Christmas Fillet of Lamb

Ingredients

The meat

  • 1 saddle of lamb (tenderized for at least 5 days)
  • salt and ground pepper
  • olive oil and butter
  • dried blueberries
  • dried blueberry heather
  • dried wild thyme
  • wild juniper berries

It is highly reccommended that the meat is refrigerated for one week before cooking. Debone and trim the meat before seasoning with salt and ground pepper. Sear on a very hot pan, with a bit of olive oil and butter, for 1-2 minutes on each side. Place the lamb fillet in an oven tray and season with equal amounts of dried blueberries, blueberry heather, wild thyme and juniper berries. Roast the fillet in the oven at 160°C/320°F for 4-6 minutes. Take the meat out of the oven and rest under tin foil for about 15 minutes. The fillet should have reached a core temperature of 58°C/136°F for a nice medium/rare finish.

Celeriac

  • 2 pieces celeriac
  • 100 g butter (lightly browned)
  • 10 g salt
  • lemon juice
  • 60 ml apple cider vinegar
  • 10 g salt
  • 200 ml water
  • 15 g sugar
  • 60 ml hazelnut oil
  • 1 bundle fresh parsley

Wrap the celeriac and salt in tin foil and bake at 200°C/390°F for two hours. When out of the oven peel it, place one of them in a blender and process into a pureé. Add half of the melted butter and season with a bit of salt and lemon juice. Tear the other celeriac into bite size chunks, season with salt and fry in a pan using the rest of the butter. For the vinaigrette, combine apple cider vinegar, salt, sugar, water and hazelnut oil. Toss the fried celeriac chunks in the vinaigrette and garnish with finely chopped parsley.

Pickled red currants

  • 200 g red currants, fresh or frozen
  • 50 ml water
  • 50 ml white wine vinegar or regular vinegar
  • 50 g sugar

Place water, vinegar and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour over the red currants and store in a glass jar.

Kale

Trim the stalks from the kale and tear into bitesize bits. Sear with butter in a hot pan, remove from the heat and season with salt and lemon juice.

Crowberry sauce

  • 1 l lamb stock
  • 1 l coldpressed crowberry juice (available from Íslensk hollusta)
  • 50 ml cherry vinegar
  • 10 g butter
  • a pinch of salt

In a saucepan, reduce the crowberry juice by ¾. In another saucepan, reduce the stock by 50%. Add the stock to the crowberry juice. Reduce the vinegar by 50% and add to the sauce. Thicken if desired and season with salt. Add the butter to the sauce just before serving.