‘A Dish From Dean’ – Lamb Rump!

LIVE It Experience It member chef Dean Coppard, known to many as Aussie Chef Dino, is a chef who cooks with soul. He opened up our region’s first Australian restaurant in Armagh, Uluru Bistro, and has since been working as an executive chef and development chef in kitchens across the North. Eleanor McGillie talks to Dean about what this new feature is all about

This week sees the beginning of our new feature ‘A Dish From Dean’.

Northern Ireland has so many amazing restaurants and our chefs are doing great things in the kitchen.

Without our chefs, and without young aspiring chefs coming into the industry, our food and drink establishments would not be the standard that they are and we would not be able to offer our visitors, and locals, the diverse range of cooking styles we can boast of here in Northern Ireland.

In recent years, journalists, food critics, food bloggers and vloggers have been visiting Northern Ireland to taste the produce from our shores and sample the great cuisine served up in kitchens right across the region.

You can’t sit in a restaurant anymore without seeing at least one person make that perfect Insta picture of the food that sits in front of them.

There have been awards after awards after awards.  Foods, like Lough Neagh Eel, oysters, mussels, tart apple ciders, cheeses, oils, vegetables, meats, the Bramley Apple – these are just some of the amazing produce we have on offer which connects us with our place.

Dean makes cooking fun and for years he has been mentoring chefs from his days at Uluru Bistro in Armagh’s historic marketplace and he inspires through his cookery demos be that on TV3 or at major culinary competitions. And, not only that, he works with young people to encourage them into the kitchen and gives them motivation to enter a profession, which is tough, but it’s so rewarding and should be valued to the highest degree.

Let’s face it – without good chefs – we don’t get good food.

So, as a Live It Experience It member, we are working with Dean to do something very simple – give you guys recipes and you can go and have fun and cook them. So have a try, get your friends round and why not make ‘A Dish With Dean’ a social night for you and yours.

First up is lamb rump, smoked buttered mash, grilled asparagus, honey & thyme glazed carrots, red wine and rosemary sauce and burnt onion puree.

Dean said: “This dish is a good one to get started with. We are still in summer but the temperatures are dropping a little so after a hard day at work we start wanting some warmth on our plates again. Many of you will know I am in the Food Heartlands, and having started the Food Heartlands initiative with my colleagues like Chef Simon Dougan and Chef Mervyn Steenson, among others, we all try hard to support our superb local producers.

“This dish is delicious and you’ll have plenty of places locally where you can pick up these ingredients.

“I try and craft a great plate by using flavour combinations which pair well together. I also use traditional cooking techniques with a little Aussie twist. This is definitely a dish you can cook at home. So have fun, enjoy the textures and flavours and most of all, enjoy cooking.”

See below for ingredients, method and assembly. Keep up to date with Aussie Chef Dino on Facebook

Serves 4 people

4 x rumps of lamb, trimmed of excess fat
200g of butter
Rosemary, thyme, 4 smashed garlic bulbs
For the mash
200g of peeled potatoes
100g of smoked Aberneathy Butter
100ml of milk
Salt and pepper
For the asparagus
3 x spears per person
100g of butter
For the carrots
6 x large carrots, cut into baton shapes
4 x tablespoons of honey
4 x sprigs of thyme
For the Sauce
200ml of red wine
200ml of stock
4 sprigs of rosemary
For the onion puree
2 x roughly chopped white onions
100g of butter
100ml of oil

Method

• Place the peeled potatoes in a heavy bottom saucepan and cover with water and boil until soft
• Strain water and mash adding the smoked butter and seasoning.
• Boil the carrots and the asparagus until almost soft strain and run cold water over them or refresh in iced water.
• Place the Lamb rump fat side down for 3 minutes in a non stick frying pan until a golden brown, add the oil and the butter along with the rosemary, thyme and garlic.
• Using a large spoon baste, or cover the rump with the herb flavoured butter. Place in a pre-heated oven at 180c for 12 minutes.
• For the sauce, place the red wine and stock in a saucepan with the rosemary and reduce by half – it should thicken or become syrupy in texture.
• Place the onions in a pan and the butter and oil, and stir until brown in colour, place in a food processor once soft and blend until smooth, add a little cream if needed

To Assemble

• Place the mash in the middle of the plate
• Toss the carrots in the honey and thyme and grill the asparagus add to the plate, cut the rump in half and place on the mash, dot the puree around the plate and spoon over the sauce.

Enjoy!

Live It Experience It’ is a group of tourism businesses working together to promote our region through water, air and land based activities, food and drink and great places to stay. If you would like to become a member business in our ‘Live It Experience It’ cluster please submit your information through our online form –  Sign Up Here. Pitch your business and meet like minded tourism businesses who you could cluster with. #liveitexperienceit

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