Chef critique
French Slow-Cooker Lamb with Fennel
A highly appealing and well-structured slow-cooker recipe that feels elegant and balanced. It utilizes great techniques like post-cook sauce reduction and separate vegetable steaming, but misses an easy flavor-building opportunity by failing to deglaze the searing pan.
Score: 8/10
Suggested fixes
- Modify step 3 to instruct the cook to deglaze the searing skillet with the white wine, scraping up the browned bits, before pouring the liquid into the slow cooker.
- Instruct the cook to leave the petite gold potatoes whole rather than halving them, so they hold their shape better over the 6-hour cook time.
Issues
- medium / flavor: The skillet used to sear the lamb is not deglazed. Adding the wine and broth directly to the slow cooker leaves the flavorful browned bits (fond) stuck to the pan, wasting a key source of flavor.
- low / cookability: Petite gold potatoes cut in half may become overly mushy after 6 hours in a slow cooker. They would fare better left whole.
Strengths
- Smartly cooks the green beans separately in a skillet, avoiding the common slow-cooker pitfall of mushy, gray vegetables.
- Elevates the dish by reducing the cooking liquid into a glossy pan sauce finished with butter, mustard, and lemon zest.
- The preparation steps are clearly grouped at the beginning, promoting good mise en place.
- The total implied time accurately aligns with the stated cook time.