We made a dish today at Le Cordon Bleu, that was super yummy. I loved the theme of the recipe because I got to create each part as if it were a present. The lamb was wrapped in brik pastry, like one of those packages with loads of tissue paper popping out. The vegetable Tian (layers of tomato, onion, eggplant, zucchini) I baked in a ring mold and placed strips of zucchini around the sides to form a wrapping paper with a bow of zucchini on top. The little breaded deep fried garlic cloves brought back memories of styrofoam popcorn – but they actually tasted really good.

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The lamb is first seared rare and then left to cool in the fridge. Any cut of lamb will do– you can choose a fillet or have individual chops. Next we made an herb crust with pistachios, pine nuts, basil, egg white, and oil that we smeared over the meat. We wrapped the meat up in brik pastry and baked it for 10 minutes. This is one of those recipes that would be excellent for a dinner party. Everything can be done ahead and refrigerated and then baked right before serving. If you’re not a lamb eater then why not fish? Salmon would be de-lish.

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The vegetable Tian is nothing more than slices of zucchini, eggplant, onions, and red peppers sautéed quickly in olive oil and then layered together with sliced tomato. A little salt and pepper et viola! You can cook the Tian in a big dish or make individual ones.

I would love to give quantities here, but I’m afraid this is one of those Le Cordon Bleu special recipes. However, you can take the general idea and play around with it. It was a lot of fun to create. Let me know if you have any questions about brik pastry or anything else.

P.S. This book has most of the recipes that we cook at school in a menu format (entrée, main course, dessert). It’s a great book. I’ve already bought two for both my mums! Wish I had bought them on Amazon, they’re 20 euros cheaper, can you believe that!?!? I got all the chefs to autograph it too, so I suppose that makes up for the extra expense.

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