Duet of lamb

Leek | potato | sour cream

© Matthaes/Birgit Pichler

Ingredients for 4 people

Braised lamb belly
- 600 g lamb belly
- 1 carrot
- 1 stalk of celery
- 1 onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 4 sprigs of rosemary
- 3 sprigs thyme
- 2 sage leaves
- 5 juniper berries
- 1 tsp peppercorns
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 200 ml Chardonnay
- 100 ml red wine
- 300 ml water

Pink rack of lamb
- 600 g rack of lamb
- 3 tbsp butter
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 sprigs thyme

Grilled leek
- 2 leek stalks
- 4 tbsp leek oil

Potato thalers
- 600 g bacon potatoes
- 6 sprigs rosemary
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp clarified butter

Sour cream
- 4 tbsp sour cream
- 1 pinch of ground caraway seeds

Preparation

- Braised lamb belly Preheat the oven to 160 °C. Fry the lamb belly on both sides in a pan and remove. Cut the root vegetables, onion and garlic into 1 cm pieces and fry until brown. Add the spices and herbs. Stir in the tomato purée until it's brown. Deglaze with the wine and reduce by half. Place the belly in the pan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Simmer in the preheated oven for 1 ½ hours until soft. Remove the belly from the sauce and chill. Meanwhile, pass the sauce through a fine sieve and reduce to a slightly thick sauce with a little fresh garlic and thyme and season with salt. Cut the lamb belly into thin slices about 2 cm thick and place in the sauce.
- Pink rack of lamb Preheat the oven to 120 °C. Season the saddle of lamb with salt and pepper and sear on both sides. Cook for 5 minutes in the preheated oven. Meanwhile, heat the butter, crushed garlic and thyme in a pan. Leave the meat to rest. Fry in the flavored butter and cut into four slices before serving.
- Grilled leek Cut the leek into twelve 3 cm thick slices. Blanch the slices in salted water for 3 minutes and rinse in ice water. Marinate with the leek oil and salt. Before serving, fry in a hot pan without oil until dark brown.
- Potato wedges Using a small cutter, cut out 2 cm high cylinders from the potatoes. Cook in salted water with the rosemary and crushed garlic cloves until soft. Fry the slightly steamed potato cylinders in clarified butter
until crispy and season with salt and pepper.
- Sour cream Mix the sour cream and caraway seeds into a smooth cream and season with salt and pepper. Stuff the cream into the grilled leek. Place a tablespoon of puree in the middle of a plate and drizzle with the sauce.

Cucumber

Buttermilk | Sorrel | Gin

© Matthaes/Birgit Pichler

Ingredients for 4 people

Buttermilk foam
- 200 ml "Qualität Tirol" organic buttermilk from the Erlebnissennerei Zillertal
- 100 g sour cream
- 4 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp elderflower syrup
- 1 egg white
- 1 pinch of xanthan gum

Pickled cucumber
- 2 field cucumbers
- 100 ml white wine vinegar
- 20 ml Wildwerk gin
- 1 tsp mustard

Cucumber and gin infusion
- 1 cucumber
- 1 handful of spinach leaves
- 5 stalks of sorrel
- 40 ml gin
- 20 ml elderflower syrup
- 4 tbsp white wine vinegar

Serving
- 12 very thin slices of cucumber (cut lengthwise)
- 1 handful of fresh wood sorrel from the forest
- Elderflower oil

Preparation
- Buttermilk foam Mix all the ingredients well with a whisk and add salt. Pour into an Isi-Siphon and fill with two cartridges. Place the siphon in the fridge for at least 5 hours.
- Pickled cucumber Peel the cucumber, remove the seeds and set aside for the cucumber gin stock. Cut the cored cucumber into very fine sticks. Blanch the cucumber sticks in salted water for 30 seconds and rinse in ice water. Reduce the remaining ingredients to a thick syrup, season with salt and leave to cool. Marinate the cucumber cubes inside it and chill.
- Cucumber gin stock Juice the cucumber together with the spinach and sorrel. Strain the liquid through a kitchen towel. Stir the gin, syrup and white wine vinegar into the liquid and chill.
- Serving Arrange three cucumber slices in a ring and place on the plate. Fill the pickled cucumber into the cucumber circle and cover with the buttermilk foam. Top with wood sorrel and serve with the cucumber gin sauce and elderflower oil.

Strawberry

Mountain thyme | oat flakes | fine Tyrolean chocolate

© Matthaes/Birgit Pichler

Ingredients for 4 people

Strawberry and thyme cold dish
- 10 ripe strawberries
- 5 sprigs of thyme
- Zest of 1 organic lemon
- 100 ml white wine
- 200 ml wild strawberry syrup
- 100 ml water
- 1 teaspoon mountain pepper
- 1 teaspoon juniper, chopped

Mountain thyme ice cream
- 200 ml milk
- 200 ml cream
- 4 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 10 sprigs thyme
- 2 juniper berries
- 50 g crunchy muesli
- 4 egg yolks

Strawberry tartare
- 20 fully ripe strawberries
- 100 ml strawberry and thyme cold dish

Oatmeal crumbles
- 50 g rolled oats
- 50 g butter
- 50 g honey
- 60 g flour

Chocolate cubes
- 180 g Tiroler Edle Schokolade
- 200 g butter
- 4 eggs
- 200 g sugar
- 100 g flour
- 1 cl rum
- 100 g liquid chocolate to coat
- some oatmeal crumbs for rolling

For garnishing
- Fresh mountain thyme

Preparation
- Strawberry and thyme cold dish Place all the ingredients in a pan and leave to infuse over a medium heat for an hour. Then pour into a preserving jar and refrigerate for two to three days. Strain the liquid through a sieve.
- Mountain thyme ice cream Place all the ingredients except the egg yolks in a pan and bring to the boil. Chill the liquid overnight
in the fridge. The next day, strain through a hair sieve and whisk with the egg yolks to form a rose. Freeze the mixture in the ice cream maker.
- Strawberry tartare Vacuum-seal the strawberries with the liquid and leave to infuse for a day. Preheat the oven to 70 °C. Then drain the juice and dry the strawberries in the oven for an hour. Finely chop the dried strawberries and mix with a little chopped mountain thyme.
- Oatmeal crumbles Preheat the oven to 175 °C. Mix all the ingredients together to form a crumbly mixture and bake until it's golden brown. Leave to cool.
- Chocolate cubes Melt the chocolate and butter, mix with the remaining ingredients and a pinch of salt to form a smooth mixture and chill. Preheat the oven to 190 °C. When the mixture has cooled, pour into square or round tins and bake for 8 minutes so that the center is still liquid. Brush the lukewarm cakes with melted chocolate and carefully roll in the oatmeal crumbles.

Serving
- Serve the strawberry tartare together with the cold dish and spread some oatmeal crumbles on top. Place the thyme ice cream on top and garnish with fresh mountain thyme. Serve with the chocolate cake.

Butter

Cream | cranberries | herbs

© Matthaes/Birgit Pichler 

Ingredients for 4 people

Grant pepper butter
- 100 g alpine butter from the Burgeralm
- 2 tbsp cranberry syrup
- 3 tbsp cranberries, dried and chopped
- 1 sprig rosemary, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp pink pepper
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- coarse salt

Preparation
- Place the butter in a bowl until lukewarm. Beat with a whisk until the butter is almost white. Roughly mix the spices and add to the butter with all the other ingredients.
Sprinkle with coarse salt and a little pink pepper and leave to harden in the fridge. This is easy to prepare and can also be frozen in larger quantities.

Spiced butter
- 100 g alpine butter from the Burgeralm
- 4 tbsp parsley oil
- 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
- 1 tbsp finely chopped marjoram
- 1 tbsp finely chopped thyme
- 1 tsp coriander seeds, finely ground
- 1 pinch of fenugreek
- zest of 1 lemon
- coarse salt

Preparation
- Place the butter in a bowl until lukewarm. Beat with a whisk until the butter is almost white. Add the parsley oil, finely chopped herbs, spices and lemon zest to the butter. Pour into a piping bag as desired and pipe butter stars onto baking paper or form cams with a spoon. Sprinkle with coarse salt and leave to harden in the fridge. The spiced butter is easy to prepare and can also be frozen in larger quantities.

Read more: Christoph Krabichler: Tyrol on a Plate