Lamb, courgette, goat’s cheese & olive crumb

Ingredients

• 100g pitted black olives
• 2 green courgettes, cut lengthways into ½ cm thick slices
• 2 yellow courgettes
• 100g goat’s cheese
• 1 pomegranate
• 1 rack of lamb or 8 lamb cutlets (you’ll often get only 7 bones in a rack, so ask your butcher for 8)
• 100g Greek yoghurt

Method

Start with the olive crumb. This can be done a few days in advance and be kept in tupperware until needed. Drain the olives and place in a microwave on full power for 2 mins. Place on an oven tray in an oven at 100C for 1 hour, or until the olives have completely dried out and are brittle. Blitz in a food processor or crush in a pestle and mortar.

Place the green courgettes in a hot griddle pan to char. Rotate 90 degrees until you have a grid of char marks. Repeat on both sides and remove from the heat, reserving until needed.

With the yellow courgette, using a vegetable peeler, cut 12 thin strips. Blanch in boiling water for 30 secs and chill over ice to stop the cooking process. Other shapes can be cut and cooked in the same fashion, if desired. Twist the strips into spirals and save until later.

Tear the goat’s cheese into small pieces and deseed the pomegranate.

Now we can start with the lamb. Pre-heat an oven to 180C. Score the lamb skin down to the fat and season well. Place skin-side down in a cool pan then turn the heat to medium and leave the fat to render out. Cook for 5 mins, then increase the heat to medium-high for a further 5 mins. Place in the oven and cook for 20 mins or, if using a meat thermometer, until the internal temperature reaches 55C. Remove to a board and allow to rest for 5 mins, while you finish off the dish.

To plate up the dish, start with a spoonful of Greek yoghurt in the centre of the plate. Using the back of a spoon, tap the yoghurt, splashing it out across the plate. Place the griddled courgette on top of the yoghurt and the yellow courgette around this. Cut the lamb into cutlets and place two on each plate, over the green courgette. Scatter over the olive crumb, goat’s cheese and pomegranate seeds.