Chef Arnaud Bignon's Spring Lamb Recipe

Chef Arnaud focuses on the quality of ingredients to drive his cuisine. He uses an eclectic mix of global influences to balance the flavors throughout. A take on a North African spice blend adjacent to a vibrant, Asian-inspired fluid gel melds well with Mediterranean-influenced ingredients and a simplistic approach to cooking.

Clean and visually impactful, Chef Arnaud plates with striking aesthetics, manipulating color and texture with this dish. He joined us on YouTube Live to stream a virtual demonstration for students and alumni. Watch the recording here and get the complete recipe below.

Study protein cookery and professional plating in Culinary Arts.

Recipe

Milk-Fed Lamb, Aubergine, Harissa and Soya

Ingredients

• 500 grams Greek milk-fed lamb, best and saddle
• 300 grams lamb trimmings
• 1 big purple aubergine (very important to source a big one)
• 10 grams toasted white sesame
• 70 grams olive oil
• 1 kilograms aubergine
• 3 grams black powder (sosa)
• 80 grams butter
• 1 shallot
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 branch thyme
• 1 clove garlic

Directions

Black Aubergine Mashed

1. Clean and dry the aubergine and cook it at 180 C in the oven for 20 minutes.
2. Torched the skin to obtain a burnt taste. Remove the skin and put the aubergine flesh on a sieve to remove the water.
3. Into a Thermomix bowl add the flesh and some skin, mix it until smooth. Add some carbon color and some salt to obtain a black color.
4. Pass it through a chinois etamine and keep it warm in a squeeze bottle.

Lamb

1. Clean the best and saddle lamb, remove the bones and fat to keep only the loin with a fine layer of fat on the top without skin.
2. Seasoning with some salt and pepper.
3. On a frying pan add some olive oil and seared the loin until medium cooking. Keep on a tray with a wire rack to a warm place.

Lamb Jus

1. Chopped finely all the trimmings from the lamb. On a large pot add some olive oil and color the bones and lamb meat until brown, add the butter, garlic and thyme. Cook it for 5 minutes more and add the chopped shallot, cook again for 5 minutes.
2. Drain it to remove all the fat, put back all the meat and garnish in the pot and deglaze with some ice cube and water until the top of the bones. Cook it for 30 minutes. During the cooking remove the excess fat.
3. Pass it through a fine sieve and reduce it slowly until desired consistency. Seasoning if necessary.

Purple Aubergine

1. Clean and dry the aubergine, with the top a knife make some holes all around it. Steamed the aubergine at 100 C for 20 minutes around.
2. Put it between two trays and add a light weight on the top to press it. Keep in the fridge until cold. Dry it with an absorbing paper. Cut some slices of 2 cm of thickness, seasoning with some salt and pepper. On a frying pan add some olive oil and give a nice coloration up and down on the flesh not the skin.

Glaze for 50 Pax

• 200 grams sugar
• 150 grams white wine
• 100 grams sherry vinegar
• 60 grams soya sauce
• 2 lemongrass sticks
• 6 gr agar agar

1. On a flat pot put the sugar and make a dry caramel, deglaze with all the liquid and the chopped lemongrass. Cook it slowly until all the pieces of caramel become liquid, add the agar agar and bring to boiled for 1 minute. Pour it on a tray and keep in the fridge until cold and hard.
2. Blitz it into a Thermomix to obtain a smooth gel, pass it through a fine sieve and degas 3 or 4 times into a sous vide machine.
3. Keep it in a squeeze bottle in the fridge.

Harissa for 30 Pax

• 200 grams red pepper
• 20 grams red vinegar
• 40 grams miso paste
• 2 grams cumin powder
• 2 grams Espelette powder
• Ultratex

1. Clean the red pepper and wrap them into a sheet of aluminium foil. Cook them in the oven at 180 C for 20 minutes until soft. Keep them out with the aluminium foil for 10 minutes more, then open it and remove the skin and seeds. Drain it to remove the liquid.
2. Blitz them into the Thermomix with all the ingredients and if still a bit liquid add some Ultratex. Pass it through a fine sieve and keep it in a squeeze bottle.

Finishing

1. Glaze the aubergine slices with the mix and add some toasted sesame. Warm them until hot.
2. Cut the lamb loin in the middle and place it between 2 pieces of glazed aubergine, cut the edges to be perfectly rectangular.
3. On the top of the plate make a big dot of black aubergine smashed and a dot of
4. Harissa in the middle, with an absorbing paper sheet make a big Comma from the north till the west part of the plate. Add the meat and aubergine on the left and in front of the guest add the sauce in the middle of the plate.

See more upcoming virtual demonstrations.