Sauté d’Agneau Printanier

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •12-inch / 30 cm heavy sauté pan with lid
• •2-quart / 1.9 L wide saucepan
• •Slotted spoon
• •Whisk
• •Large warmed timbale or 2½-quart / 2.4 L deep serving dish

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the garnish

   Trim the carrots and turnips into twenty pieces each, all about the size of large olives. Perfect seven-sided tournage is unnecessary, but even size is not: irregular pieces finish at different moments. Peel the onions, scrub the potatoes, cut the green beans into lozenges, and measure every component before cooking. Pat the lamb thoroughly dry and keep it cold while the vegetables begin.

   The olive shape was partly the work of brigade presentation. At home, preserve its useful purpose, compact pieces of equal size, and leave geometric vanity to someone with a commis.
2. 2

   Glaze the root vegetables

   Put the carrots in a wide saucepan with half the consommé and a small pinch of salt. Simmer uncovered until tender but still holding their shape, rolling the pan occasionally as the consommé reduces to a thin glaze around them. Lift them onto a tray and repeat with the turnips and remaining consommé. If the liquid disappears before either vegetable is tender, add cold water one tablespoon at a time. Ça se rattrape: the extra water buys cooking time, then reduces away without changing the glaze.

3. 3

   Cook à l’anglaise

   Bring the 2 quarts of water to a lively boil and salt it well. Cook fresh or frozen flageolets first until tender but firm, then the green beans until bright and crisp under the teeth, and finally the peas just until tender. Drain each vegetable separately and spread it on a tray so residual heat does not soften it further. If using already cooked flageolets, warm them in the water for only one minute. Here à l’anglaise means plainly in water, as the glossary specifies. The separately cross-referenced Anglaise (for Egg-and-bread-crumbing) (No. 174) is not used; egg and crumbs would make an entirely different preparation.

4. 4

   Butter onions and potatoes

   Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a covered sauté pan over low heat. Add the onions with a pinch of salt and cook gently, rolling them often, until tender and lightly golden without collapsing, about 15 minutes. Set them with the other vegetables. Add 2 tablespoons butter to the pan, then the potatoes and another pinch of salt. Cover and cook over low to medium-low heat, turning frequently, until a knife enters cleanly and the skins are butter-gold, about 20 to 25 minutes. Keep every vegetable separate and slightly firm; the final rocking in the sauce completes their heating.

5. 5

   Sauté the lamb

   Season the dry lamb lightly with salt. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a broad heavy sauté pan over medium heat, and when it foams, add the lamb in two uncrowded batches. Brown every face patiently, transferring the first batch to a plate while the second colors. Return all the lamb to the pan, lower the heat, cover, and cook without adding water, stock, or wine. Turn the pieces every few minutes until the breast has rendered, the shoulder is tender, and the centers are completely cooked, about 25 to 35 minutes after browning. If the butter darkens too quickly, lower the heat at once. Water would stop the scorching, but it would also turn the sauté into a braise.

6. 6

   Mount the glaze

   Transfer the cooked lamb to a warm dish. Pour off excess cooking fat while leaving the brown fond attached to the pan. Add exactly 3 tablespoons cold water and scrape until every caramelized speck dissolves, then add the pale meat glaze. Heat gently without boiling until the mixture is smooth and lightly syrupy. Remove the pan from the heat and add the remaining 5 tablespoons cold butter a few pieces at a time, rocking and whisking until the sauce becomes glossy and thick enough to cling. If it separates into greasy streaks, stop. Ça se rattrape: move the pan to a cool surface and whisk in a teaspoon of cold water until the emulsion returns. Never boil it after the butter goes in.

   The sauce should nap the lamb with a thin shining coat. It is a glaze mounted with butter, not a bowlful of gravy.
7. 7

   Rock and serve

   Return the lamb, carrots, turnips, onions, potatoes, peas, green beans, and flageolets to the sauce. Hold the pan over the gentlest heat and rock it from side to side so the glaze coats everything without breaking the vegetables. Do not boil and do not churn with a spoon. Taste for salt, then transfer the sauté at once to a timbale or deep serving dish warmed with hot water and dried thoroughly. The vegetables should remain distinct inside one gleaming sauce. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ask the butcher for boneless lamb breast before abandoning it; its fat and connective tissue give the sauté a richness shoulder alone cannot quite supply. If breast is unavailable, use two pounds of shoulder, choosing pieces with visible seams of fat, and expect a slightly leaner result.
• •Pale meat glaze should be gelatinous, lightly colored, and unsalted enough to reduce without becoming harsh. If using light veal demi-glace, reduce it before measuring the required five tablespoons. The final pan is for mounting with butter, not for concentrating excess liquid.
• •Fresh peas and flageolets are splendid when the season offers them. Frozen peas and drained canned flageolets are honest pantry answers when it does not; keep them firm and add them only at the final warming.
• •The source permits potatoes cooked à l’anglaise. Butter-cooking gives them a golden skin and preserves the fuller version of the garnish, but plainly boiled potatoes are entirely correct when the pan is crowded.
• •Serve with a light red Burgundy, Beaujolais, or a dry white Burgundy. The sauce is buttery rather than wine-dark, so power in the glass only flattens the vegetables.

Advance Preparation

• •The carrots, turnips, onions, potatoes, peas, green beans, and flageolets can be cooked up to 4 hours ahead. Cool them separately, cover, and refrigerate; bring them out 30 minutes before the final assembly.
• •The lamb can be cut and the vegetables shaped earlier the same day. Keep the meat covered in the cold and dry it again just before seasoning.
• •Mount the sauce and combine the dish only at serving time. A butter-mounted glaze loses its clean emulsion if repeatedly chilled and reheated.
• •Refrigerate leftovers for up to 2 days. Reheat over very low heat with a teaspoon of water, rocking the pan gently so the butter glaze does not split.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 560g)