Food At Faithlegg - Harissa Lamb

Jenny Flynn, the head chef at Faithlegg House Hotel, joins Maria McCann on The Saturday Café for Food At Faithlegg. This week, Jenny is excited to share her delicious recipe for slow-cooked Comeragh lamb with a harissa and lime crème fraiche. On the show, they will discuss recipes that are perfect for the season, highlight local suppliers, and offer cooking tips. You can find all past recipes for Food at Faithlegg here.

Slow cooked Comeragh lamb with a harissa and lime crème fraiche.

The piece of meat here is important. so only use the pieces that do a lot of work, I have used the neck or the lap or belly in this case.

You are going to cook this for about 2 hours, so don’t worry about removing any excess fat this will all break down and add to the overall flavour of this dish.

You will need about a 2.5kg piece of lamb. Get your butcher to trim it up and score the outside of the skin.

In a large bowl at home add the following, you can use a shop-bought harissa paste but I like this recipe.

Harissa paste

· 20 dried chillies or if using fresh no need to rehydrate the chillies.

· 6 cloves of garlic minced.

· 100ml rapeseed oil

· 2tsp ground coriander,

· 2tsp ground cumin

· 2tsp caraway seeds

· 2tsp smoked paprika.

· 2tsp red wine vinegar

Method:

Tip the dried chillies into a heatproof bowl and pour over just enough boiling water from the kettle cover, leave to cool. Once cool enough to handle, drain the chillies, reserving the water. Remove any stalks and pat dry with kitchen paper. Tip the chillies into the food blender with the garlic, 1 tsp salt, the rapeseed oil, spices and vinegar and blitz to a puree. If needed, add a little of the reserved water to loosen. Will keep, chilled for up to a month in the fridge give an extra kick to any stews or cassoulets this time of year.

Preparing the lamb

Method

Rub into the lamb, depending how spicing you want this, cover and leave overnight.

Remove from the fridge, pat dry put on a roasting tray,

Preheat your oven to 170c put the lamb in for 30mins and reduce to 130c for another 2hours cover the lamb with tin foil and allow to cook slowly.

To make the lime crème fraiche add a splash of lime and zest to the crème fraise and store in the fridge until needed.

When lamb is ready allow to rest

I press the lamb in a tray and allow to cool, portion and re-heat gently in stock. This is great with creamy mash or pulled for a wrap for a quick lunch alternative.

The crème fraise cools the lamb and the acidity in the crème fraiche breaks the fat down also.

Great dish

Enjoy