Easter in Denmark means two things: Huge lunches with the whole family, and a leg of lamb roasted with garlic and rosemary for dinner. This year where we are all quarantined, the lunches are probably smaller (I had a piece of toast with grilled cheese). Therefore I thought people didn't want to roast a whole leg of lamb, so I could just grab one Saturday. Well, I was wrong. The legs of lamb had been hoarded by people who had also seen a way to get a great meal several days in a row, just like I did. I managed to secure a small lamb rack. At first, I was going to make lamb chops from it, but four out of six chops were too tiny to do that. I decided to make a fricassee instead. Most people would probably have removed the bones, but I left them in because there is a lot of taste in the bones. It's easy to come up with a recipe for a lamb fricassee or a lamb stew. The only rule is: "Lamb has a lot of taste in itself, and therefore can carry a lot of taste and spices". Here the added taste primarily come from the wine and parsley, but the spices and vegetables also add to the dish. I used red wine, but white wine would be just as suitable. The cardamom might seem strange to some, but with lamb and in this quantity, the perfuminess almost disappear, and only leaves a small hint of something exotic.
Ingredients for 2 people:
500g (a pound) of lamb, 400g if it's deboned.
1 big leek
1 small celeriac (or 1 parsnip with a 4 celery stalks or 2 parsnips or 1 whole celery)
3-4 carrots
1 bunch of parsley
2 dl (0,85 cup) of wine (red or white as you please - I used red)
3 dl (1,25 cups) of water
1 tsp of ground cardamom
0.75 dl (one third cup) cream
1 Tbsp Corn starch with 0.25 dl of water
2 tsp salt
black pepper or mild chilli to taste
1: Cut the lamb rack into lamb chops by cutting between each bone, starting between the thin end of the bones, moving towards where they are fused together. Then brown them on both sides on a hot pan. -Don't wash the pan yet, you need it later.
2: Put them all in the bottom of a large pot.
3: Dice the vegetables in bite-sized pieces. Chop the parsley roughly, and add all to the pot.
4: Add wine, water, cardamom and salt to the pot.
5: Bring to a boil, lower the heat and let it simmer for 45 minutes.
6: Pour the liquid into the pan you browned the pork chops in. Bring to a boil and boil for a couple of minutes to release the flavour that is left in the pan from when you browned the chops. Then lower the heat.
7: Dissolve the corn starch in a bit of water, and stir it into the sauce and keep stirring until it has thickened.
8: Add the cream to the sauce and add pepper or chilli to taste. Pour the sauce back in the pot.
- Serve with boiled potatoes or simply some good bread to soak up the sauce.
Style
😋
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