Going Out | Food + Drink

Easter lunch: Jun Tanaka's spring roast lamb with a herby duck fat crust

This recipe calls for lemons, artichoke puree and wonderfully meaty morels
Spring lamb
Champagne? Rose works well with lamb
The Ninth
Going Out

The chef Jun Tanaka has built a wonderful restaurant in The Ninth, cooking simple — at least by design, if not in technique — French food and Mediterranean dishes.

It’s a neighbourhood restaurant in Fitzrovia that happens to have a Michelin star. Tanaka’s style is perfectly suited to dishes like this, a springtime marriage of lamb, morels, courgettes and lemon.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

  • 1x loin of Lamb cut in half
  • 1x green courgette (sliced thinly)
  • 100g morels (cleaned)
  • 25g butter
  • 1x lemon
  • Glug of olive oil

Lamb jus:

  • 1kg Lamb bones
  • 1.5L brown chicken stock
  • 250ml white wine
  • 2 tomatoes (chopped)
  • 2 onions (chopped)
  • Sprig of rosemary

Herb crust:

  • 1x bunch flat leaf parsley (picked)
  • 4x slices white bread (dried in the oven at 80C until crisp)
  • 40g Gruyere (diced)
  • 250g unsalted butter (room temperature)
  • Crispy Lamb belly:
  • 1x Lamb belly
  • 300g duck fat
  • 1x sprig rosemary

Artichoke purée:

  • 1x jar cooked artichokes in oil
  • 1x lemon
  • 100ml chicken stock

Method:

  1. To make the crispy belly, season the belly with salt and pepper. Place in a pan, cover with duck fat, add the rosemary and slowly simmer for two hours or until a metal skewer slides into the lamb belly easily. Cool, then take out and place flat on a tray skin side down. Place a sheet of baking parchment on top and place another tray on top to weigh it down. Chill in the fridge. Once cold, slice into rectangles 2cm by 5cm and pan fry in olive oil until crisp.
  2. To make the lamb jus, roast the bones in the oven in an oven tray for one hour or until it has caramelised. Drain in a colander. Add the white wine to the tray and scrap the bottom to remove the residue. Pour this into a clean pot with the lamb bones. Caramelise the onions in a pan with olive oil until golden. Drain in a colander. Add this along with the tomatoes to the lamb bones.
  3. Cover with brown chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and gently cook for 3 hours. Allow to cool then strain through a fine sieve. Bring the lamb jus to a boil and reduce for 20mins or until the desired flavour and consistency has been achieved.
  4. For the herb crust, place all the ingredients apart from the butter into a blender and blitz until you have a fine green crumb. Season lightly then add the softened butter and mix. Take 2 sheets of baking parchment 30cm x 30cm. Place the butter in the centre of one piece of baking parchment, place the other sheet on top and using a rolling pin, roll out until it is 1/4cm thick. Place on a tray and chill in the fridge. Once it is hard, cut a piece the same size as the lamb.
  5. Season the lamb with salt and pepper. Render the lamb fat side down in a pan until golden. Flip over and caramelise. Cook in the oven at 200C for 10mins. Place the herb crust on top and cook for a further 2mins. Take out and leave the rest for 6mins.
  6. Add the butter to a pan and heat up. Add the morels, season and sweat for 3mins. Take out of the pan and add to the sliced courgettes. Dress with olive oil and lemon juice.
  7. To make the purée, place the artichokes in the blender, add the lemon juice, chicken stock and blitz. Slowly add the olive oil from the jar. Season with salt.
  8. Slice the lamb in half and place on a plate. Spoon the artichoke purée onto the plate, add the courgettes and morels.

MORE ABOUT

Lamb
Fitzrovia
recipe