AMAZING LAMB TARTLET RECIPE

Of all the recipes I’ve written, this amazing lamb tartlet recipe isn’t the quickest or the cheapest and they do take a little while to put together but you can enjoy them either on their own, or as part of a bigger feast and they really are worth the effort.

For an extra bit of sparkle, they also work really well with homemade puff pastry which you can make whilst the lamb is cooking (the pastry does take a couple of hours of resting, folding and rolling the dough), but pre-packaged pastry is also fine and available from most supermarkets. If you are looking for a vegetarian alternative to the lamb, feta cheese also works well.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 small boneless lamb leg (or lamb leg pieces)

• 1 x stock cube (lamb or vegetarian)

• 2 packages of ready rolled puff pastry

• 2 large sweet potatoes

• 1 punnet cherry tomatoes

• 1 small box of pomegranate seeds

• 1 tube/small can tomato puree

• 2-3tbsp of date syrup

• 1 egg (beaten, for egg washing)

• a little extra virgin olive oil

METHOD

In a slow cooker, add the lamb pieces. Stir the stock cube into about 200ml boiling water until dissolved and then pour over the lamb pieces. Put the slow cooker on the medium heat and cook for 4-5 hours until the lamb is soft and easily breaks into pieces with a fork. Remove the lamb from the pot and shred into pieces. You can do this step in the oven, just cook in a pot in the warm oven (gas 2/fan 140) with the lid on.

Whilst the lamb is cooking, pre-heat the oven to Gas 6/180 fan. Grease and line 2 x baking trays.

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into 1cm cubes. Spread out the pieces onto one of the baking trays and drizzle with the Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Using your hands, mix around the pieces until they all have a thin coating of the oil.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and place on to the 2nd baking tray, cut side facing upwards. Again, drizzle with a little of the Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Place both trays into the oven and roast for 20-25 minutes until the sweet potato pieces are beginning to soften and the cherry tomatoes are just starting to colour. Remove both trays from the oven and leave to cool.

When all the elements are cooked and cool, the tartlets are ready to be assembled. Grease and line the two baking trays again and pre-heat the oven to Gas 6/fan 180. Remove from the packages and unroll the two sheets of puff pastry. Cut each sheet into 8 evenly sized pieces (16 total) and place them onto the baking trays. Smear a layer of the tomato puree over the pastry squares, leaving a 1 cm gap around the edge of each piece.

Onto the tomato puree, add the sweet potato pieces, the cherry tomato halves and lamb pieces, covering as much of the tomato puree as you can (the puree can burn if left uncovered). Using a little of the beaten egg, brush the 1cm border that is without the puree to coat with the egg.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is risen and golden brown. Leave to cool. To finish, sprinkle with the pomegranate seeds and drizzle with the date syrup.