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Lamb with harissa, chickpea puree and broccoli

We cooked this on Saturday night.

I promised to put it on the blog....
so here it is

Although it seems long it is very, very easy and the Harissa can be made the day before, the chickpeas well in advance of dinner, so really all you have to do is bung the lamb in and cook the broccoli... so in reality its a bit of a walk in the park.


Harissa

Ingredients

1 x long, fresh red chillies

1 x red birds eye chilli
sea salt

3 heaped tsp caraway seeds, ground

3 heaped tsp cumin seeds, ground

4 cloves garlic

I jar roasted and peeled red bell pepper

2 tsp tomato purée

2 tsp red wine vinegar

4 tbsp olive oil

2 level tsp smoked paprika

Method


1. Remove the tops of the chillies, then slice in half lengthways. Lay each chilli on a chopping board, cut-side up, and gently scrape away the seeds with a teaspoon and discard
2. Blend the chillies in a food processor with a pinch of salt, half of each of the spice seeds and the garlic cloves until smooth.
3. Add the peppers, the rest of the spice seeds, the tomato purée and vinegar, and blend again until very smooth. Transfer to a mixing bowl.
4. Now add the olive oil. Sprinkle the paprika on top of the oil and stir in. Taste and season, if necessary, with more salt to balance out the vinegar.


Chickpea puree

You can make this in advance too

Ingredients

3 x cans cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed
6 tablespoons olive oil
I large onion
6 garlic cloves
3 teaspoons cumin seeds roughly ground
40 threads saffron infused in 3 tablespoons boiling water
3 tbs roughly chopped parsley
Sea salt and black pepper.

Method

Blend the chickpeas until quite smooth. Add enough water for them to have the consistency of mashed potato.
In a saucepan heat the oil over a medium heat
Add the onion, garlic and cumin and fry stirring regularly until golden brown but still soft.
When ready mix the chickpeas into the pan and add the saffron water.
Simmer for 5 minutes add salt and pepper and just before serving sprinkle with parsley.


Leg of lamb


Ingredients

1 x boned and butterflied Leg of lamb
1 x tin of anchovy fillets
3 cloves of garlic sliced
75gms butter, softened
Salt and pepper

Method

Put the lamb skin side up

Using a paring knife make 10 – 15, 1cm incisions in the meat. Make sure that they are just big enough to poke some anchovy fillet and a piece of garlic in.

If you have any garlic and anchovy left over chop it finely and mix with the butter.
Then smear the butter all over the skin side of the meat.

Season very generously with pepper and a small amount of salt.
You can do this well in advance of cooking.

Pre heat oven to 200 degrees

Put the lamb in a roasting pan, on a rack and cover the pan with foil.
Cook the lamb for 20 mins with the foil on.

Remove the foil and cook for a further 20 mins. It should brown nicely

Leave to rest for at least 10 minutes.

Put the pan with he juices onto the hob, heat to high, add half a glass of white wine and once most of it has evaporated add 250mls of vegetable stock and then stir all of the lovely bits from the bottom of the pan to create a thin jus.

Carve the meat into generous slices.

Pour the jus, or juice if you prefer, over the meat sparingly.


Tenderstem broccoli …or purple sprouting if you can get it

Ingredients

Enough broccoli for a generous helping for your guests
Zest of 2 lemons
3tbs extra virgin olive oil


Method

Heat a pan full of water so that when you the lamb comes out of the oven it is starting to boil.
Drain and dress with oil and lemon zest
You want the broccoli to be nice and hot and ready to serve when the lamb has rested.

Put the veg in the boiling water, let it come back up to the boil and boil for 2-3 mins max … you want it to be firm not mush


Assembling

Put a generous spoonful or two of chickpea puree on each plate

Then add three or even four slices of lamb

Put the broccoli artfully on top of the lamb

Dress broccoli and lamb generously with Harissa

Eh Voila …or whatever they would say in Spain or Morocco

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