Roasted Lamb Rump with Charred Capsicum & Olives

Civvico 47 chef Matteo is joining me today and we're going to be cooking a beautiful recipe from the restaurant I've been. I love it. It's fantastic in Paddington in Sydney. What are we making? Okay so we're making some beautiful roasted lamb rump with some capsicum, olives, a bit of vinegar, parsley to garnish. It's a beautiful dish. Very nice and what I love about this dish is it's simple and at the restaurant it's a little bit more refined but this is how you would cook it at home or how you love to cook it. Yeah we don't want to give away all the tricks from the restaurant. Exactly. We'll make it simple. Fantastic. Let's talk about lamb and what cut are we using? Yeah so we're using my favourite cut of lamb. So this is lamb rump with the cap on. So it's basically part of the leg and you got this is the rump and then you got the cap on which is this part here which is a little bit more chewy in a way and firm in texture but in a good way but it's got beautiful flavour. A little bit of the fat on top. I know people are afraid of fat and meat but we'll render this down and make the flavour of the lamb very fantastic. You've got to see that fat as almost like a little protective blanket to keep everything nice and juicy. That's it. That's a good way to see it. That's what I'll say too. And some herbs to start with? Yes herbs to start with. So if you want to help me out we're going to start chopping some of these herbs. So we're going to marinate the lamb. Okay. So you pick the herbs. I'm going to chop all together so that basically we're going to infuse the flavour a little bit together of the garlic, of the thyme. And again it's not a complicated marinade here. It's very simple ingredients that really allows the meat to shine. You know sometimes the simple things they work and it's all about the flavour really. Now if you couldn't find lamb rump what other cuts of lamb could you use for this recipe? Yeah look you could use lamb loin. That's a lot more leaner. I much prefer and I think you can you can find lamb rump quite. Yeah I've seen a supermarket now and don't forget if you can't find a supermarket go to the local butcher. They're always so lovely and they'll be able to help you out for sure. Yes. So that's the garlic already coming out, the rosemary, the flavour. So that's about it. We don't need to make it too refined. So we're going to add salt now. General salt. The meat I think everybody knows by now you want to take the meat out of the fridge before you cook it for you know like one or two hours. So this one is salt flakes, beautiful Murray River salt flakes. So we can do a little bit more than what you would normally think you put. Yeah the intensity of salt is very different and the qualities of salt are very different. So when one recipe calls for a certain amount just make sure you're tasting to check. All right do you mind Justine to pass me the olive oil? Absolutely. Fantastic. So do you want to pour a good amount of olive oil we're going to marinate. Beautiful. All right and I'm going to add these herbs. Fantastic. Just marinate it like that. It's almost going to form like a little crust. Yeah I mean you don't want to put too much because you might get a little bit bitter but you know this is a perfect amount. So now normally Justine I will leave this for one or two hours to marinate. In this case we're just going to start cooking it because the marinade will start going anyway. Yeah. So we start with the fat side down. We don't need to add oil in the pan because the fat will render of course and it will create enough fat to cook off. Fantastic. Just going to sear it nicely. So while this one is rendering off we can go with the next step of the recipe which is the capsicum. If you don't mind helping me peeling this capsicum. Yes. So what have you done to the capsicum? So the capsicum I've done basically char grill them. You can do it in different ways. You can do it in the oven at a very high temperature like 250. They'll make a little bit of smell so maybe you can do it on the barbecue as well outside if you have a barbecue and you just cook them off until the skin goes black like that and then you put them in a bowl and cover with a little bit of cling wrap and that will make the skin come off very easily. Absolutely and you can see how easy it is to come off. Look at that just comes off straight away and it just imparts a beautiful subtle smoky flavour. Absolutely and I mean for me I know a lot of people don't like capsicum but I love capsicum and this is my absolute favourite way to have them. It could be a dish on its own you add some feta cheese or some goat cheese and it's a beautiful salad. Very nice. It's funny Matteo I don't like raw capsicum. Okay. But when it's roasted like this beautiful. All right let's have a look. So let's have a look at the lamb. Look at that see the crust forming a little bit. All of the fat. All of the fat is going there so I mean a little bit of it is going to stay there but most of it will render down and we're just going to sit it on this on the bottom side as well. Yep fantastic and then you've got some olives there so it's going to be a combination of capsicum, olives. Capsicum, olives. So while the lamb is getting nicely seared on the outside then we're going to put it on this tray. We're just going to use a rack so that the juices of the lamb that just go down and the lamb doesn't sit in its own juices and it stays nice and roasted flavour and we're just going to put it in the oven for about probably 15-20 minutes about 160-180. Very nice. All right I've got a few more of these to do so we better finish this salad off. Exactly. So the meat has been resting now we just leave it on this tray while we finish the sauce. So if you don't mind to add for me some salt, some olive oil and some of that beautiful vinegar there. Nice and we've just chopped everything together and I just love the colour. Yes beautiful and like we said before I mean this could be a salad or a dish on its own you don't really need to add anything. And if you add enough oil you can leave it in the fridge submerged in the oil. Yes absolutely. And some vinegar. Yes a little bit of vinegar and I'm just going to rough chop this parsley a little bit. Very nice and I really like the idea of resting your meat on a tray so it's not sitting in the fat and the juices. It's a really nice idea. Yeah exactly. All right I'll mix that in. Yeah. And that salad is good to go. Yes. That looks delicious and let's get on to the meat. Let's get on to the meat. You ready to see if we've done a good job? I know you have. All right. I trust you. Very important especially with a cut like Rembrandt which can be like we said at the beginning a little bit chewy but in a nice way we have to cut against the grain. Okay little chef's trick there so slice it that way. And are you happy with the cooking chef? Yeah that's pretty good to me. Pretty good. All right now we can put it in the plate. Get rid of that for you. And we're just going to put a bit of the sauce on the top. You can just go like that a little bit random. You can serve that with some roast potatoes. You could add some capers onto this one as well if you like. That would be a lovely addition. All right. Very nice. Finish with a beautiful drizzle of olive oil and that's it. There you go. You've got roast lamb with chargrilled capsicum. It's the simple things that always taste the best and you know I love the little chef's tricks on how to slice. Yeah that's very important. Yep the little extras there with the vinegar and the capsicum. This is something you can do when friends come over for a lunch on a Sunday. Absolutely. And you know the good thing about meat you can cook it before leave it there to rest and then if it gets cold you just flash it back in the oven. That's a trick. You are a wealth of knowledge Matteo. Thank you very much. That is a stunning dish once again. Thank you.