This was published 9 years ago
Frank Camorra recipes: lamb neck chilindron
This dish from the Aragon region of Spain features lamb neck, which is easy to remove from the bone once cooked.
By Frank Camorra
If one flavour stands out from my time cooking in Spain, it is the taste of Aragonese lamb from the north-eastern Pyrenees region. Every week, Xabi, the driver from the local butcher shop, would drop off six incredible milk-fed lambs to the kitchen at Bodega Pepe in the small town of Biescas where I worked. No matter how we cooked it, the lamb was always brilliant - sweet, lean and slightly herbaceous.
I always loved making the popular local dish lamb chilindron, just so I could steal a taste of the succulent pieces of lamb forequarter cooked on the bone in the rich red sauce.
Robust flavour: lamb neck chilindron with celeriac puree.Credit: Marcel Aucar
Lamb is always on the menu at MoVida and I think it is as good as the lamb I used in Aragon. I have used lamb neck for this recipe because of its robust flavour and for the ease of removing the bone once cooked (ask your butcher to cut the lamb necks in half). Celeriac is an earthy-flavoured root vegetable that is delicious roasted in salads, mixed with mustard mayonnaise for remoulade or pureed with butter and milk as I have done here.
LAMB NECK CHILINDRON
100ml olive oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 ½ brown onions, finely diced
½ tbsp thyme leaves, chopped
2 bay leaves
3 red capsicums, seeds and membranes removed, finely diced
4 tomatoes, finely diced
560ml fino sherry
65g sweet paprika
2 lamb necks, cut in half lengthways with bone in
Salt and pepper to taste
4 tbsp parsley, chopped
Heat half the oil in a large heavy-based pot over a medium heat. Sauté garlic, onion, thyme and bay leaves until onion is soft. Add capsicum and cook until paste-like, for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the sherry and paprika and continue cooking for 10 minutes. Add 2 litres of hot water, increase heat and bring to boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer sauce gently for 30 minutes. Reserve sauce.
Preheat oven to 150C. Season the lamb necks well and fry them in a heavy pan with remaining olive oil to colour the outside. Place lamb in a deep roasting tray and pour warm sauce over until covered (add more hot water if needed). Cover with baking paper then foil and roast for four hours. Check to make sure the lamb comes off the bone easily. Gently lift the lamb necks from the sauce and place on a cooling rack to cool slightly. Cool the sauce so the fat sets on top, then scrape the fat off and discard. While the lamb necks are warm, remove the bones by holding each lamb neck half on your hand, cut side facing up, then pull the bone out, starting from one end. The meat should be tender enough so it comes out easily and quite whole. Remove any white sinew (sometimes found on the edge near the bone). Place the lamb necks on a deep baking tray with the cut side facing down, pushing each one back together so it forms a solid piece of meat. Pour sauce over the lamb necks and chill until needed. Make celeriac puree (see below).
When ready to serve, reheat the lamb neck in the oven at 180C, three-quarters covered in sauce until the meat is soft and caramelised on top, about 15 to 20 minutes. Place a spoonful of celeriac puree on a plate. Place half a lamb neck on the puree and pour some sauce over, making sure you get some of the peppers in the sauce. Finish with chopped parsley and a little sea salt.
Serves four
CELARIAC PUREE
1 large celeriac, peeled and diced
75g melted butter
25ml extra virgin olive oil
75ml warm milk
Sea salt
In a pot of water, boil the celariac until cooked. Pass through a mouli while warm, or puree with a stick blender and beat butter and oil into the puree. Add warm milk and stir until mixed in and puree is smooth. Season with sea salt, cover with plastic wrap and keep warm until needed.
Serves four
TIP
When removing the bone from the neck after cooking, check for chips of bone at the ends where it is cut from the body.