Spring Lamb with New Season Asparagus

By entering spring the shadows of winter are passing over us, where (apparently) the mornings are brighter and the evenings are less dull. To help us celebrate nature greets us with the new seasons asparagus and lamb, two tasty treats to wake our tastes buds from the stodge of winter……Summer is coming…

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  What you need:

  • 2 Lamb chops
  • Asparagus (as much as you want to chow down) 
  • A lemon 
  • Breadcrumbs
  • Wholegrain English mustard

  
  

  How to make it:
  
  

  1. You can start by cutting through the fat rind to stop the chops curling up, but I usually find that lamb chops don’t tent to do this as much as pork chops. For my chops I didn’t chop the rind.
  2. Season with salt and pepper and then thinly coat your chops in the mustard - I recently got a pastry brush (living the dream) and I used that. Once coated  roll your chops in the breadcrumbs - you could grate some parmesan and maybe add some thyme into the breadcrumbs for further flavouring. I have done that before and it really is tasty, however for this dish I wanted to keep the lamb quite simple.
  3. Now grill the chops; the cooking time really depends on the thickness of your chop and the level of “doneness” you like. If you like it rare I would suggest no longer that 3 minutes each side of a chop 2.5 cm thick.
  4. For the asparagus you want to remove the stalky end by picking up each spear individually at both ends and now bend it. Where it breaks differentiates where the woody stalky bit is and the fresh delicious edible part is. Repeat for all your spears.  Keep the stalky bits though in the freezer - I use them to make stocks with.
  5. Grate lemon zest over your trimmed spears -you don’t want any white bit of your lemon only the yellow, the white is called the pith and it tastes horrendous-. Season the spears and drizzle on some olive oil. Roll the spears in your flavourings and place on a very hot griddle and cook until they start to char on all sides. You don’t want them to cook for too long as you want them to still retain their bite/crunch.  Once cooked take off the griddle and squeeze on some lemon juice.

  
  

  -I served the lamb and asparagus with bubble and squeak mash, and a leek crème fraîche sauce. To make the sauce, fry off a sliced leak until it starts to go golden then add in the Crème Fraîche and season. This may need milk adding to reduce the thickness of the sauce and maybe a squeeze of lemon.-