Laikenbuie Lamb Shoulder, Shetland Lamb Tongue, Beans and Chanterelles

Method:

For the shoulder of lamb

– Bone the shoulder and trim off excess fat and meat.

– Dissolve the salt in water to make the brine, and place with the shoulder in vac pac bag, seal and refrigerate for 24 hours.

– Remove the shoulder from the bag and wash away the salt. Pat dry and place in a new vac pac bag with the summer savoury and seal.

– Cook in the water bath for 48 hours at 65°C

– Remove, cool and chill in the fridge for 6 hours at least, but ideally overnight.

At home
You can achieve a similar end result at home if you place the shoulder in a small roasting tray with the herbs, cover with olive oil and then tin foil, cook in the oven at 180°C, gas mark 4, for between 4 to 5 hours, until the meat is tender, remember to baste occasionally.  Test by pressing the meat, if it starts to give way then its ready.  Leave to rest.

For the tongue

– Wash and trim away any sinew. Pat dry.

– Place the tongues in a pressure cooker with the garlic and cover with hot lamb stock.

– Bring up to full pressure, then lower the heat and cook for about 25 minutes.

– When ready (the skin should peel off easily) remove the tongues and garlic, pass the stock through a piece of muslin into a small pan.

– When cool enough, peel the tongue, slice in half length wise and then cut into large dices.

If you don’t have a pressure cooker
Cook in a pan as above, covered for 2 hours – keep checking your stock is still covering the tongues and add more hot stock if needed.

For the pickle

– Put the white wine, rice wine vinegar, water and sugar into a small pan and gently heat until the sugar has dissolved, season and leave to cool at room temperature for 30 minutes.

– Trim and clean chanterelles, keeping these to one side at room temperature.

For the batter

– Place all the dry ingredients into a small bowl, then add 200ml of mineral water and mix with a hand blender until smooth, adding more water if needed.  You don’t want the batter too thick.

– Season and place in the fridge until needed.

For the onion oil

– Place onion buds in a bowl with the rape seed oil. Season.

For the vegetables for the tongue

– Bring a medium sized pan of salted water to the boil.

– Drop in the baby onions and cook for about 5 minutes, remove onto kitchen paper and leave to cool until ready to handle.

– Cut in half, peel and divide the segments.

– Using the same water, cook the peas for no longer than 20 seconds then remove into ice water to stop the cooking.

– Using the same water, cook the broad beans, cooking for no more than 1 minute then remove into ice water to stop the cooking.

– Peel the beans then put into bowl and roughly blitz with a hand blender.

For the shoulder

– Remove the shoulder from the vac pac bag, and pour the juices through muslin into a pan. Heat gently.

– Trim 4 neat portions of shoulder and place in lamb liquor and cover; these must been heated very, very gently for 5 minutes.

For the onion rings

– Put the peanut oil in a deep fat fryer and bring up to 190°C.

– Peel the onion and then slice very thinly, take 8 nice rings from that, remove any thin membrane and pat dry.

To assemble

– Sprinkle the chanterelles with enough of the pickle to coat and season and place in a warm place (they are served almost raw).

– Drop onion rings into batter, do this 2 at a time and then place into hot oil, making sure they don’t touch each other. Do this in 2 batches, and remove when golden brown.  Put onto kitchen paper and then place in the oven to keep warm.

– Heat the tongue liquor, add a little arrowroot (mixed with a tablespoon of water) if it needs thickening.  Add slowly till the desired consistency is achieved.

– Add tongue pieces, gently heat for a few minutes then add the onion segments, broad beans, peas, heat, season, and finally stir in sweet cicely.

Plate up:

In a warm shallow dish place a pile of the tongue and bean mix. Carefully remove lamb and place on top.  Reduce or thicken shoulder liquor. If lacking flavour add lamb stock and heat. Check seasoning and use the liquor to glaze lamb.  Dot the plate with the pickled chanterelles, and garnish with 2 onion rings each, chickweed, pea flowers and a drizzle of the onion oil.  Serve!