Saltmarsh Lamb, Wild Herbs, Samphire and Purslane

Saltmarsh Lamb, Purslane Crisps and a Samphire Kale and Blue Cheese Rockefeller.

A few months ago I was approached to enter a TV cookery competition the name of which I am currently not allowed to disclose. Having spoken briefly with a researcher about the type of recipe they where after I went off completely half cocked and created this tasty little number only to find out I couldn’t actually make it to the heats in the first place!

I wanted to have as many foraged ingredients in there as possible all within a close locality to one another. The area I had in mind was Alfriston and the tidal area of the Cuckmere river. I’d mulled over using mullet from the river but due to my massive lack of fishing skills I decided to give that a miss.

Whilst out and about collecting some samphire and a purslane, the idea came to me, Saltmarsh Lamb! A Saltmarsh lamb feeds on the purslane and samphire too so the flavours have a natural affinity with each other and having recently used the Hunter Gather Cook recipe for a Wild Herb Rub to make some great tasting lamb things were definitely coming together.

Having decided to do purslane crisps, and a Blue Cheese Rockefeller I started looking for a local blue cheese (to keep it Sussex!) in replacement for the Roquefort I’d initially thought would work best. Turns out this was much harder than I originally thought, even with the help of some of my cheese officiando friends, I was at a loss. But then I stumbled across the High Weald Dairy cheese company only a few miles from me, on the off chance I gave them a call and as it turns out they had a “prototype” Roquefort type Sussex blue in development. Mark at High Weald was nice enough to give me a tester piece to experiment with and this recipe was good to go!

Lamb with a HGC Ground Ivy Rub

2 French trimmed racks of Saltmarsh Lamb

For the Groud Ivy Rub:

• Hand full of Ground ivy (dried)
• Hand full of Mint (dried)
• Hand full of Oxeye daisy leave (dried)
• Pine needles (Fresh and finely chopped)
• 2 cloves of Garlic (finely chopped and briefly oven dried)
• Zest of 3 Lemons (briefly oven dried)
• Salt & Pepper
• Sugar

Remove the stalks, finely chop or blend all the ingredients and combine to make the rub.

Rub the racks of lamb all over with the mixture then place in a ziplock bag pour in a few glugs of olive oil and give it a little shake to get the oil over the lamb. Refrigerate over night or as long as you can. Remove the lamb from the fridge at least 2 hours before cooking.

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4/400 degrees. Score the fat side to the lamb and season, wrap foil around the exposed ribs to stop them burning. Place on a baking tray fat side up.

Roast at Gas Mark 4 for 7 minutes then drop the temperature to Gas Mark 3 for a further 7 -15 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 130 degrees in the thickest park of the meat.

Remove from the oven and rest for 7-10minutes cover with foil. Cut into chops and serve 3-4 a person. 

Samphire and Kale Blue Cheese Rockerfeller.

250g Kale Finely chopped

1 Handful of breadcrumbs

1 Egg Beaten

1 small Onion finely chopped

30g Butter

50g Sussex Blue Cheese from the

1 large tbsp of pickled Samphire roughly chopped.

2 Gloves of Garlic Finely chopped

2 Sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 Tsp dried thyme

Salt and ground pepper to season.

Couple of pinches of garlic salt

1 Beef tomato sliced in 2 cm thick.

Directions:

1. Boil the Kale for a few minutes and strain thoroughly.

2. Place the breadcrumbs, kale, onion, eggs, melted butter, blue cheese, pickled samphire, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper and stir well to blend the ingredients.

3. In a buttered ramekin (1 per person) place one slice of tomato and sprinkle a little garlic salt.  Spoon in the Kale mixture to fill the ramekins.

Bake at Gas Mark 4/ 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes

Purslane Crisps :

2 Handfuls of Purslane leaves, stalks removed

100g of Bread crumbs well seasoned with salt and pepper

1 egg beaten

1 small amount of flour

Vegetable oil.

Dip each leaf in the flour then egg then breadcrumbs and fry in the vegetable oil for a few seconds until golden, remove from pan and on to some kitchen towel to get rid of any excess oil.

Put it all together and there you go! Sorry there's no pictures of the actual dish, hope you like the others. Enjoy!