When spring has started again and the asparagus are on the table again, it is also time for morels and lamb. The combination of lamb with morels and asparagus is magnificent. Fresh morels should not be eaten raw, they are poisonous. These must be heated.
Lamb neck is a very popular stew. The meat has a lot of flavor and is quite laced. This makes it the perfect meat to prepare in the sous vide.
Ingredients (2 persons)
- 1 lamb neck (±250 gr).
- few sprigs of rosemary
- 1 lemon
- black peppercorns
- garlic
- bay leaves
- morels (fresh or dried). For the sauce I use dried
- 300ml. veal stock (not in photo)
Prepare
If necessary remove some fat from the lamb neck. Do not remove too much fat. Cut some edges off the meat and put this cut meat in foil in the refrigerator. Sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper. Vacuum the meat with lemon zest, garlic slices from 2 cloves, a few rosemary sprigs, black peppercorns and a bay leaf.
Place a pan of water on the stove and bring the water to a boil. Place the meat in the boiling water for about 30-45 seconds to let the raw color disappear. This is necessary because the meat is cooked for a longer period of time at a temperature lower than 60°C. If you don’t do this, the meat can get a bad smell. I got this tip from a good friend’s blog.
Heat the water in the sous vide to 57°C (135 fahrenheit) Place the vacuum-drawn meat in the water bath for 24 hours.
Start about an hour before the meat comes out of the sous vide with the steps below:
Fry the cut meat and fat in a frying pan over high heat so that the fat melts. Soak the dried morels in water for at least 15 minutes.
Remove the meat from the pan and add veal stock to the fat, making sure that it can cook quite a bit. Let it all boil down a bit.
After 24 hours, the neck of lamb can be removed from the sous vide, cut the bag open and pour the moisture released from the bag into a pan. Heat the liquid over low heat. Add the liquid to the veal stock. Strain the liquid from the morels in a fine sieve covered with kitchen roll and pour the liquid over the kitchen roll. As a result, the sand will be collected by the kitchen roll. Pour the sieved liquid into the veal stock and lamb juices. Cut the morels into pieces or leave them whole and add them to the sauce. Let everything reduce over high heat to desired thickness.
Remove the lamb from the plastic and remove the rosemary, bay leaf and lemon zest. Pat the lamb dry with kitchen roll and heat butter or ghee in a frying pan. Fry the meat on all sides over high heat. Also make sure to brown the sides. The main thing is that the meat browns, the meat is already cooked.
I myself put the meat in the sauce for a while to let the taste mix slightly, this is not necessary.
Serve
Cut the meat into pieces and place on a preheated plate. Serve with a parsnip puree and/or asparagus. Pour the sauce over the meat or serve it separately. Serve with a Malbec.
