Lambs Liver with Twice Baked Potato

Lambs liver with minted twice potatoes, carrots and Brussels sprouts

Mint sauce is a well established accompaniment to lambs liver but this recipe takes the pairing of lamb and mint that one step further by also incorporating mint in the starch element of the dish in the form of a twice baked potato.

Ingredients (Serves 1)

1 medium to large baking potato
Butter
Generous pinch dried mint
Salt
4 or 5 Chantenay carrots
4 or 5 Brussels sprouts
3 medium slices lambs liver
Black pepper
Vegetable oil for frying
Mint sauce

Potato is skewered for baking

Directions

Put your oven on to preheat to 220C/450F/Gas Mark 8.

Wash the potato well and dry with kitchen paper. Take a metal skewer and carefully insert it through the middle of the potato long ways as shown. The metal skewer conducts heat to the centre of the potato and makes for more even cooking. Pierce the potato several times with a fork to allow steam to escape during cooking.

Foil wrapped potato is ready for the oven

Wrap the potato carefully in tinfoil and twist the ends. Sit it on a baking tray and bake for one hour to one hour and fifteen minutes, depending upon the size of the potato, just so as it is cooked all the way through.

Halved baked potato

Take the potato from the oven but don't switch the oven off - you will need it for the second part of the cooking process. Protecting your hands with oven gloves, unwrap the potato and pull the skewer free. If the potato is cooked, the skewer should easily come out. Cut the potato in half length ways with a very sharp knife.

Flesh is scooped out of potato halves

A teaspoon is best used to scoop most of the flesh from each potato half and add it to a small mixing bowl. You want to leave to half shells around an even half inch thick. Add about one ounce (1/4 stick) of butter to the potato flesh along with the pinch of dried mint and some salt. Mix well to combine.

Buttered and seasoned filling is scooped back in to potato halves

Divide the potato flesh mix between the two skin cups and spread out evenly. Try to leave the top slightly uneven with peaks to let them crisp up as they cook. Return to the oven for twenty more minutes.

Chantenay carrots are put on to reach a boil

Wash and top the carrots and add them to a pot of cold, salted water. Bring to a simmer for fifteen minutes.

Brussels sprouts are added to partly cooked carrots

When the carrots have been simmering for five minutes, add the washed and trimmed sprouts to simmer with them for the final ten minutes.

Seasoned lambs liver is added to heated frying pan

Carefully wash the liver and pat dry with clean kitchen paper. Season on both sides with salt and pepper. Bring a little oil up to a medium heat in a non-stick frying pan and add the liver to fry for three or four minutes on their first side, depending upon thickness.

Liver is turned in frying pan to fry on second side

Turn the liver slices to fry for a similar length of time on their second sides.

Butter is added to drained sprouts and carrots

Drain the carrots and sprouts through a colander at your sink and return to the empty pot. Add a little butter and gently swirl the pot to ensure even cooking. Plate the meal components and finish off with a teaspoon or two of mint sauce on top of the lambs liver.

Liver, baked potato, carrots and sprouts are arranged on serving plate

Roast Shoulder of Lamb with Mint Sauce and Roasted Baby Potatoes

Roast lamb is a very common family favourite but it is most often cooked in the form of a large joint, such as perhaps a leg. That is of course of little use to those cooking for only one or two, so this recipe focuses particularly on a smaller scale roast shoulder of lamb, designed to serve only one person. It is important to remember, however, that because the shoulder of lamb in this instance is off the bone, it will shrink significantly during cooking.

Ingredients

6oz shoulder of lamb fillet
6 to 8 baby potatoes
1 tbsp homemade mint sauce
2 tbsp fresh sweetcorn
Pinch of dried mint
Salt and pepper

Method

Put the potatoes (unpeeled) in to a pot and add enough cold water to comfortably cover them before seasoning with salt. Bring the water to a boil and simmer for thirty minutes. Drain the potatoes and place them in to a pot or bowl of cold water to cool.

Place a large sheet of tinfoil on a baking tray. Lightly oil the shoulder of lamb fillet with some sunflower oil, simply to prevent it sticking to the foil before it starts to cook and release its own juices. Place it on to the centre of the foil and season with salt, pepper and the dried mint. Wrap the foil in to a sealed tent. Put the lamb in to an oven preheated to 180C/350F for twenty-five to thirty minutes, depending upon how well done you like your lamb.

When the lamb is almost ready, drain the potatoes and rub the skins off with the ball of your thumb. This should be fairly easy to do. Take the lamb from the oven. Carefully unwrap the foil and remove the lamb to a heated plate. Cover it with more foil and set it aside to rest. Add the potatoes to the juices of the lamb in the foil and turn them around with a wooden spoon to ensure even coating. Turn the oven up to maximum and cook the potatoes for ten minutes.

When the lamb is rested, slice it diagonally and put it on the serving plate. Add the mint sauce and the sweetcorn before taking the potatoes from the oven and plating them immediately prior to service.