Pan-fried lamb tenderloin with springtime coulis of tiny green peas and arugula

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Ingredients

Serves 4:

• 8 tips of lamb tenderloin (around 500 g)
  
• ½ bunch fresh coriander.
  
• 2/3 lb (300 g) arugula
  
• 2/3 lb (300 g) shelled peas
  
• 2 garlic cloves
  
• 7 oz (20 cl) chicken stock
  
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
  
• 1 tbsp walnut oil
  
• extra virgin olive oil
  
• fleur de sel and pepper

Preparation

• Peel garlic cloves
  
• Stem coriander

Preparation of coulis:

• Boil water in pan over high heat
  
• Scald arugula and peas for 2 to 3 min in boiling water
  
• Drain peas and arugula and dunk in ice water to stop cooking immediately
  
• Drain again and place in blender
  
• Add chicken stock, lemon juice, walnut oil, garlic cloves and coriander to blender
  
• Blend ingredients until very, very fine. The final result must be a very liquid puree
  
• Filter liquid through muslin or a conical strainer to obtain a very liquid green juice
  
• Salt and pepper juice to taste

Cooking meat:

• Take meat out ahead of time so it can reach room temperature
  
• Heat a stream of olive oil in very hot frying pan
  
• Add tenderloins and sear for 2 min on first side
  
• Turn and cook another 2 min. Sprinkle fleur de sel and add a few twists from the peppermill
  
• Remove from heat and let rest on a heated rack for 5 min

Assembling dish:

• Cover bottom of a heated plate with coulis, then simply set 2 tenderloin tips on top.

Suggestion

I leave it to you to put the finishing touches to the presentation by placing a few peas or a few arugula leaves here and there.
As an accompaniment, I suggest you serve Gratin Dauphinois (scalloped potatoes) that you'll mold in a metal hoop to create a kind of pretty little pâté.

The least you can say is it isn't easy to find a recipe harmoniously blending green peas and lamb. On the one hand, green peas, with their wonderful color and flavors, almost make you want to turn them into a dessert. On the other, lamb is a wonderful meat that practically stands on its own, with its ever so rich flavors.
You wouldn't believe the number of combinations that went through my head… from green pea Bavarian cream to orange zest, from caramelized with honey to spinach mousse with tiny peas, etc, etcLamb has really made me suffer… I've discovered all its origins: Ireland and New Zealand, for instance … as well as the most prestigious ones, such as "Axuria" Basque Country suckling lamb or Elovel "Blanche de Lozère" white lamb, salt meadow lamb, etc… These words are poetry to my ears.
Lamb is also a meat with innumerable different cuts: shoulder, shank, gigotin, rack of lamb, boneless leg of lamb, the noisette, chops… and let's not forget those neglected cuts, such as the feet and the tongue… I'm surely forgetting some; sorry, I'm not a butcher!
And also, there are so many different ways to prepare lamb: 7-hour leg of lamb, with herbs and spices, en croute , glazed, all shank recipes, grilled baby back ribs, aspics and jellies, ragouts and stews, couscous and tajines, rack of lamb en croute, and I'll stop here, because this list is making my stomach rumble. I've even seen lamb carpaccios that I've found very tempting...
Torn between my desire to slow cook a lamb dish with herbs and spices and my desire for simplicity, I've finally settled on what I think is an extra easy recipe (maybe even too easy). I also wanted to see a dish that was literally green with envy, the green that green peas breathe into the return of spring… That's what led me to just put these delicate pieces of lamb, seared just until crisp, on a platter covered with that magnificent, dynamic green, featuring a concentrate of green peas that I brightened up with the flavor of an arugula concentrate.
I left this recipe incomplete on purpose for you to come up with your own accompaniments to this rather "Zen" dish.