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

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.