Spiced roast lamb with lentil & tomato salad

Recipe and Food styling: Jane Hornby

Prop styling: Polly Webb-Wilson

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Recipe & food styling: Jane Hornby
Prop styling: Jo Harris

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Recipe and food styling: Jassy Davis
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Griddled lamb cutlets with cannellini beans and baby leeks

It seems like a perpetual sneer of drizzle has trained itself against the kitchen window this morning. It paused briefly at about eleven, but resumed its sulk hastily when I dared step into the garden. The parsley is nonplussed; in fact it seems to be flourishing in this mild, wet weather. I use this yoghurty marinade for Lamb all year round - on the barbeque is best, but until that time arrives the griddle pan is a sturdy and reliable friend.

12 Lamb cutlets, French trimmed
8 Baby leeks
400g Tinned cannellini beans, drained
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 Red onion, finely chopped
1 Red chilli, finely chopped
1 Garlic clove, finely sliced
Butter
Fresh parsley, to serve

FOR THE MARINADE
A small 170g tub of natural yoghurt
A small handful of chopped fresh mint
4 Large garlic cloves, finely grated
2Tbsp Olive oil
Salt and pepper

1 The night before, mix the marinade ingredients together in a shallow dish, then coat the cutlets in the mixture. Cover with clingfilm and pop in the fridge.
2 Melt a knob of butter in a saute pan on a low heat, then soften the onion, chilli, thyme and garlic for about 20 minutes. Add the leeks and keep everything on low for a further 15 minutes, stirring regularly.
3 Heat a griddle pan until scorching hot (brush with oil). Remove the cutlets from the marinade (spoon off any large blobs of yoghurty mixture), then sear for 5 minutes on each side. Remove from the heat and leave to rest.
4 Stir the cannellini beans into the softening vegetables, season well and leave on the heat for a final 5 minutes. Add an extra knob of butter just before serving, for a bit of gloss and extra butteryness. Serve the cutlets and veg with a scattering of fresh parsley.

Jewelled dukkah crusted lamb shoulder

The ‘Danny Glover Quote Lexicon’ is far from being a tome, “I’m getting to old for this shit” being the only Glovernugget that I ever regularly paraphrase. “I just wanna fix mah boat and put mah kids through school Riggs” (something like that) doesn’t really bristle with many social applications. I’m embarrassed to say that three consecutive nights of festive revelry last week has left me gaunt, dishevelled and malnourished, like a poor Dickensian street urchin. This was compounded on Friday morning when we ran out of milk and honey for porridge, and I was forced to contemplate a bowl of thin oatmeal gruel for breakfast. It is my hope that this hearty roast went a little way towards righting the balance.

I first tried dukkah a couple of years ago. In that instance it played part of a Maria Elia recipe; juicy watermelon wedges plunged into a bowl of dukkah as a canape - very much a ‘YES’ moment. Traditionally hazelnuts are used in this Egyptian dip, but this morning I raided the Christmas nut bowl in a gesture of ‘Renegade spice assemblage’.

For a small jar of dukkah

2Tbsp Sesame seeds

2Tbsp Chopped mixed nuts (I used a blend of hazel, almond, walnut & brazil nuts)

1Tbsp Cumin seeds

1Tbsp Coriander seeds

1Tsp black peppercorns

1Tsp Sea salt

1/2Tsp Ground cinnamon

1/2Tsp dried mint

Toast the sesame seeds, nuts, cumin seeds and coriander seeds in heavy pan until they’ve toasted lightly. Allow to cool, then tip into a coffee grinder with the peppercorns, salt, cinnamon and mint. Blitz until fine.

Jewelled dukkah crusted lamb shoulder

(I used) 0.75kg Rolled lamb shoulder (cooking times will vary depending on the size of your meat)

2Tbsp Olive oil

6Tbsp Dukkah

1 Pomegranate

Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Rub the lamb with olive oil, then place in an ovenproof dish. Gently sprinkle the dukkah over the meat (you may have to fill in gaps here and there with your fingers), then roast for just under an hour until the lamb is blushing. To serve, scatter pomegranate seeds over the meat (a good squeeze of juice over the top is a good thing too).