Hunter Food

Esca Bimbadgen
Esca Bimbadgen is situated atop a hill in the heart of Hunter Valley Wine Country
at Bimbadgen Estate Wines. The modern cuisine and panoramic vineyard views
make for a truly memorable dining experience showing the very best in Australian
food and Wine. Winner of the Best Winery Restaurant for three consecutive
years at the Hunter Region Restaurant & Catering Awards (2001 – 2003), Esca is
a restaurant not to be missed! Open for lunch from noon daily. Functions and
private groups in the evening from 6pm.
CHARGRILLED LOIN OF CUMIN LAMB WITH ROASTED PUMPKIN,
CHICKPEAS, MINT, YOGHURT AND CHILLI JAM
1 cup of dried chickpeas
1/2 of a butternut pumpkin, peeled,
deseeded and cut into large cubes
4 x 150g lamb loins, cleaned of all
sinew
1 heaped teaspoon of ground cumin
3 cups of chicken stock
1 cup of mint leaves, gently packed
1/2 cup of parsley leaves, gently
packed
1 cup of spinach leaves, stems
removed and gently packed
1/2 cup of plain yoghurt
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1 small clove of garlic, pureed
4 tablespoons of Esca Bimbadgen chilli
jam
Serves 4
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Soak the chickpeas in two litres of water overnight, drain and place in
a pot with plenty of salted water and cook for around two hours or until
soft. Drain and cool.
Place the pumpkin on a roasting tray with two tablespoons of the oil,
season and roast for around 25 minutes at 170°C, or until soft.
Mix the yoghurt, two tablespoons of oil and garlic together and season
to taste.
Rub two tablespoons of oil, the cumin, sea salt and pepper onto the
lamb and chargrill to your liking, around three minutes on each side for
medium rare, and place in a warm place to rest for around five minutes.
This allows the fibres to relax after cooking ensuring the meat is tender
when eaten.
Place the chickpeas, pumpkin and stock into a pot, bring to the boil and
heat for five minutes, remove from the stove.
Roughly chop the mint and parsley and fold into the hot chickpea
mixture, place into four large hot bowls along with some of the liquid.
Place the spinach onto the chickpeas, slice each lamb loin against the
grain and into around six slices and place onto the spinach. Then dollop
the yoghurt onto the lamb and the jam onto the yoghurt.
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