WEEK 8
Albanian style leg of lamb with Ruby chocolate
For 4 servings | Preparation: 45 minutes - Cooking time: 2 hours
Ingredients
Additional kitchen equipment
Ingredients
1 leg of lamb, 1.5kg
a good glug of olive oil
salt & pepper
For the sauce
2 cloves of garlic
1 red chilli
4 white celery stalks
fleur de sel
a good glug of olive oil
100g onion
a few sprigs of thyme
a few sprigs of mint
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
2.5dl red wine
70g tomato purée
800g tin of tomato cubes
2 tomatoes
1/2 l chicken stock
100g Ruby chocolate
For the sauce’s finish
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cinnamon stick
1/2 teaspoon cacao nibs
For the garnish
1 large or 4 baby aubergines
fleur de sel
piment d’Espelette
1 to 2dl olive oil
a few sprigs of flat-leaf parsley
a few sprigs of mint
4 pitted green olives
Additional kitchen equipment
electric coffee grinder
STEP ONE
Season the leg of lamb with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large pan and fry the leg of lamb until browned all over. Remove the lamb from the pot and pour in some more olive oil.
STEP TWO
Peel the onion and finely chop it. Peel the white celery stalks, re-move the hard strings and cut them into small dice, about the same size as the onion pieces. Peel the garlic, slice in two and remove the core. Crush the clove of garlic and add it to the pot with the hot olive oil, together with the pieces of chopped onion and celery. Cut the red chilli into very thin slices or rings. For those who don’t really like hot food half a chilli will do. You can of course just remove the seeds.
STEP THREE
Stir the chilli in with the vegetables. While you’re stirring, add the tomato purée as well, leaving it to fry a bit to get rid of the acidity in the tomato purée. Pour in the red wine and add the tinned tomato cubes. Put the browned leg of lamb on top of this jus.
STEP FOUR
Make a bouquet garni of the thyme, mint and bay leaf and add it to the lamb, together with the cinnamon stick. Pour the chicken stock in with the rest and leave to simmer slowly with the lid on (+/- 2 hours).