Nigel Slater’s recipe for grilled, spiced lamb with yoghurt and mint

Sizzling, aromatic lamb with cool, crunchy yoghurt. First of all, crack open 8 green cardamom pods and remove the little black-brown seeds. Crush them to a powder with 1 tsp of cumin seeds. I use a spice grinder, but a pestle and mortar will work, too.

Stir in 1 tsp of ground turmeric. Mash 2 fat cloves of garlic to a paste with a ½ tsp of salt and mix with the powdered spice.

Add the spice paste to 100ml of natural yoghurt, stir, then spread it over both sides of 6 lamb cutlets and set aside for 20 minutes or so – longer will not hurt.

Finely chop 15 mint leaves and 6 radishes, then mix together and stir into a further 100ml of yoghurt and add a little salt. Warm a griddle pan or overhead grill.

Cook the lamb, either by putting the cutlets down on a hot griddle or by cooking them on a grill pan under a hot grill. Cook for 5 minutes or so, until one side is nicely browned then turn and cook the other for 3 or 4 minutes. The exact timing will depend on how you like your lamb done. This will produce a cutlet that is rose pink inside. The most delicious results will come from a little charring.

Serve the cutlets with the mint and radish yoghurt. Enough for 2

I like using the griddle method to cook the lamb, but it does produce quite a lot of smoke. Make sure the room is well ventilated. Never wash the griddle before it has cooled down, but it is worth scraping at any burned-on marinade with a palate knife while it is still warm as this makes the heavy pan much easier to clean.

A little charring of the meat and bones will give a wonderful, smoky note to your cutlets.

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