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Minced Lamb with Poached Eggs
Trim some pieces of cold roast lamb and put them through a meat-cutter; season well with salt and pepper, and a little mint chopped fine. Heat some gravy in a saucepan; when boiling hot thicken with browned flour, and stir in the minced meat. Prepare as many triangles of buttered toast as needed; place on each piece a poached egg; use these as a garnish around the mince, when it is poured on a flat dish--hot.
A leftovers dish from the era when a Sunday roast was expected to reappear on Monday. The whole thing hangs on the gravy: too thin and it slides off the dish, too thick and it turns to paste.
- The hinge: gravy consistencyAim for something that coats a spoon but still pours. Add the browned flour to boiling gravy in small amounts and let it cook a minute between additions, or the flour taste stays raw.
- Browned flourPlain flour toasted dry in a skillet over medium heat, stirred constantly, until it is the colour of dark sand. It thickens less than raw flour, so allow perhaps half again as much; cookbooks of the period often recommend keeping a jar of it ready for gravies. A conventional roux will do a similar job.
- Meat-cutterA hand-cranked grinder. The coarse plate of a stand mixer grinder gives the right texture; a food processor pulses the cold lamb to shreds rather than mince, which is acceptable but wetter. Chopping by hand with a heavy knife is closest to the original.
- QuantityNo amounts are given. Reckon on about 4 oz of cooked lamb per person, with one egg and one toast triangle each, and only as much thickened gravy as binds the mince rather than a fixed measure; the remains of a small leg should serve four.
- Cold roast lambLeftovers should have been refrigerated promptly and used within three or four days. The mince is only reheated through in the gravy, so start with meat that has been kept cold and bring the whole panful to a simmer before serving.
- Poached eggsThree minutes in barely simmering water gives a set white and liquid yolk, which is the point here -- the yolk is meant to run into the mince. Poach them last, or hold them in warm water and drain on a cloth before setting them on the toast.
- MintFresh, and added off the heat if you want it green; long cooking turns chopped mint dull and slightly bitter. Bottled mint sauce is a different flavour altogether, sharp with vinegar, and would need the seasoning rebalanced.
- ServingWarm the flat dish. Mince at this consistency chills fast and spread thin on a cold platter it sets into a skin.