Summer BBQ

I love the weather at the moment and today was the perfect day for a BBQ. I decided to cook some lovely welsh spring lamb with some roasted red pepper cous cous and a cucumber and yoghurt salad.  This dish is quite versatile and the meat could be changed to chicken, pork or beef.  In fact it would be lush with some rump steak.  The longer you marinate the meat, the longer the flavours have to permeate the meat so I would do it either the night before or in the morning before you want to eat it.

Serves 4-6

For the lamb

1 leg of lamb, deboned and butterflied to as even thickness as you can

3 large cloves of garlic, crushed

1 large pinch of seat salt

cracked black pepper

1/2 tsp coriander seeds

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp chili powder

turmeric

Cinnamon stick

olive oil

1. Put the seeds into a pan and toast for half a minute or until they are releasing their aroma.  Put into a pestle and mortar and grind them into a powder.  Mix in the other spices and crush the garlic into them to make a paste.  Add a good glug of Olive oil and rub this all over the meat.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place into a large freezer bag with the remaining dressing.  Throw in the Cinnamon stick and seal tightly.  Place into the fridge to marinate for as long as you have.
2. When you come to cook this lamb on the BBQ you will find that some areas become more well cooked than others but this usually works well as some people prefer it more well done than others.  I love my lamb with a hint of pink.

For the cous cous

100g cous cous made up with hot water and 1/2 a chicken stock cube

2 tomatoes

2 large red peppers

3 spring onions chopped finely

sprinkle of sea salt

1/2 red chili deseeded and finely sliced

a bunch of mint shredded

1. Chop the tomatoes and add to the cous cous while it is still hot from the water.  This will give them time to gently cook.  I then roasted the peppers in the oven for 20 minutes in a high oven.  I then placed them into a freezer bag for 15 minutes and seal the bag.  Then you should be able to see the skins come away quite easily.  If you push the skins off through the bag, they should come away but you may need to peel some of them off.  Don't worry if there are some black bits remaining though, as they lend quite a lot of flavour to the cous cous.
2. finely slice the red peppers and add to the cous cous with the remaining ingredients.

For Cucumber and yogurt salad

1 cucumber, halved

1 small tub Greek yoghurt

1/2/ clove garlic

small handful of mint

1. Using a potato peeler make long thin slices of the cucumber and then add the yoghurt, garlic and mint.  Keep in the fridge till the last minute.