The starter was a grilled blue marlin with salsa verde, garnished with sugar snap peas and shoots from the garden. If my memory serves me right, the salsa verde is made of a handful of parsley, 2 sprigs tarragon, 2 sprigs thyme, 1 clove garlic, I think I sneaked in a leaf of kaffir lime as well, 2 pieces anchovy, a teaspoon of baby capers, salt and pepper, blitzed with 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil. This is best prepared ahead of time to let the flavors infuse.
For the main meal, I thought that a rack of lamb was in order as I haven't cooked one for a while! This herb crusted lamb was inspired by a Gordon Ramsay recipe.
I cleaned up the remaining sinews from the bones and wrapped it with foil. Frenching a rack of lamb after a couple of glasses of wine and Santana in the background was a pretty awesome gig :) I also scored the fat and seasoned it with salt and pepper. Meanwhile the oven was pre-heated to 200C.
After the deed is done, the lamb meat is seared on high heat with a touch of olive oil, for around 2 minutes, then it went straight to the oven for around 8 minutes.
While the lamb is in the oven, I pulsed 3 slices of stale wholewheat bread, a handful of parsley, a couple of sprigs of thyme, leaves stripped off from 3 sprigs of rosemary, and some olive oil.
The lamb was taken out of the oven and seeded mustard was slathered across the meaty part.
Then this was dredged into the herby mixture, until well covered.
It was finished off in the oven again for around 5 minutes. We like our lamb still pink in the middle so if you prefer yours well done, you'll need to leave it in there for longer!
The lamb was served with smashed swedes, rocket and silverbeet from the garden, and a mint sauce made from red wine, some sugar, and a handful of minced mint (also from the garden) thickened with a little bit of gelatin (I pretty much winged this recipe so don't ask me about the proportions, as most mint sauces I found online have so much sugar and I don't really want a very sweet mint sauce). This is also best prepared ahead of time to allow for the jelly to set. You just want it with a little wobble and not very solid though!
And last but not the least... dessert. A chocolate fondant, served with vanilla ice cream. And some left over mint sprigs! :)
This fondant is also another Gordon Ramsay recipe, and something that I've done several times, and works each time. No use altering or making my own version. And this is always a crowd pleaser. Never mind the calories - it's so good it's really worth enjoying!
After writing this I realized that I should probably rename my post to Ramsay Inspired Night!
Ok now I'm off to the gym! :)
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