Salt marsh lamb, broad beans, feta, crostini, peas & shoots

I want to open my blog with no fanfare, no bravado, just a bloody great seasonal dish to celebrate the first days of summer.    I intend this blog to be honest and the recipes achievable for the moderately talented home cook. The plate and table you see in the picture is what we ate off and resides in my domestic kitchen.   The picture I took myself, later serving the stone cold plate of food to my wife to eat!

It took approx 30 mins to make having picked everything up either on the Gloucester Road or from the farmers market on Corn St in Bristol.   To serve two people you will need:

Ingredients:

Salt Marsh Lamb Cutlets - x4 (each weighing approx. 100g)

Broad Beans (un-podded weight) - 750g

Fresh Peas (or frozen at a push) - 150g

Feta Cheese - 75g

Quality Bread (Sourdough is excellent) - 1 small loaf

Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 150ml

Garlic - 1 Clove (peeled)

Fresh mint leaves- 20 leaves, finely shredded

Salt & Pepper

Pea Shoots - optional

Method:

Take your cutlets out of the fridge an hour before you want to cook to allow them to come to room temperature.

First make your crostini - thinly slice your sough-dough and generously oil with extra virgin.   The more uniform you oil the bread, the more uniform the colouration will be.   Season lightly and bake at 200c for 10 to 15 mins until completely crispy.

Pod the broad beans and peas keeping separate.  Blanch the broad beans in lots of salted boiling water for approx 2 mins depending on the size of the beans - taste one, if they are too crunchy for your taste cook for another minute or so.    Set aside then blanch the peas next for no more than 1 min.   Blitz half the peas and beans in a food processor with a little salt and pepper to make a rough puree.   

Put a good non-stick frying pan on the heat and oil and season the lamb.   Put the lamb chops back together so that they are all the same way around with the skin sides down.    When the pan is very hot, cook all the lamb chops skin side down as if they were one piece of meat.    The fat on these chops is very sweet and fantastic to eat so make sure you cook the fat until crisp and golden.   Once this is achieved, flip the chops onto the flesh and cook for 1.5 mins on each side for medium rare or a little longer if you prefer more well done.

Take the chops out of the pan and allow to rest while you plate the dish.   A note on resting meat here - resting allows the meat juices to redistribute through the flesh giving that professional uniform pink colour when you cut it open.   For rare and medium rare cooked meats, it also gives the heat time to distribute meaning the pink centre of the cutlet is warm to the tongue.

Spread the still warm pea and bean puree onto the crostini and sprinkle with crumbled feta.     Dress the whole beans and peas with olive oil, lemon, mint and lightly season.    Make a pile of peas and beans on the plate, lamb on top, two crostini per person and artfully toss over some pea shoots if using (mine came from the garden - how very worthy!).   Drizzle with a little olive oil and a little sprinkle of feta.    

I would love to hear how you get on with this dish - feedback encouraged!