Panfried lamb shortloin with greens and greek lemon sauce

Tam West

I used the excellent grass fed Homegrown Farm Fresh Meats brand Charolais lamb for this. This recipe is also good with lamb cutlets. The sauce is a traditional Greek sauce which I like on fish, chicken and vegetables as well as lamb as in the following. Don’t let it boil or it will curdle. If it does, carefully blend in a blender or with a wand blender until smooth. It won’t be as thick as it should be but it will still taste and look good.

Ingredients

800 g	Lamb shortloin, fat and sinew removed (Main)
1 Tbsp	Dried oregano
½ tsp	Cracked black pepper
2	Garlic cloves, squashed
4 Tbsp	Extra virgin olive oil
500 ml	Chicken stock
7 large	Egg yolks
¼ cup	Lemon juice, fresh
250 g	Sweet stem broccoli, stalk ends trimmed off, broccoli halved at the stalks (Main)
100 g	Snow peas, stalk ends cut off (Main)
4 large handfuls	Spinach leaves (Main)
1	Lemon, zest only
6 servings	Steamed rice

Directions

1. Put the lamb into a large bowl and add the oregano, pepper, garlic and oil. Mix well and leave to marinate for 1 hour.
2. Bring the stock to a very gentle simmer in a saucepan.
3. Put the egg yolks and lemon juice into a roomy heatproof bowl and beat well. Reserve.
4. Remove the garlic from the lamb and season the lamb with salt. Heat a frying pan over moderate heat and panfry the lamb for about 4 minutes on each side for medium (pink and juicy on the inside but cooked). Remove from the heat, place on a plate, loosely cover with foil and allow to rest while you cook the vegetables and make the sauce.
5. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and add the broccoli. Bring back to the boil and boil 3 minutes then add the snowpeas and spinach and boil a further 2 minutes. Drain well.
6. Bring the stock to a rolling boil then remove from the heat. Whisking continually, add the stock slowly to the egg yolk and juice mix. Pour back into the saucepan and place directly over moderate heat and stir until the sauce thickens slightly. Do not boil or it will curdle. Taste and season with salt.
7. Slice the lamb on the diagonal across the grain of the meat. Serve the lamb on the vegetables with the sauce over it and sprinkled with the zest and the rice on the side.

Ray's three course seasonal menu for six also includes

scallop, bacon and green bean salad

and

brown sugar, orange and hazelnut syrup cake.