Cooking with Gordon

Yesterday was the first instalment of my New Year Cookery Project. The menu was

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Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

Herb Crusted Lamb with Mirepoix of Vegetables

Caramelised Bananas en Papilotte with Creme Fraiche

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The soup was very easy, made with a fresh vegetable nage, sauteed artichokes and finished with cream. It was supposed to be served with morel mushrooms but sadly neither availability or mid-month budget meant that this was feasible. I love jerusalem artichokes, and it was one of my favourite starters in one of the hotels I worked in - every evening, if someone ordered it, the larder chef would make a special one up for me to greedily gobble. Gordon's version was really fresh and flavoursome, with a light addition of cream. Yummy

Vegetables being naged

Artichokes being sauteed

The main course, the rack of lamb, consisted of two parts - the herb crusted lamb itself and a hollowed out tomato filled with a very fine, sauteed brunoise of courgette, aubergine, peppers and tomatoes. There was no starch aspect in the book, so I paired it with some couscous. The quantity of butter in the recipe wasn't quite enough to make a paste, so I stuck in a bit more. My husband found my french-trimming most entertaining. This dish was really delicious.

The vegetable mirepoix ready for sauteeing - a labour of love

The banana dessert worked well. The recipe calls for cloves, but I really dislike the taste of them on their own, so swapped these for allspice. I also cut the portion size - Gordon puts two bananas in a portion, but this is a rich dish and two would have been too much. I bought creme fraiche d'isigny, and we ate the whole pot in a frenzy of greed.

We had a bottle of Trimbach Riesling Reserve with the dinner which went very well with the soup and the banana, but obviously wasn't as sucessful with the lamb ! All in all, a very delicious dinner, which I would have been very happy with in a restaurant.

All 3 of the recipes score highly in taste, ease and simplicity of instruction, giving a very satisfactory result - 9 out of 10

Watch this space for the next instalment.