Amber: "The title of my dish is the Lark Ascending". It is inspired by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The whole theme of Lark Ascending is watching a lark flying across the sky and kind of weaving in at the British countryside. So we've got amazing Hoggett here, which is really underused quite often in fine dining."

Simon Rogan: "So what are you going to do with this Hogget, then?"

Amber: "So I've got the shank that I'm going to be pressure cooking, and that's going to go into a little Hoggett shepherd's pie. And then I'm going to be pan frying and roasting. A little bit of prime cut to go on the plate. And a lovely little curd here."

Amber: "This is ewe's curd. So again, using different parts of the sheep and animal,"

Simon Rogan: "What are the vegetable elements of the dish?"

Amber: "A watercress puree, a fresh watercress salad. Going to take these beautiful baby leeks and grill them."

Notes taken during cooking

Amber's searing hogget meat. Hogget is older than lamb and younger than mutton.

It goes into a pressure cooker with lamb stock, carrots, celery, and shallots, with a few sprigs of thyme.

Amber's finishing off a watercress puree before moving on to the shepherd's pie potato topping.

Amber: "Got to have lots of butter and cream, though. Mash always needs more butter. Whatever you think it should be. Add double."

Simon Rogan: "And you've got your watercress puree."

Amber: "Yes. It's pretty pokey, but actually, with everything else on the plate, it does need quite a lot of bitterness in there and to be fairly highly seasoned."

Amber: "I still need to make the shepherd pies. The pies are a really big job. I've obviously got to pull all the meat off the shank, make sure it's cooked beautifully and tender, Reduce that sauce, make it bind it all in and make sure they are al dente, but cooked."

Simon Rogan, reporting behind the scenes

"I tested a watercress purée, which was nice. I still worry about the connection to the brief, but I could be wrong. Who knows?"

Amber's hogget for her shepherd's pie is out of the pressure cooker.

Amber: "All the bone marrows come up the middle. Hopefully that'll be nice and tasty."

 

It's shredded before adding to her pie mix.

Amber: "Hogget is a slightly older animal than lamb is. And cooking it in such a short space of time, it doesn't necessarily get the chance to fully break down. I'm just removing these last little bits of tendon and skin."

Plating

Simon Rogan: "Is this mash with egg yolk added to it?"

Amber: "Yes, Chef."

"Nice and glossy."

Amber starts her plating with a base of vibrant watercress puree. She moves on to slicing the pan fried hogget.

Amber: "It's a touch over where I wanted it to be."

Fried leaks and ewe's curd are topped with black garlic, watercress salad and girolle mushrooms, plated and finished with a hoggett sauce and delivered to the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams.