Spring lamb with bean salad

A very tasty salad of grilled lamb mid loin served on a bean salad doused in a refreshingly, zingy dressing - perfect warm weather eating that is also nourishing and light in the calorie stakes.

In the world of meat marketing ‘lamb’ is a young sheep under 12 months of age. The meat cuts that feature on most restaurant menus are from the mid back of the lamb around the ribs, which is the most tender part of the beast and requires the least (or fastest) cooking techniques.

This mid upper rib section is divided between the front with its ‘rib rack’, or ‘Frenched cutlets’ (if cut up into small delicate chops), and the thicker back section (saddle) that provides either a boneless ‘mid-loin’, mid-loin chops, or one large rack. Just to confuse you even further, the rib-less mid-loin is also retailed in NZ as a lamb ‘back-strap’, ‘strip-loin’, ‘middle loin’, and ‘rib-eye’.

Occasionally, you see it sold as a ‘fillet’. It’s not. The fillet runs along the spine in the middle of this section and is long and skinny, very expensive, not ‘plate presentation’ friendly and not commonly seen on menus. At the back of the mid section is the rump, commonly featured on restaurant menus, but much harder to handle in a recipe – either pan-fired or roasted.

A lovely loin

About the size of a large pencil case, one loin is a very generous portion for one diner, but is enough for two when served in a salad.

The exquisite taste in our lamb/bean salad (in addition to the succulent lamb and texture of the beans) is held together by a very flavorsome dressing/marinade. The hardest part is making sure you cook the lamb so that it is not over-cooked. Pan grill it the way you would a medium rare fillet steak, and knowing it will be rested before it is sliced and served cold (or warm if you like) on the salad.

The meat - lamb mid-loin, one for two people. Scale to suit numbers.

Marinade dressing – Finely chop coriander and mint (half cup of each). Place half of the quantity aside for the salad dressing and use half mixed with extra virgin oil with the finely peeled rind of one large lemon for coating the loins for at least two hours.

Pan grill the loins like a fillet steak until medium rare, searing the sides. Put aside to rest.

Prep beans

Thaw and peel broad beans (see photo). Drain the butter beans, cannelloni, and black-eyed beans from the can.

Finely chop the red capsicum, sun-died tomatoes. Finely slice a large Spanish onion sliced lengthways and saute until soft.

Place everything together in a bowl.

Dressing

Coarsely grated fresh ginger (a finger size knob)

Lemongrass

The grated rind one large lemon

Juice of two lemons – strained

Three quarters of a cup of sweet chili sauce

Quarter cup of extra virgin oil

Add the previously chopped mint and coriander to the dressing at the last minute, as it will yellow if put in to soon.

Carefully fold dressing through the salad ingredients in the bowl and stack carefully on a plate (see photo).

Cut fillet on an angle and spread on side of salad stack.

You will need

Lamb loins (one for every two diners)

Small packet of frozen broad beans

Small can of cannelli beans

Small can of black eyed beans

Half a cup of good olive oil

Knob of fresh ginger

Large Spanish onion

Semi-sun-dried tomatoes

Red capsicum (roasted)

Lemongrass

Mint

Coriander

Sweet chili sauce

Spring 2009

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