Moroccan Lamb with Tabboulleh, Roast Pumpkin and Home-Made Yogurt Sauce

This one’s a doozy. One of my favourite, favourite meals. Prep time takes a meditative 20 minutes. Cook time, well, you can be doing some pole dancing or spell crafting while the pumpkin is cooking but the only other cooking is the lamb and that’s about 30 seconds!

So, lovelies…

EQUIPMENT
That sharp knife I keep on about, your skillet, a roasting tray.

INGREDIENTS, SEPARATELY
Pumpkin cut into chunky wedges
Harissa on the table to smear at the very end.

Cut the pumpkin into fat wedges, oil well with your hands and place in a preheated oven at 180 degrees 45 minutes before you want to eat. When you are preparing the following turn the heat up to 200 so you get that jammy, crunchy blackened edges.

PROTEIN & ITS FRIENDS
Organic backstrap of lamb, say 250 grams (I bought a bigger one but cut it in half. I’ll get another meal out of it)
Spices of Raj el Hanout, sumac, dried chillis, and a little mix of my own which is dry-pan-roasted sesame seeds, ground pistachios, ground coriander seeds with a tiny dash of cumin. Store that in a jar with the above.
Organic olive oil

METHOD for the above
Slice the lamb into 3 or 4 centimeter thickness
Olive oil and a little of each of the spices in a bowl
Add the meat and massage
Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate.

TABBOULEH – INGREDIENTS & METHOD
(You do not need the cracked wheat, trust me)
From the garden I pick a handful of mint leaves and same of parsley. Finely chopped and placed in a bowl.
add a tomato finely diced
just a little red onion finely diced
Juice of a quarter lemon
splash of olive oil
I do like a tiny bit of Himalayan pink salt on this just to lift it to another level
Put into the middle of your plate in readiness.

YOGURT DRESSING – INGREDIENTS AND METHOD
Into yet another bowl whack about 4 tablespoons of Meredith Vale sheep yogurt (my fave)
add a teaspoon of tahini and mix madly because the tahini is going to want to stick to the spoon
grate a small clove of garlic, add it raw (that’s going to give it all a kick)
juice of quarter lemon
just a kiss of olive oil
You can, if you choose, finely chop some fresh coriander to garnish. I didn’t bother tonight.
Put aside

Now you are ready.

Put your skillet on to a high heat
Add the lamb and cook for about 10 seconds one side, flip, 10 seconds the other. It’ll brown but still be pink inside. Turn the heat off.

3 or 4 wedges of pumpkin on the plate beside the tabbouleh, the lamb atop the tabbouleh, the dressing atop the lamb, a smear of harissa on each chunk of pumkin.

Freshly ground black pepper to taste. A fucking winner!

Oh, there’s a ridiculous video of me making the yogurt dressing about a year ago whilst getting my housemate up to scratch with the video camera. I was recording the natural magic class later that day.

Bon apetit! x