Lamb with risotto

Mary...

... had a little lamb.

Lamb... it must be the one meat I love the most! And the best part of a lamb, in my opinion, is a good, tasty lambs rack. 

At the beginning of my year at cooking school, all the student received an ingredient we had to review. Mine was "carnaroli". Carnaroli is a type of rice, cultivated in the north of Italy and used to prepare risotto.

With this ingredient and 3 other's (we could choose from ingredients the others received) we had to prepare one dish. I chose lambs rack, oyster mushrooms and stilton, an English blue cheese.

At the end of the first semester the chef chose 2 dishes which we would prepare with our whole team. And ... my dish was chosen! Well I must admit I felt pretty proud, and now this is one of my girlfriend her favorite dishes!

Risotto normally is a moist rice dish, but in my recipe it's not that moist because of the stilton I use. So  it is more the way it is prepared why I call it "risotto".

This is a relatively easy recipe. One thing you need for this dish is timing. I am afraid that without timing you will end up burning some things while other things are getting cold. But timing is needed in every kitchen!

This isn't really a summer dish, but it is still cold here in Belgium, so I decided to make this recipe last weekend.

I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do!

Lambs rack with a stilton risotto and oyster mushrooms

Ingredients: (for 2 people)

• 350gr lambs rack
• 250ml lamb broth (or beef broth)
• 200ml chicken broth
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 175gr risotto rice (carnaroli or arborio)
• 1 carrot, roughly chopped
• 3 garlic gloves
• 2 nice hands full of oyster mushrooms
• 1 small bush of chopped parsley
• 100gr stilton (or any other blue cheese)
• 1 glas of red wine
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• butter
• olive oil

Preparation:

- Clean and season the lambs rack. Cut the oyster mushrooms in two. Preheat the oven on 180°C.

- Heat some butter with a tbs of olive oil and 2 crushed garlic gloves on a low fire. This will allow the garlic to flavor the oil and butter while heating. When the garlic starts sizzling take it out and fry the lambs rack on all sides on a medium to high fire. When all sides have a golden brown crust, set the rack aside in an oven dish. Leave your pan you used to fry your lamb and add 1 chopped onion and the carrot. Let them fry until they onion has a nice brown color. Deglaze with red wine and let it cook for a few minutes. Add the lamb broth and let it boil on a medium fire. This will become your sauce.

- Now take a casserole and heat 2 tbs of olive oil. Fry the finely chopped onion and the rice on a medium fire. When the rice becomes glassy add the chicken broth little by little, and keep stirring. When your rice is just covered with broth, turn your fire to low heat and cover your casserole.

- At this time sieve your "sauce" in a small casserole and let it simmer on a low fire. You can throw away the onions and carrots.

- Now put your meat in the oven for 10 minutes. From now on you have 10 minutes to finish your rice, your sauce and your mushrooms.

- Stir your rice and make sure it has enough moisture, if not, add some. It is important to taste your rice once in a while to make sure it doesn't overcook! Heat some olive oil in a large pan and fry your mushrooms with a chopped clove of garlic. They will loose a fair amount of moisture, make sure it evaporates and your mushrooms start baking. When they are almost done add the stilton to your rice, give it a good stir and put of the fire.

- To finish your sauce add the cinnamon, stir and add cold butter to thicken your sauce.

- Add the parsley to your mushrooms and season with salt and pepper.

- At this time your meat must be ready. Take it out and let it rest for a few minutes while you put your rice and mushrooms nicely on your plate. Cut the rack into separate cutlets and garnish them on your plate.

Serve with some sauce and a nice red wine!

Bon appetit!

May 13, 2013