WILD WINTER BBQ: FOREST LAMB RECIPE

The second of the three courses created by award-winning Netherlands chef, Freek van Noortwijk, especially for Highland Park’s Wild Winter BBQ, the butter-soft lamb is accompanied by a medley of wild mushrooms and finished with a rich mushroom gravy. Simply delicious, at any time of year.

Pairing suggestion

Freek recommends pairing 12 Year Old with this dish as the whisky’s combination dried fruit and winter spice flavours go particularly well with the earthy seasonal ingredients he has chosen.

Ingredients (to serve 4)

Lamb

4 lamb rump steaks with fat left intact

2 cloves of garlic

2 sprigs of rosemary

50 ml canola oil (or olive oil)

Pepper and salt

Celeriac Mash

1 celeriac

25ml canola oil (or olive oil)

5 sprigs of thyme

1 bay leaf

50ml Highland Park 12 Year Old Viking Honour

Pepper and salt

Mushroom gravy

500ml lamb jus or jus de veau (ask your butcher or delicatessen)

250ml white wine

3 shallots

3 garlic cloves

20g dried porcini mushrooms

Pepper and salt

Wild fried mushrooms

500g wild mushroom medley

2 cloves of garlic

1 sweet onion

10 sprigs of (wild) oregano

50g butter

75g winter purslane

Method

1. Sprinkle the lamb rump steaks with plenty of salt and leave them covered in the fridge for 8 hours to brine. Puree the oil with the rosemary and garlic to a smooth marinade. Remove the lamb rump steaks from the refrigerator 2 hours before use and rub them with the marinade.

2. Peel the celeriac and rub it with the oil, picked thyme, plenty of salt and pepper and then wrap it in aluminium foil along with the bay leaf. Cook the celeriac during the day, while the meat is brining, in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for an hour, until the celeriac is completely cooked. Alternatively, for more flavour, you can place the celeriac in the fire bowl or BBQ next to the fire or the coals. This gives a little more flavour and caramelisation, but to avoid burning you’ll need to turn a different side towards the fire every ten minutes. Once the celeriac is cooked and slightly cooled, unpack it carefully without losing any juices. Cut it into pieces and then crush it with a potato masher to a coarse mash. Add the whisky and season with salt and pepper.

3. Roughly chop the shallots and garlic and bring to the boil along with the dried porcini mushrooms and white wine. Then reduce to a quarter and add the lamb jus or jus de veau. Reduce to three quarters (depending on the thickness and strength of your gravy) and blend with a stick blender until smooth, passing through a fine sieve if necessary. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Grill the meat on direct heat on the BBQ, fat side down, until golden brown in colour, then flip. Repeat until all sides are golden brown and then move the meat to a slightly less hot spot on the BBQ and repeat until it has a core temperature of 58 degrees. You ultimately want to have a core temperature of 60 degrees, but while resting the residual heat will cook the meat even further. Let the meat rest for about 10 minutes.

5. While the meat is resting, finely chop the sweet onion and garlic cloves, pick the (wild) oregano and tear or cut the (wild) mushrooms into pieces. Heat the butter in a frying pan on the hot spot of the BBQ and let it melt. Then add the mushrooms and fry them over high heat for a few minutes until they begin to colour slightly. Then add the onion, garlic and oregano and fry for a few more minutes on a high heat until everything is golden brown. Season with salt and pepper.

6. To serve, take four preheated, flat, main course plates and scoop a large spoonful of celeriac mash on each. Cut the rump steak into 4cm thick slices and season with pepper if desired. Salt is not necessary because of the brining, but that’s up to your personal taste. Place one or two slices of meat against the celeriac mash and divide the wild fried mushroom mix over the plates. Finish with two tablespoons of gravy per plate and some nicely picked winter purslane.