Summer, is that you?

 

You know, I think it might be… I wouldn’t exactly say we’re in in ‘phew what a scorcher’ territory yet, but it is warm, so meal planning is tending in the direction of salads (although we did also have soup one day last week). The most notable one has been this spiced lamb and courgette one, which comes from Sabrina Ghayour’s Simply. This recipe also demonstrates the usefulness of randomly flicking through recipe books from time to time, as that’s how I found this.

Start by toasting some pine nuts. Cautiously, as when I followed the recipe instructions (200c oven, 6 minutes) I ended up with unusably burnt pine nuts. As I didn’t have any more pine nuts, I then toasted some cashew nuts instead, watching them extremely closely.

After that, prepare the rest of the salad. Slice a courgette into ribbons using a vegetable peeler, and mix with chopped preserved lemon, chopped pickled chillies (which I didn’t have, so I used chilli flakes) and olive oil. Then throw in whatever nuts you managed to toast without burning them. I also had some pea shoots which needed using up, so I threw them in for good measure. You can leave this to sit while you prepare the lamb.

The recipe says lamb steaks, but doesn’t specify beyond that. I used one lamb rump steak for two, and it was fine, although not overly generous. Toast and then grind fennel, cumin and coriander seeds, and rub over the lamb with some olive oil. Fry the lamb for a minute or so each side, then leave to rest. (You could make the salad at this point of you are more confident in your speed vegetable peeling than I am – I used the resting time to make some flatbreads to go with the salad.)

After resting the lamb, slice it and add to the salad. The whole thing was delicious. Raw courgettes are an under-appreciated salad ingredient I feel, and this combo would be good with any kind of grilled meat, or halloumi or similar if you wanted to go veggie. 

This week, I have also made an asparagus frittata, to mark the fast-approaching end of the asparagus season, and even managed to have a lunch out – again, literally out, as we sat outside the farmer’s market. It still feels like an odd limbo time, as I’m still waiting for my second jab (four weeks to go!), which has become even more important thanks to the Delta/Indian variant (60% more transmissible you say? Oh.). But, rather than ending on that depressing note, here is a photo of an excellent dog I met at said market to cheer you up.