Straight From Iceland

Recipe for filet of lamb saddle on a bed of potatoes with carrots

Ingredients for two servings:

6 medium-sized potatoes
50 ml carrot juice
100g butter
200g small, firm-cooking potatoes
400g filet of lamb saddle
50ml vinegar
50ml water
25g sugar
1 Arctic blossoms or other violet or lilac-colored edible flowers.
1 red radish
1 icicle radish

Preparation:

Wash and peel carrots. For the first side dish, cut three carrots into large pieces. Put some butter into a pressure cooker and briefly sauté the carrots. Deglaze with a little water and seal the cooker. As soon as steam comes from the valve, reduce heat and let the carrots simmer for ten to fifteen minutes, occasionally shaking the pot. Then season the carrots with salt, pepper and blend with butter. Add water as needed until the purée achieves a creamy consistency.

For the second side dish, cut one carrot into small slices. Heat 50ml of vinegar, 50ml of water and 25g of sugar in a saucepan. Remove the boiling stock from the heat, add the carrot slices and soak for fifteen to twenty minutes, then pour off the excess liquid.

Boil the potatoes for twenty minutes. For the third carrot side dish, put some butter into a pan. Cut two carrots in half lengthwise and sauté. Season with salt and pepper and deglaze with carrot juice. Boil the carrots until they start to lose color and turn soft.

Remove the skin from the lamb saddle fillet. Fry the meat in a buttered, hot skillet evenly on all sides until golden brown, then bake the lamb in an oven preheated to 170 degrees Celsius for 10 to 12 minutes. Take the filet of lamb saddle out of the oven, divide into six pieces of equal size and arrange on plates with the side dishes. Garnish with Arctic blossoms, red radishes and icicle radishes.

This recipe comes to us courtesy of Chef Gunnar Karl Gíslason of The Dill Restaurant in Reykjavik, Iceland.