Goat Cheese-Crusted Lamb Chops With Beets

Submitted by derMoerder

This is a dish from my five-course goat cheese menu which I put together as a project at the [FCI].

1. Watermelon-Goat Cheese "Nigiri" With Chilled Cucumber Soup
2. Goat Cheese-Stuffed Sardines With Mediterranean Flavors
3. Goat Cheese-Crusted Lamb Chops With Beets
4. Salad Digestive with Fried Goat Cheese and Raspberry-Walnut Vinaigrette
5. Goat Cheese Ice Cream With Fig Wontons and Port Wine Sauces

These beet ravioli were really interesting to make. The whole dish started with the desire to use them, and the lamb was a great match for their earthy flavor.

Ingredients (4 Servings)

Lamb

• 1 8-Chop Rack of Lamb, trimmed and frenched
• 8 oz Chevre
• 2 clove Garlic, pasted
• 2 Tbsp Tarragon, Hachez
• 2 Yolk
• 1 C Panko Bread Crumbs
• ½ C Grated Pecorino Romano Cheese
• Salt and Pepper

Beet Ravioli

• 2 oz Chevre
• 1 oz Pine Nuts
• 3 Tbs Mint, Hachez
• 1 Large Round Beet
• 2 Tbsp Seasoned Rice Wine Vinegar
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper

Greens

• 4 C Beet Greens, cleaned with stems removed
• ½ C Peeled Fennel Bulb, cut into macedoine

Mustard Sauce

• ½ C Onion, hachez
• 2 Tbsp Butter
• 1 Tbsp AP Flour
• ¼ C Heavy Cream
• 1 C Milk
• 2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
• White Wine Vinegar
• Salt and White Pepper

Procedure

Beet Ravioli

• Slice the beets very thin on a mandolin – less than 1/8thin. Set aside to marinate in the refrigerator 2-3 hours in the olive oil and rice vinegar with a pinch of salt and pepper. This will flavor the slices and make them flexible enough to form the ravioli.
• Paste the pine nuts and chop the mint very fine. Paste the goat cheese and incorporate the other two ingredients. Reserve.
• Near service, shake excess marinade off of beet slices and lay out half on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Place a scant ¼ tsp in the center of each slice, and top all of them with the other half of the beet slices.

Lamb

• Paste the garlic. Mix into the goat cheese along with the tarragon. Season the mixture (lightly, the chevre is salty) to taste with salt and pepper and mix in the 1 egg yolk. Reserve.
• Mix the pecorino-romano and the panko together. Reserve.

Mustard Sauce

• Sweat the onions in 1 Tbsp of the butter until soft but not at all colored. Deglaze with the cream and simmer lightly for 5 minutes. Strain the cream through a fine chinois and reserve.
• Melt the remaining butter in a saucepan and add the flour all at once. Mix together with whisk or wooden spoon and cook, stirring, until the roux is foaming.
• Whisk in the milk and roux until homogenized and then add the cream. Simmer briefly. Season with salt, white pepper, white vinegar and Dijon mustard to taste.
  • Note: The 2 Tbsp mustard is a conservative start; the sauce should be fairly strong with mustard flavor and have a distinct yellow tint. Add mustard as necessary.
• Keep warm for service with plastic wrap touching the sauce to keep a skin from forming.

For Service

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Season lamb generously with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until rare. Remove quickly pat dry with a paper towel so the crust will adhere.
• Increase oven temperature to 500°F.
• Apply the goat cheese mixture evenly around the meat. Pat the bread crumb mixture onto the cheese and place back the oven until the meat is medium-rare(145°F) and the crust is golden brown. Let rest for five minutes before slicing.
• Heat a sautoir with olive oil. Toss in 3 Tbsp of the fennel macedoine. Cook briefly(enough to warm without cooking) and wilt the beet greens in the same sautoir.
• Flash the ravioli in the oven three per order.
• Place two chops of lamb on the plate, balancing them on each other to stay vertical. Lay the wilted beet greens in a line on the plate, and arrange the ravioli alongside. Sauce the meat and ravioli and serve.