Leg of Lamb with Rosemary & Garlic

Set the Sous Vide cooker to 55ºC.

Mix garlic & rosemary together in a small bowl. Rub over lamb. Season with salt & pepper & rub with olive oil.

Place the lamb in a large zipper lock bag. Seal the bag using the water immersion technique. Place the bag in the water bath & set the timer for 8 hrs. Cover the water bath with plastic wrap to minimize water evaporation. Add water intermittently to keep the lamb submerged.

About 5 mins before the lamb is finished, heat the grill to high.

When the timer goes off, remove the lamb from the bag & pat dry with paper towels. Reserve the cooking liquid.

Grill the lamb until well browned, about 5 mins. Transfer to a cutting board & rest, covered, for 5 mins.

Meanwhile: Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. When the butter stops foaming, add the onion & cook, stirring, for 1 min.

Whisk in the flour. Add the reserved cooking liquid & wine, stirring until smooth. Slowly whisk in the stock. Bring the sauce to a simmer, reduce heat to medium-low, & simmer until thickened, 3 to 5 mins. Season to taste with salt & pepper.

Thinly slice the lamb & serve with the sauce.

Lamb leg steaks

Preheat the water bath to 56C (or 62C for medium)

Mix together 100ml of the olive oil with the herbs, garlic & salt & rub into the lamb steaks.

Leave to marinade for at least 1 hr but up to 4 hrs. Place the steaks in a single layer in a vacuum bag with the remaining 50ml of olive oil & seal under pressure.

Place the bag in the preheated water bath to cook for 8 hrs at 56C for medium rare or for 6 hrs at 62C for medium.

Remove the lamb from the bag & pat dry with kitchen paper

To serve, chargrill the lamb leg steaks on the barbecue or sear in a very hot frying pan until browned.

Variations

For a Moroccan flavour, add cumin seeds, cinnamon & ras el hanout to the marinade or for an Indian twist, try adding coriander, turmeric & cardamom.

Serving suggestions

Robert Thompson serves his leg of lamb with a simple salsa verde & roasted beetroot while Alan Murchison serves his lamb with harissa-spiced couscous & chickpea salsa for a Moroccan twist.

Adapting Classic Stew Recipes

Brown the meat

There is a trade off here between texture and flavor. The longer you brown, the thicker the crust and the more flavor that will develop. However, a thicker crust also means a thicker layer of overcooked meat. By browning over high heat in enough fat (oil or clarified butter; regular butter would burn) you can get more browning while overcooking as little meat as possible. Do not turn frequently for the same reason. If you turn frequently, you will get more internal cooking and less browning, and you want the opposite. Make the sauce The most important ingredient for your sauce is already in the pan, because it is the drippings that are left behind from browning the meat. So do not clean the pan! Now add the aromatics to the drippings in the pan. For Italian dishes this is the holy trinity of carrot, onion, and celery. For a curry this would be the curry paste. Stir the aromatics over medium to medium-high heat, making sure that the drippings do not burn. Usually the moisture that will be released by the aromatics will help to prevent that, together with moderating the heat as needed. If needed, deglaze the pan with a bit of water, just to loosen up the drippings. As we want the aromatics to brown as well and get some nice Maillard reaction going, it is however best to keep this step as dry as possible. Italian recipes will actually tell you to let the aromatics dry out in the pan. Keep going until the aromatics are fully cooked, as the sous vide cooking will happen at a temperature that is too low to cook them. For most recipes you want to cook the aromatics until they are golden. Now it is time to deglaze the pan with wine, stock, and/or sieved tomatoes. I would advise against deglazing with water, as that would dilute the flavor. Even if the recipe calls for water, I would replace it with stock. Use beef stock for a beef dish, chicken stock for a chicken dish, lamb stock for a lamb dish, etc. It is usually best to use stock from the same type of meat. If you were to use beef stock in a pork dish, the dish would end up tasting less like pork. If deglazing with wine and another liquid, then allow the wine to reduce by half before adding the other liquid. Reducing the wine by half ensures that the alcohol is gone. Reduce the sauce Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Stir the sauce once in a while so it won’t scorch at the bottom. Do not stir it too often, because the Maillard reaction will occur at the highest rate just before it scorches. You need to reduce the sauce to even thicker than you’d want it to be in the finished dish, because juices from the meat will be added to it during the sous-vide cooking. If you have the time, reduce with a slow simmer rather than a rolling boil. The slower you reduce, the more flavor will remain in the sauce. It smells really good while you are reducing, but that is not a good thing. Every flavor compound you smell during the simmer means that flavor compound is no longer in the dish. Vacuum seal meat and sauce Mix the meat with the sauce (making sure the sauce is not warmer than the temperature you intend to cook sous vide at) and vacuum seal it. You have three options for doing this. Option 1: use a chamber vacuum sealer. Chamber vacuum sealers are great at vacuum sealing liquids. The sauce and the meat must be completely chilled before vacuum sealing, because otherwise the water in the sauce and meat will come to a boil. This is because the boiling point of water is lower at a lower pressure. Option 2: use a ziploc bag and the water displacement method. You can do this while meat and sauce are still warm. Option 3: freeze the sauce, and vacuum seal with an external vacuum sealer. Cook meat and sauce together sous vide To cook the meat and sauce sous vide, you have the option to select a time and temperature that will give a classic flaky tender braised texture to the meat, such as 24 hours at 74C/165F, or tender and juicy medium rare, such as 24-96 hours at 55C/131F, 57C/135F, or 60C/140F. The time and temperature for tender and juicy medium rare will depend on the type of meat. For a classic flaky texture, 24 hours at 74C/165F works for many types of meat. The long cooking time will also allow the flavors to blend. Finish and serve You can serve straight from the bag. Just make sure the plates or bowls are preheated, especially if you cooked sous vide at a low temperature. For a higher serving temperature and the opportunity to thicken the sauce, you can follow these steps. First, strain the sauce into a pan, reserving the meat. Bring the sauce to a boil. If needed, you can thicken with a slurry of cornstarch and water, or arrowroot and water, or with butter (turn off the heat and whisk in small pieces of cold water), or with beurre manié (equal parts of butter and flour mixed into a paste, whisked into the sauce after the heat has been turned off). An optional step is to ‘pull’ the meat with two forks. This is a great way to make meat that turned out a bit dry seem very juicy, because the strands of meat will be coated with the sauce. Turn off the heat and add the reserved meat. Stir to coat the meat with the sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper if needed. It is now ready to be served. Sous-vide is not the solution to everything, and you can make a perfectly good stew or braised dish without it. But there are some reasons for doing this sous-vide: Consistency and precision. With traditional methods there is a higher risk of dry or tough meat because the temperature got too high. Convenience, as you don’t have to tend a pot on the stovetop for a long time. Less liquid required to cover the meat and no need to stir during cooking (except for reducing the sauce). Turn tough meat into tender and juicy medium rare (at 60℃/140℉ or lower), an option you do not have with traditional methods for making stews or braised dishes. Easy to chill, store & reheat to serve.

Lamb Chops

Preheat the sous vide machine to 57ºC for medium.

Whisk together garlic, rosemary, lemon juice, 1 tbspn olive oil, salt, & black pepper. Rub into the lamb chops & arrange in a single layer in the bag & seal. Cook for about 2 hrs.

Chill the lamb in the fridge for about 10 mins & then cook immediately or store them in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Remove the lamb from the bag & wipe off any extra moisture with paper towels.

Place a pan on medium-high heat & add 1 tbspn oil. Once it’s smoking hot, add the lamb chops & sear for ~2 mins per side until nicely browned. Let them rest for 5 mins.