15 Minute Meals- Part 2: Mustard Lamb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 Minute Meals attempt number two... Mustard Lamb.

I'm always looking for new lamb recipes, and even better if it's meant to be cooked in 15 minutes, rather than a nicely slow-simmered hot pot. But my scepticism runs high in reading the ingredients list: cider?! I would not suspect cider to be in a lamb recipe. With an open mind, let's get cooking...

 

Ingredients Out (six minutes later).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A really positive thing I can say about this book and it's speedy philosophy is that it is making me become well acquainted with my food processor. The only action Kenwood (from now on to be known as Kenny) has seen until now is the bowl blade chopping various forms of hummus and a few attempts at curry paste. This recipe calls for the thick slicer and coarse grater. Exciting! And the six minutes of pre-work did not include my time searching for the attachments and instructions and figuring out how to assemble them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four minutes in, my lamb is split and seasoned and sizzling away in the frying pan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next: Tip on a platter with watercress. Roughly chop and add the top leafy half of the mint. By roughly chop, I don't think that Jamie meant the extra bit of protein  from the top of my finger. Oops. I solely blame this slip up on Kenny. Had I hand chopped the potatoes earlier as a warm up, my mind would have been in diligence mode rather than speed mode, and my fingertip might have been spared. I would like to clarify that it wasn't that bad... I did manage to slice through one layer of dermis but I promptly wrapped the wound in a cloth to carry on. Although, the next morning when I cleaned the wound, my knees did wobble. With the obligatory 5-a-day drizzled and plated, let's carry on:

 

Six minutes in and I have switched from the slicer to the coarse grater (just flipped it upside down) to chop (or grate) celery faster than I have ever chopped celery before.

 

 

Ten minutes in: Kenwood sliced potatoes and leeks boiled, ready for mashing and I am nearing the end and coming to the third paragraph. With the way most recipes are "organised" (you all know that Jamie is not really organised) into three paragraphs in this book, it looks like I am well on track to finish on time.

 

 

Back to the lamb, which needed a bit of extra cooking because I didn't slice it as finely as Jamie outlined, and it is now time to use the cider to make the sauce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lamb juices, residual mustard powder, cider, and mint sauce (voilà, source of scepticism) into the pan to reduce. Four-ish minutes later, the sauce has boiled so it does not resemble cider. I can confirm that the extra 5 minutes was certainly worth the wait. 20 minutes later, my 15- Minute-Meal is finished and definitely scrumptious! I really do recommend this recipe. I've mustard-coated pork before, but never lamb. The mustard boosts the umami of the lamb and coupled with the sweet cider glaze, this was salivatingly satisfying.

 

 

One last thing to mention about this way of cooking is the disaster area that it does create in your kitchen, irregardless of how tidy you normally are. I do suppose that it could be a balance of competitive edge in trying to cook in time vs. tidying as you go. Over-boiled leeks water and overflowing washing up bowl below as an example.