Asparagus and Barbecued Lamb

Looking back, our first barbecue of last year was on 26 April so we’ve beat that by a week. Had we been more organised, I think we could have managed one even earlier this year but as it was, today’s weather was perfect.

Like last year, we’ve spen many hours deliberating what out first barbecued meal was going to be. We initially settled on hamburgers but since we had those on Thursday, decided on asparagus followed a leg of lamb. I bought the asparagus at Borough Market on Friday and we were both keen to try the first of the season. We’re both big fans but were largely underwhelmed with last year’s offerings. Luckily, this was really good and the charcoaled outside produced an almost nuttiness which gave way to the sweet, buttery flavour of the asparagus.

The lamb leg was already part boned so all Stephen needed to do was butterfly it before marinating it overnight in a mixture of oregano, olive oil, bay leaf, garlic and salt and pepper.

When it came to the cooking, Stephen seared it skin side down first, over direct heat for about 10 minutes. He then turned the meat over and seared the other side for five minutes. At this point, the meat was removed from the heat briefly so that the coals could be pushed to the sides for the remainder of the cooking time. Overall cooking time was an hour, with one turn midway and with the lid on the barbecue.

The first barbecued food of the year is always going to be good but I don’t know how to describe just how brilliant this was. First of all, the lamb was English new season so it was good and tasty. Secondly, the marinating not only brings out the flavour of the lamb but helps to tenderise the meat. It adds great flavour too. The smokiness of the coals added another level of flavour and produced meat that was beautifully charred on the outside but juicy and moist in the middle. It took us ages to finish what we were eating because we kept stopping to comment on how much we were enjoying everything, and ebcause we kept going back for more.

Served with a mixed and potato salad which were both great too but nothing like as good as the lamb. The best news is that there’s plenty left over for tonight.