Hugo Desnoyer

Few weeks ago, I've discovered the Janissaire restaurant, in the Bercy area in Paris.
First idea was "ho... a Turkish "restaurant" ..."
Yes, Turkish sounds like Kebab usually in my head, but in that case, hell no !
So, i get to the restaurant, and, good surprise, This place is recommended by the Michelin guide.
Just that sign, already made me hungry !! And, I  haven't been disappointed :

Starting with a plate of "caviar d'aubergine", home made "Tarama", with a, also home made Turkish bread, great.
But the best, has to be the main course... and it was.
I ordered the "HÜNKAR BEGENDI", It's lamb with eggplant "purée". Even if I don't use to be a lamb fan, it was absolutely delicious (and I rarely use this word !)

So here start my challenge now : reproduce what I ate, without recipe, and obviously it need to be (at least) as good.

I had first to imagine how they made the dish. Since the "purée" was soft and creamy, and not too watery, I guess i can use "crème fraiche" and mashed potato to stick everything and get this thickness. we'll see...

For the lamb itself, I chose a "carré d'agneau", easier to serve by plate.
So I though "That's finally the perfect occasion to go to Desnoyer butcher !". I wanted to try their meat since such a long time, with no occasion for that, so, it made me so exited to finally have, that I was almost impressed to get in the store lol.
So i went for shopping :

For 2 persons:

1 carré d'agneau 6 pieces.
2 eggplant
1 potato
1 carrot
1/2 onion
Garlic
Bouquet garni

  

Confit garlic : Put the garlic cloves in a pot with oil to cover them. Add thyme, or any herbs you want (i'm not responsible for your herbs choice :)), then let it boil, and remove from fire until it get cold.

I started by cooking the eggplants in the oven, while the potatoes were cooking too.

Once everything was done, I pealed, and mashed everything is the blinder. Add a little bit of crème fraiche, confit garlic, salt, pepper... blinded again. That's it !


The butcher did prepared the meat for me(removed the fat...). But still, I cleaned the ends to make it more beautiful.
Salt, pepper again, oil, bouquet garni, fried it a little bit in a Pan to colored it, then, let it cook in the oven.
For me, 20 min made it perfectly cooked, not too much, not too little. A nice light pink that I pick  :)




Trying was the best part... I haven't ate anything as good since a willlllle !!
Seriously, that was excellent. It's also a lot thanks to the meat itself which was amazing. so soft and melting in my mouth. really, my knife was so unsharped that it seemed like a butter knife, and I still managed to cut it !
Desnoyer definitely deserve the best butcher title.

And for you, vegetarian people that fight for animals right... I agree with that. But what make the Desnoyer's meat so special is that they actually pick each animal they will buy, before to be killed.
They get a special treatment with classical music, because less the animal is stressed, better is the meat, the store knows that very well, and respect each animal (free range, quality label...)
So now, if you want to try... you're welcome !!