5 minute read
Hone Your Technique
Perfect winter roast
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Chef’s Top Tips
• Fancy a different take on the trad roast? Try stuffing your leg of lamb with welsh Pantysgawn goats cheese, spinach and pine nuts.
• For a Moroccan twist, try rubbing the lamb
with ras el hanout before
roasting and serving with pomegranate and mint cous cous.
Welsh Leg of Lamb
Winter is the ideal time to enjoy succulent Welsh Lamb raised on the lush, green hills of Wales. Admired by chefs around the globe, Welsh Lamb is a real treat which deserves to be prepared and cooked to perfection.
Preparing and cooking a leg of Welsh Lamb is just one of the many skills that apprentices learn when working towards a Foundation Apprenticeship in Professional Cookery and Craft Cuisine Level 2. Cambrian Training Company, delivering apprenticeships for the Food & Drink industry among many other sectors, provides a few tips on how to prepare a leg of Welsh Lamb purchased from your local butcher.
Using a sharp boning knife, remove any excess fat and sinew from the outside of the joint. Then, from the side of the joint with the largest surface, begin to cut around the bone, staying as close to it as possible taking care not to waste any of the meat.
Once at the ball and socket joint, grip both ends of the leg and snap the bone firmly to release the grip on the socket. Cut around the socket to release fibres still holding the bone in place, then remove the bone and place to one side for making the sauce.
Leave the rest of the bone in place. As the lamb roasts, the meat will recede, leaving the bone showing at the end of the leg to enhance the presentation of the cooked joint.
Using butcher’s string, tie a piece around the leg, starting at the end and pull tight. Repeat this process every inch down the joint until you reach the end.
Place the joint and the bone that you removed on a baking tray, season, stud with garlic, rosemary and anchovies. For pink lamb, roast for 1 hour 10 mins and rest or for well-done lamb roast for 1 hour 30 mins. Regularly baste during roasting until a dark crust has formed on the outside and the inside temperature is at about 60 °C. Then leave to rest.
Use the roasting juices for your sauce by deglazing the pan with wine or port and a little stock. Scratch all the roasted pieces off the bottom of the tray and pass the remaining stock through a sieve into a pan. Reduce by half and thicken by emulsifying one or two knobs of butter whilst the stock is boiling.
Serve with seasonal vegetables and enjoy the perfect roast!
For more information about Apprenticeships contact Cambrian Training Company at cambriantraining.com or Tel: 01938 555893.
Techniques Christmas classic baking
The chocolate yule log
With the festive season fast approaching, it’s a good time to brush up on your baking skills. Forget The Great British Bake Off, this is a chance for you to spend some quality time in the kitchen baking a family treat: a chocolate yule log. Making this particular Christmas classic develops skills learnt by apprentices when working towards a Foundation Apprenticeship in Professional Cookery Level 2 and covers preparing, cooking and finishing basic cakes, sponges, biscuits and scones. So for budding chefs out there wanting to impress the folks at Christmas and also hone their baking skills, Cambrian Training Company provides some handy tips and steps to produce a cracking yule-time treat. (Cooking techniques used include: folding, whisking and baking.)
You will need the following ingredients: For the sponge: 3 large eggs, 75g caster sugar, 50g plain flour & 25g cocoa powder For the cream filling: 300g Double cream & 150g Caster sugar For the ganache topping: 300g Double Cream & 300g Dark chocolate
Tips: While preparing the sponge, it is recommended you use an electric whisk or a kitchen aid as doing this by hand can take some time.
Method:
• Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 • Grease and line a 16 x 28cm Swiss roll tin with baking parchment • Using an electric whisk, mix the eggs and sugar together until they become pale and thick. Then add half of the flour/coco powder mix into the egg mixture and use a metal spoon to lightly stir in, cutting through the mix then folding onto itself. • This technique ensures the flour is fully and carefully mixed into the eggs without over-beating the mixture. Over-beating will make the baked sponge dense and stop it from rising. • Add the remaining flour and continue with the folding. • Pour the mixture into the tin and spread evenly, again doing this gently ensuring that the tin is as even as possible. • Bake in the oven for around 10-12 minutes, until golden and firm. If the sponge is over-baked it will crack once rolled. • The ganache should comprise equal quantities of cream and chocolate. • Heat up the double cream until it comes to a boil, then pour over the chocolate and whisk together. • Whisk up some double cream with some caster sugar for the filling. • Once the sponge is ready remove from the oven and tip out onto a sugared baking parchment, which will stop it sticking when being rolled. • When cooled, peel off the lined paper and spread the cream over the sponge. Try not to over fill and leave some space around the edge of the sponge as, when it’s being rolled, the mix will spread to the sides. • Start on the short edge and fold over the corner, using the parchment paper to help roll the sponge towards you, which is easier to control. Continue until the whole sponge is rolled, then pour over the ganache and use a fork to spread, giving it a wood effect.
For more information about Apprenticeships contact Cambrian Training Company at cambriantraining.com or Tel: 01938 555893.
