Mobile Logo of Great British Chefs

Braised gem lettuce with peas and dill

Braised gem lettuce with peas and dill
Not yet rated

Sam and Sam Clark invite you to try cooking lettuces – a vegetable not cooked (or braised in this case) often enough. Braising intensifies the lettuces’ natural bitterness and offers the perfect opportunity to infuse flavour from the braising liquid – in this case from white wine, shallots, garlic and carrot. Somewhere between a Turkish zeytinyağlı marul and a French petits pois à la française, this dish is finished with sweet peas, a sour lemon dressing and plenty of dill – it’s basically sweet and sour heaven.

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

LEMON DRESSING

Method

1

Heat the olive oil in a wide lidded frying pan over a medium-high heat. When hot, fry the carrot, shallot, garlic and thyme with a pinch of salt for 5 minutes until starting to caramelise, stirring regularly. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and set aside

2

Add the butter to the pan and, when it starts to foam, add the lettuces, cut-side down. Fry for 6-7 minutes then turn and fry for another 2 minutes until golden brown on both sides

3

For the lemon dressing, using a spoon or small whisk, stir the lemon juice and olive oil together until well combined, then season with salt and pepper

4

Add the wine or water, the shallot mixture and the peas to the lettuces. Cover and simmer for 30 seconds

  • 70ml of medium white wine, or water
  • 200g of petit pois, or peas
5

Add the chopped dill then continue to cook for a couple more minutes with the lid off. Serve with the lemon dressing and remaining dill fronds on top

  • 4 tbsp of dill, half roughly chopped and the rest fronds picked
First published in 2026

A culinary duo that helped shape huge swathes of the UK food scene, Sam and Sam Clark’s institution-grade restaurant Moro introduced new cuisines, flavours and ingredients to London in the 1990s – and continues to do so today.

Get in touch

Please sign in or register to send a comment to Great British Chefs.