John Torode's watercress soup and crumbed lamb cutlets

Monday 29 April at 12:25pm

John Torode’s back in the kitchen cooking up a special dish requested by our very own Holly Willoughby!

He’s serving up watercress soup for starters, followed by crumbed lamb cutlets with peas and mash potato.

WATERCRESS SOUP

Ingredients

50g butter

1 large onion (Diced)

2 sticks celery (Diced)

quarter of a leek (Diced)

100g watercress stems

200g potato (diced tiny)

1 clove garlic, crushed

some parsley stalks, crushed

1.2 litre veg stock

100g watercress leaf

20mls Cream

Method

First clean the watercress and separate the stems and the leaves. The Stems will be cooked and the leaves added last minute for flavour and colour.
Sweat onions and garlic for a few minutes.
Add celery and leeks.
Cook for 3 minutes, add the potato, watercress and parsley stems which have been finely chopped.
Season and cook for 4 minutes approx.
Add stock and bring to the boil. Then skim.
Reduce to simmer and cook for 6 minutes
Add watercress. Cook for 1 minute. Add the cream.
Using a stick blender, puree the soup until very smooth, pass through a sieve.
It MUST BE SERVED IMMEDIATELY as it will go grey. Adjust seasoning.

LAMB CUTLETS

Ingredients

12 lamb cutlets

100g plain flour

3 eggs, beaten

200g natural breadcrumbs

vegetable oil, for frying

Method

Place each the breadcrumbs, beaten egg and flour into separate shallow dishes. Season each one.
Dip and coat each cutlet, first in the flour, repeat the process with the egg, and then the breadcrumbs, making sure at each stage each cutlet is well coated. Chill for 30 minutes.
Heat the oil in a large pan, add many cutlets so not to overcrowd the pan and fry until golden for about 3-4 minutes on each side drain onto kitchen paper and cook the rest keeping the cooked ones warm.

MASH POTATO

Ingredients

2kg Potatoes

Salt

100g butter

200mls milk

100mls Double Cream

Salt and White Pepper

Method

There are many theories about how mash should be cooked but let me just try to give a few principles first.

Peel the potatoes and cut into equal size pieces so they cook at the same rate or in the same amount of time.
Start by boiling cold water and cook gently so the water is just moving. The rule is plenty of salted water and then cook until you can easily slip a knife through the potato.
Drain the potatoes well but do not bash up, return to the pan and place back over a medium heat to evaporate the excess moisture.
Mash well with a masher or a fork, I prefer a fork but many do not. Keep the heat under the pot to take away any more moisture that may come from the potatoes being mashed.
Season well, add the butter and mix to roughly and then the milk over a decent heat, beating continuously.
Beat well over the heat until the mixture starts to bubble, taste and season again.