Ottolenghing - barbecued lamb and flatbreads

In the weekend's FT (you might need to sign up to view this link) Tim Hayward wrote a great piece on the cookbooks that define eras of dinner party entertaining. He concluded that Yotam Ottolenghi's "fantastically eclectic vision of Middle Eastern street and home food has seized the imagination of the fooderati" and suggests "to Ottoleng" as a verb. He's not wrong. Within minutes of me reading the article, Paul suggested that we re-watch an episode of Ottolenghi's Mediterranean Feast to gain inspiration for our Sunday night supper.

This provided the starting point for our meal. I marinated some lamb shoulder steaks, using the skin of two preserved lemons instead of the fresh rind and zest called for in the recipe. Then I made the almond and orange blossom sauce, using a little less honey and the parsley which I inexplicably bought instead of coriander.

We had a couple of courgettes in the fridge that wanted using, and I thawed a ball of bread dough.

Then everything went on the barbecue. I would have preferred to use my pizza stone for the breads, but there wasn't room for that and all the veg, so skillet it was.

Look at me using my left hand like an ambidextrous person!

While the lamb rested, I scraped the flesh from the charred aubergine skin and mashed it into some yoghurty dip that was lurking in the back of the fridge, soon to hit its use-by date. That went into the middle of my platter, surrounded by the flatbreads, courgettes, peppers and sliced lamb. Then the fragrant mint sauce (left quite thick, like a pesto) went on top of that.

The main criticism of Ottolenghi's recipes is that they usually have a lot of ingredients - some hard to come by - in them. While this was pretty involved, the complexity of the flavours made it worthwhile. It definitely was not your mother's Sunday lamb and mint sauce.