The new season lamb, like the first potatoes, honourably heralds the fact that summer is just around the corner. My first experience of spring lamb this year was this marvellous recipe from the talented Simon Dougan, of Portadown's Yellow Door deli.
Here the full flavoured vegetables and the salty feta give a sweet but definite zappiness to the mild spring lamb. We used the couscous stuffing to fill a half loin of lamb, and placed the remaining stuffing in a roll of tin foil, drizzled with olive oil and a ladle of stock, and roasted it beside the lamb. It was delicious as an accompanying vegetable, and leftovers made a flavourful salad for the following day's lunch.
Roast Spring Lamb with Roast Mediterranean Vegetables, Couscous and Feta Cheese
1 loin spring lamb
half an aubergine
1 small red onion
1 red pepper
1 courgette
olive oil for brushing
1 cup couscous
3/ 4 cup lamb stock
3 sprigs rosemary (retain one sprig)
3 sprigs basil
3oz feta cheese
2 cloves garlic
salt and black pepper
1. Get your butcher to bone and skin the lamb and cut in half, retaining the bones.
2. Slice the aubergine, courgette, red onion and red pepper lengthways, de-seed the peppers and place all the vegetables in a roasting tin. Brush with olive oil, season and roast in a medium oven (170C/350F/ gas 4) for 20 minutes. You may find the aubergine will need a further 5-10 minutes.
3. Put couscous in a bowl and pour over the boiling lamb stock.
4. When the vegetables are cooked, remove skin from pepper and cut all vegetables into fairly large dice.
5. Combine couscous, roast vegetables, chopped basil and rosemary and crumbled feta cheese, add one clove of minced garlic and season to taste.
6. Place this mixture on one half of the lamb, fold the other half on top, roll up, tying with string to keep the lamb together.
7. Finally, pierce holes on top of lamb and insert slivers of garlic and rosemary, brush with olive oil, season with salt and black pepper, place in roasting tray with lamb bones and a little water.
8. Cook for 30-40 minutes at 200C/400F/gas 6