Sometimes, just sometimes, you can get very lucky indeed in the half-price section. But you have to be careful. Don’t get fooled by the shiny red or yellow stickers proclaiming their products’ bargain status. ‘Slashed’ from €2.59 to €2.39 is not a bargain, especially as it’s going out of date tomorrow. But when it comes to expensive joints and cuts of beef, it can be worth fighting past the cluster of grannies to get close to the hallowed half-price shelves.
For example, we had our Easter dinner early as we’re at home with @gastromama for actual Easter and God knows she’d out-cook any Michelin chef when it comes to home roasts. So I toddled into Tesco late last Sunday evening and picked up a rack of lamb reduced from €12 to €4, a bag of in-date spuds for €1.50 and a green bean / pea mixture for 79c. All in all, a gorgeous Sunday roast dinner of Dijon-encrusted lamb, roast potatoes and garlic accompanied by green veg came to approximately €7. And tasted nyummmmmmy.
In terms of accompaniments, I served it with leftover Dijon sauce from the Pork dish I cooked recently (I’m making a concerted effort to make my way through my ever-expanding freezer contents) but on reflection it was probably slight mustard-overkill, maybe a simple cream sauce or even gravy would do the trick a bit better.
Ingredients – Serves 4
- Rack of Lamb (big enough to allow 2-3 cutlets each)
- 6 Large Floury Potatoes, peeled, washed and quartered + 16 garlic cloves, left whole, skin on + 2 large onions, cut into eighths.
- Green beans / peas, etc
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard + 1 tbsp butter + 2 glugs olive oil
- 1 tbsp breadcrumbs + 1 tbsp fresh thyme + 1 tbsp fresh rosemary + 1 tsp cracked black pepper
1. Stick oven on to pre-heat at 230C. When hot enough, add butter and 1 glug of olive oil to a large flat pan and put in the oven on its own. When butter/oil mixture starts to bubble and froth, remove.
2. Dry potato quarters (I like to make the roasties fairly small, they cook far faster & are crispier) and throw into the roasting pan, along with the garlic cloves, onion eighths and fresh rosemary and black pepper. Toss well, ensuring everything is coated, and return to oven.
3. Meanwhile prep the lamb. Heat glug of olive oil in pan and sear lamb cutlet all over. Remove and allow to cool.
4. Mix the Dijon, breadcrumbs and fresh thyme together in a bowl and apply liberally all over the lamb cutlet. Place the cutlet bone side down on a baking tray, wrap the ends of the bone in tinfoil and place in the oven, cooking at about 180C for thirty minutes (pinkish inside). When cooked, leave it to stand for five minutes before carving.
5. Cook the green veg briefly in boiling water, removing and submerging in cold water to prevent them continuing to cook in the serving bowl.
6. Serve cutlets, roasted potatoes and veg, the green beans / peas and drizzle with sauce. Don’t forget to leave plenty of room for the Easter egg. Or eggs. Or lots of eggs, as in our case.