Hop to it! ALDI has everything you need to celebrate in style this Easter – from amazing value 100 per cent Irish Bord Bia Quality Assured meats and tasty trimmings to sensational wines and amazing value chocolate eggs and treats. And that’s not all!
ALDI brand ambassador and renowned chef, Catherine Fulvio is here to share her top tips and recipes for the occasion. It’s time to create a showstopping meal for your guests using ALDI’s quality Irish ingredients.
Time for the main event, Catherine’s Honey Spiced Easter Leg of Lamb with Thyme Potato Dauphinoise
Ingredients
Honey Spiced Easter Lamb
- Leg of Butcher’s Selection Lamb, trimmed
- 2 Nature’s Pick Garlic Cloves, chopped
- 3 tbsp Grandessa Honey
- 2 tsp Coriander Powder
- 4 tbsp Specially Selected Rapeseed Oil
- 6 small sprigs of Rosemary
- 100ml Specially Selected Pinot Noir
- 100ml Quixo Vegetable Stock
- 2 Nature’s Pick Onions, peeled and sliced thickly
- 2 Nature’s Pick Garlic bulbs, halved
- 2 Nature’s Pick Lemons, halved
Thyme Potato Dauphinoise
- 6- 7 large Egan’s Potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (use a mandolin)
- 2 medium Nature’s Pick Sweet Potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (use a mandolin)
- 2 Nature’s Pick Garlic Cloves, finely chopped
- 2 tsp Chopped Thyme
- ½ tsp Ready, Set…Cook! Paprika
- ½ tsp Nutmeg
- 350ml Clonbawn Cream
- 200ml Clonbawn Milk (may need more depending size of potatoes)
- Ready, Set…Cook! Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper
- 50g Emporium Shaved Parmigiano Reggiano
Roast Honey Carrots
- 400g Egan’s Irish Carrots with tops, peeled and cut in lengths (julienned)
- 1 tsp Ready, Set…Cook! Ground Cumin
- ½ tsp Stonemill Ground Coriander
- 2 tbsp Grandessa Honey
- 1 tbsp Kilkeely Butter
- 2 tbsp Specially Selected Rapeseed Oil
Gravy
- Juices from the roasting tray
- 220ml Quixo Vegetable Stock
- Roux, to thicken
- Ready, Set…Cook! Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Sprigs of Rosemary and Bay Leaves, to garnish
Method
To prepare the potatoes
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/gas 5. Brush a gratin dish with melted butter. Place the sliced potatoes into a clean tea towel and pat dry. Place half the slices on the base of the gratin dish, side by side. Sprinkle over half the garlic, thyme and half of the parmesan. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Add a layer of the sweet potatoes. Sprinkle over the remainder of the garlic and thyme. Heat the cream and milk, add the nutmeg, paprika and a little more seasoning. Remove from the heat. Pour half over the sweet potatoes in the gratin dish.
3. Layer up all the other potato slices. Pour the rest of the warm cream over. Ensure the cream mix comes to about 1 cm from the top of the potatoes.
4. Sprinkle over the remaining grated parmesan and place in the oven for about an hour until the potatoes are cooked and the top is golden.
To prepare the lamb
1. Combine the garlic, honey, coriander powder and oil and brush on the leg of lamb.
2. Make 6 small incisions in the lamb. Place the rosemary sprigs into each incision.
3. Season the lamb with salt and black pepper.
4. Place the onion slices into a roasting tray and transfer the lamb on top of them.
5. Pour in the red wine and stock and place in the oven to roast for about 40 minutes.
6. Add the garlic bulb and lemon halves.
7. Roast for a further 30 minutes or until the lamb is done to your likeness. Insert a thermometer to check.
8. Leave to “rest” for 20 minutes before carving.
To prepare the carrots and gravy
1. Trim the tops, wash, and then steam the carrots for 15 minutes until tender. Heat a large frying pan, add the rapeseed oil and butter, add the carrots and drizzle over the honey and a little cumin and coriander. Lower the heat and leave to brown on all sides until golden.
2. To make the gravy, pour the juices from the roast lamb into a jug and scoop off the fat, then pour the sweet juices into a saucepan, add vegetable stock and sprinkle in the roux, whisk well and heat through for the gravy to thicken.
3. Pour into a serving jug and keep warm.
4. To serve, place the lamb onto a serving platter, arrange the garlic bulbs, bay leaves, rosemary sprigs and lemon around the lamb.
5. Serve with the potato dauphinoise and honey carrots.
Tip: Allow 15 – 20 mins per 500g plus an additional 15 minutes to roast lamb. For safety, core temperature should read 72c.
Room for dessert? Try out Catherine’s Easter Chocolate Ganache Tart with Strawberries
Ingredients
For the pastry
- 220g The Pantry Plain Flour
- 120g chilled Kilkeely Butter, diced
- 1 tbsp sifted The Pantry Icing Sugar
- 3 tbsp sifted The Pantry Cocoa Powder (Keep some extra cocoa powder, to dust for rolling out)
- 1 Healy’s Farm Egg yolk (keep the egg white for glazing)
- About 60ml cold water
For the filling
- 380ml Clonbawn Cream
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 tbsp The Pantry Caster Sugar
- 20g Kilkeely Butter
- 300g The Pantry Luxury Dark Cooking Chocolate
To decorate
- Piped whipped cream (250ml double cream, zest orange and 2 tbsp icing sugar, whipped)
- Nature’s Pick Strawberries, halved
- Dairyfine Mini Easter eggs
- Sprigs of Nature’s Pick Mint
Method
1. Brush a 23cm loose base tart tin with melted butter.
2. To prepare the pastry, place the flour in a bowl, add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.
3. Add the icing sugar and cocoa powder.
4. Add the egg yolk and enough cold water to form a dough.
5. Roll in a ball, press down, wrap, and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 210°C/fan 190°C/ gas 7.
7. Lightly dust a surface with cocoa powder and roll out in a circle to line the tin, base and sides. Prick the base of the pastry with a fork without piercing all the way through. Place it back in the fridge for 15 minutes to rest.
8. Line with parchment and add baking beans.
9. Bake for 22 minutes, remove the parchment with the baking beans. Brush lightly with egg white and return to the oven for 6 minutes.
10. Take out and leave to cool before filling.
11. To prepare the chocolate filling, place the cream, vanilla, and sugar in a saucepan to warm. Stir so that the sugar dissolves.
12. Place the chocolate and butter into a bowl.
13. Pour the warm cream over the butter and chocolate, cover with a plate, and leave for 2 minutes so that the chocolate melts.
14. Whisk all the ingredients together.
15. Pour into the cold pastry base and spread evenly.
16. Leave in the fridge to set overnight.
17. When ready to serve, place on a cake stand, pipe cream in rosettes around the edges. decorate with strawberry halves, mini-Easter eggs, and sprigs of mint.
There you have it! ALDI is your one stop shop for all your Easter needs this year, with an amazing range of award-winning, great-value products that every-bunny will enjoy! For more Easter inspiration and recipes visit www.ALDI.ie, or one of the 156 ALDI stores nationwide.
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