Fennel is in season! Moreish lamb leg steaks are lean, tasty as and super fast to cook and nothing beats crunchy garlic and sizzling butter.

Whip this dish up in less than 15 minutes and wow the hungry amongst you.

And, as usual I implore you to get some Extra Virgin Fennel Oil, Julie Le Clerc Balsamic Honey Mustard and Smoked Paprika Flakes from our go to (NOW) store Sabato!

THE MEAT

4 Moreish lamb leg steaks
2 T butter
Salt and pepper to taste

THE BURNT BUTTER AND GARLIC SAUCE

8 Cloves of garlic, peeled and  thinly sliced
4 T butter
2 t course ground mustard
Salt and pepper

THE SALSA

1 head fennel shaved
½ small preserved lemon, finely sliced
2 T fennel oil or extra virgin olive oil
6 mint leaves shredded
Smoked Paprika Flakes
Salt and pepper

Method 

Remove meat from the fridge and its packaging two hours before cooking to bring it to room temperature. Use a paper towel to wipe away any excess moisture.

The cooking times that follow are for 2 cm thick steaks.

Lightly toss shaved fennel, preserved lemon and mint together with oil, salt and pepper to taste.  

Now heat your Ironclad pan. Start on a low flame and build up to high to ensure the pan is evenly heated. Now toss in the butter and watch it sizzle!

Nestle lamb steaks in the sizzling butter and squash them down with the back of a metal egg slice as they cook for 4 minutes on the first side. Weighing them down like this will ensure they brown up evenly. OR if you have meat weights use these. OR if you have two Ironclad pans, pop one on top of the meat and use this to weigh down the steaks.

Before you turn the steaks over season with rock salt and pepper to your liking and continue to cook for 3 mins on the second side and keep pressing down on them with your egg slice/weights or second pan.  

This cooking time should produce medium rare steaks. Cook for 4 mins on the second side for medium, 2 mins a side for rare and 1 min each side for blue.

Remove steaks from pan, wrap in tinfoil and leave to rest for 5 minutes as you complete the rest of the meal.

Don’t clean the pan! 

Add remaining 4 tablespoons of butter to medium hot pan and fry garlic until brown and crunchy and the butter is brown and sizzling. Lastly add the whole grain mustard and let it pop for a few seconds.

Return steaks and any juice that has released from the meat into the sizzling garlic, mustard butter and spoon the sauce over the top of each steak. And give it all a grunty grind of black pepper on top to finish.

Whilst the pan is still on a low heat and working swiftly use tongs to arrange a pile of fennel salsa on top of each steak, and finish with a generous shake of smoked paprika flakes.

Now take the whole sizzling shebang to the table and serve from there making sure you drizzle any sauce that’s left in the bottom of the pan over each portion.

YUM. Summer is on its way.