Lamb chops with garlic and rosemary wrapped in prosciutto with spinach and mashed potato…

This is one of my all time favourite dishes and I am now going to show you how it is done. The recipe for the Spinach is my remembered version of the way Nico Ladenis does his spinach and the mash potato is my version of the Heston Blumenthal recipe (somewhat truncated….I’m sure its the extras that give him all those Michelin Stars!). The Lamb chops are my version of a recipe I found somewhere in a magazine whose name I have forgotten.

The idea behind the mash is that when potatoes are cooked normally, the cells with their large starch content swell up and burst. Then when the potato is mashed, it generally has a very undesirable texture. Here, the potatoes are gently poached first to swell the potato cells (without bursting them) and then they are cooked and then mashed. With the butter and the milk, the mash is rich and smooth and totally delicious. You can read more about this in Jeffrey Steingarten’s ‘The Man Who Ate Everything : Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Food, but Were Afraid to Ask’ and also obviously in Heston Blumethal’s book, ‘Family Food: A new approach to cooking’.

SERVES 4.

You will need…

Lamb Chops:

12 Lamb chops
12 Slices Prosciutto
4 cloves garlic
10g of FRESH rosemary
1tb spoon Vegetable Oil

For Mash:

1kg ‘waxy’ potatoes
200g unsalted butter
200ml full fat milk

For Spinach:

1 Large bunch of Spinach
50g Unsalted butter
Nutmeg to taste

Lamb Chops

Pre-heat oven to 110 degrees centigrade and place a casserole dish or some sort of oven proof dish to hold and finish the chops once finished frying.
First finely chop garlic and rosemary to form a loose paste. Take a lamb chop and smear on a little paste and then wrap it in a slice of prosciutto. Repeat until all chops finished and set aside.

Heat a frying pan with a little oil and fry lamb chops for 3-5 minutes each side or until prosciutto is nicely browned. Then put chops into oven for at least 15 minutes or until ready to serve. The cool oven will help to finish off the cooking process whilst still keeping them pink in the middle and then will keep them warm until ready for serving.

Spinach

Heat a saucepan with water until boiling. Cut stems off spinach and place in boiling water for 15-30 seconds until spinach becomes ‘limp’. Take out immediately and drain and gently squeeze out as much water as possible. Heat a saucepan and melt butter. Saute spinach in butter until soft and ‘unctuous’. Grate over nutmeg to taste.

Mashed Potato

Peel potatoes and cut into 2cm slices and with the use of a digital thermometer ‘poach’ in 70 degrees centigrade water for 30 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and rinse under cold water until all heat is lost from potatoes. They will still be relatively hard and not very appetising. DO NOT WORRY….YET!

Then place potatoes in boiling water and cook the normal way until soft and fully cooked. Drain the potatoes and mash using whatever method you prefer. I like to use a masher. Heston Blumenthal insists on a Potato ricer. I personally cant stand potato ricers! Chop butter into 2cm cubes and add to mash. Mix in butter and continue mashing. Then with a small saucepan, heat milk until it just reaches the boil and remove from heat. Add to mash and whisk it in until the mash reaches your required consistency. Add salt, pepper, parmesan etc if required.

Presentation

Place mash in the centre of the place and spoon spinach over the top. Place lamb chops over top of spinach and enjoy!!!