Acclaimed chef Peter Gordon shows you how to cook grilled New Zealand lamb leg steaks with minted cumin & eggplant relish, buttery potato mash, spinach and green beans.
Ingredients
- 4 boneless lamb leg steak (allow 150-200g per person)
- 1 aubergine (eggplant)
- olive oil
- 1/2 tsp cumin seed
- 1 red onion, peeled and very thinly sliced
- 11/2 tbsp fresh lime or lemon juice
- 5 mint stalk (leaves only)
- 281/4 oz potato suitable for mashing, peeled and quartered
- 51/4 oz butter
- 1 tsp fresh rosemary, sage or thyme leaf
- 13/4 oz double cream
- 2 tbsp whole-grain mustard
- 71/8 oz green bean, remove tops
- 175/8 oz spinach, stalks removed, washed and coarsely shredded (or use baby spinach)
Directions
- Oven at 180°C.
- Brush the lamb with olive oil and lightly season, then leave on a covered plate to come to room temperature for an hour or so
- Cut the stalk from the aubergine and cut into 1cm dice. Toss with 3 tablespoons olive oil and the cumin seeds and bake near the top of the oven in a paper lined roasting dish until golden and cooked through, stirring every 10 minutes
- Meanwhile, mix the red onion with the lime juice and zest and leave to macerate for at least 30 minutes
- Once the eggplant is cooked, tip into a bowl with the onion and lime juice, some salt and pepper. After half an hour, shred the mint leaves and mix these in too and taste for seasoning
- While this is happening, boil the potatoes in lightly salted water until cooked, then drain
- Heat the butter in a small pan over medium heat with the fresh herbs and cook until just beginning to go golden. Add the cream and mustard, take off the heat, and mash into the potatoes -- taste for seasoning and keep warm and covered
- Heat a griddle pan or heavy based frying pan over medium heat and cook the lamb for 5 minutes on the first side, then around 4-6 minutes on the other depending how cooked you'd like it to be. Once cooked, take from the pan and rest on a warm dish in a warm place
- Bring a pot of slightly salted water to the boil and add the beans. Cook for 3-4 minutes, depending on size, then stir in the spinach and cook for just less than a minute. Drain into a colander and gently press out excess water. Tip into a bowl and lightly season.
- To serve -- Place the lamb steaks on 4 warmed plates. Use a dessert-spoon to make a large egg shaped mound of mash and sit it beside the lamb, tuck in some of the spinach and beans then spoon on the eggplant relish.
