JEREMIAH: So today we're going to be doing one of our family style lamb dishes.

We're going to be doing all the different cuts of the lamb with all sorts of different accompaniments and seasonal vegetables and of course a bunch of beautiful herbs.

Like this one right here is purple ruffle basil.

Just came into season, so we're just going to clip a few of these.

They have a really, really deep flavor, a little bit more intense than traditional basil.

So, these will go on top of the lamb dish.

All right, why don't you let me take you downstairs and show you?

SETH: Let's do it, Chef.

JEREMIAH: Alrighty.

All right.

Welcome into the kitchen.

SETH: Ooh.

Got some serious heat coming off this thing.

Wow.

JEREMIAH: Oh yeah.

Yeah.

It's a lot.

So, this is our lamb.

We're currently sourcing it from Shenandoah Valley.

So, we've got the saddle right here.

We have some of the belly, we have the heart, and then we also have the rack here.

You're gonna love it.

SETH: The heart.

JEREMIAH: I promise you.

The heart's going to be fantastic.

Maybe we should start with the heart.

SETH: Why not?

That's a heart all right.

JEREMIAH: It sure is, right?

A big part of what we do in using the whole animal is to demystify.

You know, lamb heart in particular, it's very lean and it is pretty mild.

We basically just go through, kind of pull out some of the interior pieces.

We're going to pull a little bit of the fat off the back.

We're going to carve it really, really thin.

We're going to take some of the chimichurri, then give this a little marinade.

This is made from cilantro, parsley.

A lot of these herbs are getting picked up in our garden and we're going to give it a little bit of kosher, really dress this up and now going to be time to put it on the skewer.

What I like to do is always go into overlapping segments so that you have room for it to char around the outside and still stay cooked nicely in the middle.

All right, so now we're going to turn our attention to butchering our saddle.

This is kind of the... kind of the back of the lamb, right?

And so, we're just going to split straight down the middle, come down the side of the spine and then carve it off the rib, end up giving us a really nice, beautiful loin.

Just going to clean it up a little bit.

So, what we're going to do is get this seasoned up and then we're going to also do a little bit of pepper.

Really simple.

SETH: You want to let the protein be the star here.

JEREMIAH: Yeah, exactly.

SETH: Chef Jeremiah gives a similar treatment to a terrine made from braised lamb belly, as well as the rack of lamb before turning his attention to some local veggies.

JEREMIAH: So, it's not just about the meat here.

We really love our vegetables.

We're going to grab one of my favorite varieties here.

This is gai lan.

It's grown by Fireside Farms, so we're going to clean it up and get it ready for the hearth.

SETH: And this looks a little bit to me like broccolini.

JEREMIAH: Yep.

I like this one a little bit more.

The flavor is really fantastic, but it also has these gorgeous stems that are really juicy and really tasty.

You just have to peel the outside of them.

SETH: And this is something that I'm imagining is not going to be in season year-round.

JEREMIAH: Of course, it might go from this to cauliflower stems or it might go into turnips.

It just depends on what's in season.

SETH: It keeps your job interesting.

JEREMIAH: Yeah, exactly.

It's always interesting.

So, stem and the top, we're going to separate them.

A little bit of our garlic oil.

All right, the gai lan's all seasoned up.

So, this dough ball has been... SETH: After chef rolls out some house-made pita, it's time to get cooking on the hearth's roaring fire.

JEREMIAH: Let's get cooking.

SETH: Let's do it.

All right.

Hearth time.

And we are talking about some real serious heat right here.

JEREMIAH: Yeah, very intense.

The coals themselves are 800 to 1200 degrees.

So, Seth, to get the hearth started in the morning what we do is take our leftover menus from the day before and we make a little teepee of kindling and then the white oak gets piled on top.

Once the wood gets nice and hot, we'll add a little bit of charcoal to it.

And that's what we're really looking for is these beautiful embers.

So, to get this started, what we're going to do is just brush them with a touch of oil.

We're going to take our loin, get that guy down, the rack and the belly as well.

So, when you first drop stuff down, you really don't want to touch it or mess with it too much.

So, I like to feed it a little oxygen to help that get that initial sear going.

Cooking over the hearth is fun because it connects you in a lot of different ways.

Like, I'm looking at how much steam and smoke is coming off of it, I'm listening to the sound of it cooking and all those things are clueing me in as to like when it's time to maybe turn it, move it a little bit.

Loin we put down first, so we're just going to give it a little peek, right?

So, I think that's starting to curl a little bit.

So, I like to use a weight sometimes so we get that nice crust.

We'll check in here on our rack.

You can already see that's starting to char up really beautifully.

So now we're going to brush these guys with some of our mops.

This guy has a little bit of sorghum, some mustard, soy, some Worcestershire, and this is going to give us a lot of flavor and allow us to build up that wonderful crust on the outside.

The lamb belly is close to being done, so we're going to pull that guy off.

Once this rack comes off, we're actually going to take some of our chimi.

We're going to kind of rest it in it.

The last thing we're going to do is char off the gai lan and for that, we'll actually grab a basket.

SETH: And you're getting them right on the coals.

JEREMIAH: Oh, directly on the coals because we want to get that nice high heat char where like half of the vegetable is still kind of raw, juicy, beautiful, but the outside is heavily charred and has a really wonderful flavor profile.

And you're just basically like sautéing at this point.

Of course, we can't forget about the heart, right?

SETH: Don't worry, I did not forget the heart.

JEREMIAH: I think you're going to walk away with that being your favorite bite.

And what we're trying to do is just get nice crispy edges on that and then we're going to turn our attention to finishing off the rest of the dish.

And to plate this up, first we're going to lay down the farro salad.

Next to that, we're going to have the grilled belly terrine.

That will be finished with the charred fava bean condiment as well as a little bit of goat feta.

We will be putting the heart skewers on the side next to it.

Next, we have the rack.

The loin is going to get sliced and laid out on top of that.

Finishing touches are going to include a lot of the herbs from the rooftop garden.

So, we've got that beautiful purple ruffle basil.

We've also got some dill and some mint and some other great things from up there.

Then we will also have that gorgeous charred gai lan tossed with a little bit of lemon, garlic oil.

One of the final steps is going to be brushing the pita, throwing in the hearth, getting it cooked off and beautiful.

Once we're plated up, this beautiful family style lamb dish here at The Dabney will be ready to eat.

SETH: All right, Chef, this entire platter, it's an embarrassment of riches here.

Where do you recommend heading first?

JEREMIAH: We're going to get you on the heart first.

SETH: Oh, of course.

JEREMIAH: Got to get you one of these little skewers here.

SETH: All right, so just pull a piece off here and give it a rip?

JEREMIAH: Yep.

SETH: Oh boy.

Lamb heart time.

JEREMIAH: Very mild, right?

SETH: It is mild, but the Maillard reaction has really caramelized the outside so nicely.

Such a great flavor.

JEREMIAH: Perfect.

Glad you enjoyed it.

SETH: All right.

I'm a lamb heart guy now, but so many other places we can go.

JEREMIAH: Maybe going into the chops or a piece of loin is always a great way.

SETH: I'm going to go with a little bit of loin here.

JEREMIAH: Yeah.

Oh yeah, you got jammed up by our fancy knives, so they're upside down.

SETH: All right.

Little tip for the viewers coming in to try it, flip that thing over.

JEREMIAH: Fat melts in your mouth, really tender, crispy on the outside.

SETH: Oh.

But, yeah, that fat.

That is just a pop of flavor.