you feel relaxed, too, you can fry them in advance and serve them at room temperature. If you’ve got a ridged grill or frying pan use that to show them off at their charcoal-striped, impressive best, but an ordinary oven-bound grill or unfancy frying pan will do. Obviously, a barbecue would be wonderful; the yoghurt so tenderises the meat that however searing the heat, they just cannot dry up.
1 x 450–500g pot Greek yoghurt
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 large onion
1 head garlic
1 teaspoon Maldon salt
20 lamb cutlets
groundnut oil (optional)
Empty the yoghurt pot into a large shallow dish (it has to be big enough to fit all the lamb chops later, or use two) and then stir in the cumin. Peel and roughly chop the onion and add it. Break the head of garlic into cloves, peel them and squash them slightly just by pressing on them with the flat of a heavyish knife, then stir them into the yoghurt along with the salt. Then arrange the lamb cutlets and give a good slow stir, spooning the yoghurt over them, so that all the meat is coated with the marinade. You might think at first that this won’t be possible and that you haven’t got anywhere near enough yoghurt, but you want them only barely masked by the marinade, not deeply immersed in it.
Cover the dish or dishes with clingfilm and put in the fridge (or, if the weather isn’t sweltering, in a cool place) for at least 4 hours.
When you want to eat, put a ridged grill pan or whatever on the hob and heat up (if you’re using an ordinary frying pan, add a little oil) then take the lamb cutlets out of the marinade. Wipe them with some kitchen towel, but you don’t need to dry them obsessively. Then just fry them for a few minutes each side, so that they’re cooked as much or as little as you like them, and then arrange on a big plate or, better still, a couple of big plates (saves passing them up and down the table) and serve hot, warm or cold.
I love these with moutabal , but I’m not fussy: a bowlful of Greek Salad would be fabulous too.
Serves 6–8.
RACK OF LAMB WITH MINT SALSA
By mint salsa, I mean something along the lines of an Italian salsa verde, but with that greenness in the main provided by finely chopped mint. We’ve grown to think there’s something shameful in mint sauce, as if in cooking lamb the only worthy flavourings or accompaniments could be garlic and rosemary. Now, I still love mint sauce the way my mother made it, finely chopping the herb, then stirring in sugar and vinegar; this new-age take on it attempts to preserve what was so wonderful about it, the fresh sprightliness and piquancy, but bring to it a more modulated, modern tone.
With the lamb and this sauce, I tend to make – and we all have our own lazily unthinking, push-button repertoire – the new season’s roast vegetables . The sour astringency of the salsa, indeed, goes so well with the sweet nubbliness of the baby veg, that I sometimes leave the lamb out of the equation altogether: just bake the vegetables and drizzle the herbal, acerbic green oil over, adding perhaps some more freshly chopped mint on top.
2 racks of lamb, approx. 8 cutlets on each rack
for the mint sauce:
30g fresh mint (or 2 supermarket packets)
30g fresh flat-leaf parsley
16 cornichons (baby gherkins)
4 teaspoons capers
200ml extra virgin olive oil
4 teaspoons white wine vinegar, or to taste
pinch caster sugar
ground black pepper
Maldon salt
Preheat the oven to 210°C/gas mark 7. Make sure the lamb is out of the fridge and well on its way to becoming room temperature; if still fridge-cold when they go into the oven add about 7 minutes’ extra cooking time.
Destalk the herbs and whizz them in a food processor until they are chopped, then add the cornichons and capers and whizz again. Pour the oil down the funnel, and then add the vinegar and sugar to taste, and season with the black pepper and the salt.
Score the lamb fat, by using a sharp knife to draw diagonal lines, this way and that,
1 x 450–500g pot Greek yoghurt
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 large onion
1 head garlic
1 teaspoon Maldon salt
20 lamb cutlets
groundnut oil (optional)
Empty the yoghurt pot into a large shallow dish (it has to be big enough to fit all the lamb chops later, or use two) and then stir in the cumin. Peel and roughly chop the onion and add it. Break the head of garlic into cloves, peel them and squash them slightly just by pressing on them with the flat of a heavyish knife, then stir them into the yoghurt along with the salt. Then arrange the lamb cutlets and give a good slow stir, spooning the yoghurt over them, so that all the meat is coated with the marinade. You might think at first that this won’t be possible and that you haven’t got anywhere near enough yoghurt, but you want them only barely masked by the marinade, not deeply immersed in it.
Cover the dish or dishes with clingfilm and put in the fridge (or, if the weather isn’t sweltering, in a cool place) for at least 4 hours.
When you want to eat, put a ridged grill pan or whatever on the hob and heat up (if you’re using an ordinary frying pan, add a little oil) then take the lamb cutlets out of the marinade. Wipe them with some kitchen towel, but you don’t need to dry them obsessively. Then just fry them for a few minutes each side, so that they’re cooked as much or as little as you like them, and then arrange on a big plate or, better still, a couple of big plates (saves passing them up and down the table) and serve hot, warm or cold.
I love these with moutabal , but I’m not fussy: a bowlful of Greek Salad would be fabulous too.
Serves 6–8.
RACK OF LAMB WITH MINT SALSA
By mint salsa, I mean something along the lines of an Italian salsa verde, but with that greenness in the main provided by finely chopped mint. We’ve grown to think there’s something shameful in mint sauce, as if in cooking lamb the only worthy flavourings or accompaniments could be garlic and rosemary. Now, I still love mint sauce the way my mother made it, finely chopping the herb, then stirring in sugar and vinegar; this new-age take on it attempts to preserve what was so wonderful about it, the fresh sprightliness and piquancy, but bring to it a more modulated, modern tone.
With the lamb and this sauce, I tend to make – and we all have our own lazily unthinking, push-button repertoire – the new season’s roast vegetables . The sour astringency of the salsa, indeed, goes so well with the sweet nubbliness of the baby veg, that I sometimes leave the lamb out of the equation altogether: just bake the vegetables and drizzle the herbal, acerbic green oil over, adding perhaps some more freshly chopped mint on top.
2 racks of lamb, approx. 8 cutlets on each rack
for the mint sauce:
30g fresh mint (or 2 supermarket packets)
30g fresh flat-leaf parsley
16 cornichons (baby gherkins)
4 teaspoons capers
200ml extra virgin olive oil
4 teaspoons white wine vinegar, or to taste
pinch caster sugar
ground black pepper
Maldon salt
Preheat the oven to 210°C/gas mark 7. Make sure the lamb is out of the fridge and well on its way to becoming room temperature; if still fridge-cold when they go into the oven add about 7 minutes’ extra cooking time.
Destalk the herbs and whizz them in a food processor until they are chopped, then add the cornichons and capers and whizz again. Pour the oil down the funnel, and then add the vinegar and sugar to taste, and season with the black pepper and the salt.
Score the lamb fat, by using a sharp knife to draw diagonal lines, this way and that,
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