Charred Lamb with Baba Ganoush, Harissa and New Potatoes

This picture does not quite do justice to what was a very yummy dinner!  It is a mishmash of many different recipes, but as similar as I can manage to a dish I had twice at The Ivy in 2011.

The lamb steaks were marinated in 1tbsp runny honey, 2 tbsp dry sherry, 1 tsp paprika and salt & pepper for a couple of hours.  They were then simply griddled until charred on the outside and a little pink on the inside.  I poured the marinating juice over them for the last 5 mins and popped them in the oven to keep warm. They are sitting on top of some new potatoes, green beans and runner beans, all cooked ‘al dente’ I guess, and great at soaking up the juicy gravy. There are 3 little dollops of sauce- only 1 homemade I’m afraid!  On the left is a spoonful of roasted red pepper puree bought from Waitrose and on the right is a tbsp of rose harissa.  I did, however, make the baba ganoush in the middle and here’s the recipe:

Baba Ganoush

1 aubergine

olive oil

1 tbsp tahini

1/2 lemon, juiced

salt&pepper

• stab the aubergine all over with a fork, massage it with some olive oil and bake in a hot oven for 45 mins, until blackened all over and soft inside.  Remove from the oven and leave until you can handle it without burning your hands off!
• Remove the skin from the aubergine- it comes off really easy.  Discard the skin and chop the flesh finely.
• In a bowl mix the aubergine flesh, tahini, lemon juice and salt & pepper till thoroughly mixed and looking like a dip.  Eat it all up!

I have made a version of this with 1 tbsp thick greek yogurt instead of tahini if you don’t have any and it was almost as good.  Tahini is worth getting in though as it lasts for ages in the back of the cupboard….

Tomorrow we are venturing out now the snow has almost gone- a day in London on the cards with a nice lunch out.  The week off work is flying over far too quickly- as always!