inch) rounds, fill the tart and sprinkle with the sugar.
Roll the remaining pastry, cover the rhubarb and seal the edges. Decorate with pastry leaves. Paint with egg wash and bake in a preheated oven 180C/350F/gas mark 4 until the tart is golden and the rhubarb is soft (45 minutes to 1 hour). When cooked, sprinkle lightly with caster sugar and serve with softly whipped cream and Barbados sugar.
- Cork Free Choice Consumer Group presents How to Make the Most of Spices. Arun Kapil of Green Saffron Spices will explain how to cleverly use spices to make delicious foods that can also be beneficial to health. Crawford Art Gallery Café, Thursday, April 28 at 7.30pm, entrance €6 including tea and coffee.
- Enjoy a celebration of coeliac food with chef and cookbook author Rosemary Kearney at O’Connells Restaurant in Donnybrook, Dublin on Tuesday April 26 and Wednesday April 27 — www.oconnellsdonnybrook.com, 01 2696116.
- Join in the Easter Egg Hunt and Face Painting at Midleton Farmers Market today at 10:30am — with yummy prizes from O’Conaill’s Chocolate — 021 4373407.
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