lamb's breast with elderberry and mint

2014-07-06 

This is a very greasy cut. If you don't cook it long enough to render out the fat, this is not very pleasant to eat. This is an ideal cut for the slow-cooker. Don’t put this on a barbeque. A grease fire is extremely dangerous and the meat doesn’t taste very well after one. I have reason to know.

 

Pic1: lamb, onion, pepper, laurel, garlic
Pic2: carrots, pearl onions

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for 4 servings:

  • 1 package of lamb's breast
  • 2 branches of fresh mint
  • 4 carrots
  • pickled pearl onions
  • 2 onions
  • 4 fl. oz. elderberry syrup
  • 2 bay leaves
  •  peppercorn in tea egg
  • S&P to taste
  • 1 tbsp. each olive oil, butter
  • Optional other spices like thyme, basil, …

Directions

  • Cut the lamb's breast in pieces that will fit in your frying pan.
  • Heat olive oil.
  • Brown the pieces of lamb’s breast and set aside.
  • Add the mint leaves, diced ½ onion and the elderberry syrup.
  • Braise the lamb’s breast pieces until the sauce is darkly caramelized.
    This should melt out some of the fat already.
  • Reserve the broth, but remove the blackened mint leaves and scoop off the fat.
  • Place a layer of onion rings in a crockpot, the pieces of braised lamb's breast, a layer of sliced carrots and potatoes and pickled pearl onions.
  • Add bay leaves, S&P and the tea egg with the peppercorn. (*)
  • Pour the broth from braising over the mix, add water or beef stock to cover the vegetables Cook on low setting for several hours more.

(*) Peppercorns are great in stews, but I don’t like to put them directly in the stew as shown in Pic1. The seeds stick to everything in the stew and when you bite on them they taste rather unpleasantly strong. Place the peppercorn in a tea egg or a small cloth bag instead. That gives you the benefits of great cooking without the unpleasantness afterwards.

Other spices that might otherwise be problematic to remove after cooking can be placed in the egg as well like bay leaves, whole cloves, thyme, rosemary, etc.

Do not fill the egg more than halfway. The content will expand while cooking and it works better when liquid can circulate through the egg.