My baby, the carnivore - Mustard Lamb with Irish Mash

Meat. Clementine loves the stuff. From her very first taste (turkey on Christmas day), a nice big chunk of meat always goes down well. And why not? It’s easy to pick up, the juices can be sucked out even when chewing proves a bit difficult and it’s not too tricky to gum off little strips for swallowing. Plus it’s delicious.

Tonight’s Mustard Lamb with Irish Mash, adapted slightly from a recipe in Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals gave my daughter plenty of opportunity to indulge her carnivore tendencies.

Mustard Lamb with Irish Mash

serves 2 adults and a baby

• 2 leeks
• 3-4 large potatoes
• a knob of unsalted butter
• 2 spring onions
• 250 – 300g lamb neck fillet
• 2 tsp English mustard powder
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 200ml vegetable stock (baby/low salt)
• 50ml apple juice
• 2 tsp mint sauce

1. Peel and chop the potatoes into small pieces and cut the leeks lengthways, then slice. Boil until fully cooked.
2. Heat some oil in a frying pan. Vertically cut down the lamb fillets so that you can open them out. Rub the mustard powder into the lamb then place in the frying pan, turning a couple of times during cooking.
3. Once cooked, mash the leeks and potatoes, adding the butter and sliced spring onions.
4. Remove the lamb from the frying pan once cooked (you can eat it pink but probably best to check your baby’s pieces are cooked through). Stir the flour in to the juices in the pan and add the vegetable stock, apple juice and mint sauce. (The original recipe calls for 250ml cider rather than the veg stock & apple juice – your choice.) Bring the gravy to the boil, stirring regularly as it thickens.
5. Slice the lamb and serve with the mash and steamed vegetables (or have a look at Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals to see the salad he serves it with).

As you can see, from the picture above, Clementine managed fine with the slices of lamb. She ate some of the mash in handfuls and the remainder (with some of the gravy drizzled over) from a pre-loaded spoon.

Mustard Lamb with Irish Mash – the ratings

From nothing to table – 25 mins – 3/5

Ease of preparing/cooking – 3/5 (I think if I were making this a second time – which I will! – I’d probably say 4/5 but it was a bit tricky juggling everything at once and entertaining a rather grumpy baby as well, hence 3).

Clementine approval – 4/5 (she loved gnawing on the meat – though I’m not sure how much actually got swallowed – and enjoyed the mash too)

Clean up time – 4 minutes – 3/5 (unfortunately the sauce is liable to stain a bit so we had to scrub the inflatable cushion in her highchair which upped the clean up time)

Total score – 13/20 – very tasty and, while not quite 15 minutes, pretty quick to prepare too.