Paul Clerehugh, Chef/Proprietor, The Crooked Billet, Stoke Row. 01491 681048
ST PATRICK’S on Tuesday 17th March, there’s a Hooley at The Crooked Billet. Ceilidh band: tin whistle, Uillean pipes, accordion, bodhran & fiddle. Menu stuffed with Irish specials — Dublin Bay Prawns, Coddle, Galway Oysters & of course the ubiquitous Irish Stew.
St George, St David & St Andrew all claiming they created the famous stew recipe. Wales has cawl: lamb or mutton braised with spuds & veg. Welsh lamb enjoys protected geographical indication status — they’re rightly proud of their delicious sheep.
Scotland’s Hotch Potch & also Stovies: same ingredients as cawl & Irish stew — vegetables, potato (why did the potato go to the doctors? It wasn’t peeling well).
England’s Lancashire hot pot: identical shopping list. (St George famously fought the dragon & named his pub after it. St David put the dragon on his flag to look tough).
All four versions of this everyday peasant pot stew are basically the same. Lumps of lamb, holy trinity of leek, carrot & onion braised in water, sometimes with a stock cube, left in the pot for 3 or 4 hours to do its thing.
Henley Hot Pot — the potholes, I’ve never known our roads to be so suspension knackeringly bad. Potholes the size of saucepans. The economy’s squeeze on pub profits. I’ll apply to re-train in a tyre centre.
I’ll make culinary amends to those cavernous potholes with Henley Hot Pot.
Irish Stew, Hot Pot, Cawl & Hotch Potch diced up in their stewed state, the colour of muddy water, whiff of charity shop clothes rail. We’ll punch some enthusiastic flavour into Henley Hot Pot, stealing inspiration from other countries’ slow cooked mutton recipes.
France spoons persillade (parsley, garlic, olive oil) onto Navarin of lamb. Sri Lankan’s mutton curry accompanied with fragrant coconut sambal. Tunisian lamb tagine & harissa. Tuscan stufato d’agnello with a greedy salsa verde dollop, Indonesia’s mutton rendang — lime pickle.
Henley Hot Pot. Melt in the mouth mutton braised with white wine, lemon & herbs under a crispy potato shell. Green dynamite sauce to electrify your taste buds. Butcher Barry at Gabriel Machin’s in Henley has the mutton.
Crooked Billet
Henley Hot Pot
Ingredients (serves 4)
Marinade
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 4 garlic cloves
• 250ml Sauvignon Blanc
• 250ml olive oil
• 16 best end mutton chops
The Hot Pot
• 4 small onions
• 2 medium leeks, trimmed
• 4 medium leeks, peeled
• 8 peeled garlic cloves
• 400g waxy potato e.g. Desiree
• Olive oil, sea salt
• Fresh ground black pepper
• 16 salted (brown) anchovy fillets
• 2 unwaxed lemons cut to 1cm slices
• 2 heaped tbsp pearl barley
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs thyme
• Bottle of Sauvignon Blanc
• 250ml chicken or lamb stock
Green Sauce
• Bunch flat leaf parsley
• Handful of picked mint leaves
• Small bunch chives
• 6 salted (brown) anchovy fillets
• 1 tbsp capers
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
Method
– Place marinade ingredients in dish, add chops. Wrap in cling film. Leave in fridge for 12 hours.
– When chops have marinated, pre-heat oven to 200°c.
– Cut onions in half, diagonally slice leek & carrot into 3cm slices. Peel & slice potatoes 5mm thick.
– Place large, heavy based frying pan on hob – moderate heat.
– Remove chops from marinade. Sit chops in pan on their fat sides to render & brown the fat.
– Stack chops together in pan to prevent from falling over.
– After 4 or 5 minutes when the fat has started to render & colour, seal each fleshy side of chops in rendered fat. 1 minute per side.
– Remove chops from pan. Season with sea salt & freshly ground black pepper. Reserve on a dinner plate. Place anchovy fillet on top of each chop.
– In same pan (don’t clean it), add a little olive oil to mutton fat. Seal leek, carrot & onion. 1 minute per side to colour. Add garlic cloves in final minute.
– Select an oven proof pot, large enough to accommodate all ingredients. Decent top surface area for a decent top crust of potato.
– Evenly layer chops, anchovies, vegetables & barley in a pot. Tuck in the bay & thyme.
– Spread the sliced potatoes over the top. Be creative, nice artistic overlapping pattern.
– Place stock & wine in a saucepan, bring to simmer. Add simmering stock to lamb pot, sufficient as to just cover the potatoes.
– Cover dish with lid or a double layer of foil. Place in the centre of a pre-heated 200°c oven. After 20 minutes, turn oven down to 160°c & cook for a further 90 minutes. Remove lid or foil.
– Turn heat back up to 200°c & allow potatoes to brown & crisp up. Then serve, accompanied with Henley green sauce.
– Green sauce — simply blitz all ingredients together in a blender.
Paul Clerehugh is chef proprietor of The Crooked Billet, Stoke Row
01491 681048