Like the previous recipe, this one also pairs up lamb with some heat and punchy flavours. The harissa loses some of it’s heat in the cooking, and creates a lovely tangy, spicy, sticky crust on the lamb. I got my hands on a fine leg of Yorkshire lamb from my new favourite meat source, Marky Market. It’s a great idea. Mark gets up every day to go to Smithfields and Billingsgate, you place your order the day before, and then he delivers to your door. Brilliant.

In terms of prep time, the potatoes are a bit of a faff, but the lamb is simplicity itself, so it’s swings and roundabouts. We served it with a gorgeous heritage tomato, red onion and mint salad, and a tzatziki (you can find the recipe for the latter here).

Ingredients

(for the lamb)

2.5 kg leg of lamb

90g Harissa paste

90g 0% fat Greek yoghurt

Juice and zest of one lemon

(for the potatoes)

1.7 kg of potatoes (Desiree / King Edward)

1 white onion

1 red onion

1 Bay leaf

2 sprigs of thyme

Salt & pepper

750 ml lamb stock (you can also use chicken or veg stock)

50 g butter

Method

You want the lamb to marinate in the harissa overnight, so your first job is to prep the leg. Making the marinade is easy. Just mix the yoghurt, Harissa, lemon juice and zest together.

Next, taking a sharp knife, cross-hatch the lamb, cutting into the flesh around half to a centimeter deep. Now, using a spatula, smother the lamb all over with the marinade, working it into the cuts, then pop it in a large freezer bag and leave it in the fridge overnight.

NB. You want the lamb to be at room temperature before you cook it, so make sure you take it out of the fridge a couple of hours before you put it in the oven.

The following day, set your oven to 245c and then prep the boulangère. For the best results, and to save time, slice the potatoes with a mandolin, but watch your fingers! First, peel your spuds, and then slice them with the mandolin, or as thinly as you can (around 3mm thick). When you’ve done this, plunge them into cold water and rinse to get some of the starch out, then turn  out onto a tea towel, and pat dry with another.

Next chop and slice the two onions, and fry them until they are golden brown. This will make the finished dish sweeter and richer. Now butter a large baking dish and start putting it all together. Start with a couple of layers of potatoes, then scatter over some of the onion, thyme, bay and seasoning. Repeat until you are out of potatoes and onion.

Now pour the stock over the potatoes (it should come up just below the top later of spuds) and then finish the dish with a sprinkling of salt and pepper, some sprigs of thyme, and a few  nobs of butter. Set aside and cover with a cartouche of greaseproof paper.

When your oven is up to temperature, put your lamb in a roasting tray with a rack, and then put it in the oven. You’re going to cook it at 245c for around half an hour, before turning the oven down to 200c and cooking it for a further hour and a half.

After the first half hour, and the oven has been turned down, put the potatoes in, keeping them covered with the cartouche. After 45 minutes, remove the cartouche so that the top of the boulangère can brown up nicely.

When the lamb has cooked for 2 hours, remove from the oven, set on a serving plate and cover with foil to rest for quarter of an hour. Then turn off the oven, leaving the potatoes inside to keep them hot.

Serve after the lamb has rested with the tomato salad, and a tzatziki.

Ingredients

500g English strawberries

75g vanilla sugar

Juice of half a lemon

Method

Hull the strawberries (remove the leafy top and pale fruit) with the tip of a sharp knife and then wash. Dry off with a tea towel and place in a large pan. Add the vanilla sugar (vanilla sugar is easy to make – every time you scrape out a vanilla pod, put the remains in a jam jar with caster sugar – after a week or so the sugar will take on a lovely vanilla smell and taste) and lemon juice and stir.

Before you put the pan on the heat, get a saucer and place it in the fridge. I’ll explain why in a minute. Next, put the pan on a high heat and bring up to the boil while stirring. Before long the fruit will start to give up its juices, and the mixture will begin to resemble jam. You need to simmer the jam for about 10 minutes to bring it to setting point. A scum will probably develop on the surface of the mixture; skim this off every few minutes.

After 10 minutes take the pan off the heat, and dribble some of the mixture onto your cold saucer. Place the saucer back in the fridge. After a couple of minutes, take it out again and perform the ‘wrinkle’ test by running your finger through the mixture. If it wrinkles, the jam is at setting point and ready to store, if your finger slides through return to the heat for a few minutes and repeat the test.

If the jam is at setting point, put the mixture in a sterilised jar. You can sterilise jars by pouring in boiling water to the top or placing in the oven for a few minutes at 100ºC.

Leave the jam to cool and then eat or refrigerate. It should keep for 3 – 4 weeks.

Another discovery that we made whilst there was a spice called Maras Biberi. It’s on the table of most restaurants and seems to be a kind of pepper substitute. It’s a blend of chili, olive oil, lemon juice and salt, ground up and dried. We bought some at the Egyptian Souk to bring back with us; it’s not that easy to get in London, but I have found it in local Turkish supermarkets.

We’re pretty much addicted to the stuff, and it goes into quite a lot of what we eat, including this recipe which is a remix of a healthy coleslaw.

Ingredients

Vegetables:

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 a head of spring / pointy cabbage, thinly sliced

2 medium carrots, grated

For the dressing:

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

3 tablespoons no fat Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon hummus

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon Maras Biberi

Juice of half a lemon

50 ml olive oil

Handful of chopped leafy green herbs (mint / basil / tarragon / coriander etc)

Method

Grate the carrots and finely chop the cabbage and onions and place in a large bowl. Mix the dressing in a sepperate bowl by chopping up the garlic and herbs and then adding the rest of the indgredients. Mix well until blended. Add the dressing to the vegetables in the bowl and mix well. Serve with grilled meats (lamb or chicken) or to keep it veggie some griddled Haloumi cheese. Afiyet olsun.