Barbecue lamb recipe with mint, anchovy and lemon salsa verde

As soon as the sun comes out, our thoughts turn to barbecueing. And there's no more pleasant dish for a weeknight supper or a weekend lunch, than a butterflied leg of lamb. Below, Adam Byatt of Clapham restaurant Bistro Union shares his recipe for barbecue lamb with a mint, anchovy and lemon salsa verde.

"Barbecuing whole joints of meat is great in theory but in reality the ferocity of the heat means the meat can end up charred on the outside and raw on the inside. Make sure you cook with pieces of meat that are no thicker than 4cm or so, to allow you to get a really nice barbecue flavour whilst keeping the meat moist and tender."

Ingredients

1 bunch mint

1 bunch flat-leaf parsley

2 cloves garlic

2 unwaxed lemons

4 canned salted anchovy fillets

olive oil

sea salt

1 x 1.5kg butterflied leg of lamb

Preparation

Pick the leaves from the mint and parsley. Peel the garlic. Grate the zest of the lemons and squeeze the juice. I recommend placing all these ingredients in a mortar and pestle, although you can use a blender as an alternative. Grind or blend them together with the anchovies, a good slug of olive oil and some salt.

Rub the mix vigorously into the lamb, on both the meat and skin sides. You can cook the lamb straight away, but ideally you should cover and marinate it in the fridge overnight.

Method

1 If you have marinated the lamb in the fridge overnight, bring it to room temperature for about 30 minutes before cooking.

2 Get the barbecue going at full capacity, then place the lamb (marinade and all) skin-side down on the grid and cook for 12 minutes until golden brown. Turn the lamb over and cook on the other side until this is also golden brown, which should take another 10 minutes.

3 Pull the lamb to a cooler part of the barbecue and cook for a further 10 minutes. Remove and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

4 Slice the lamb into 10-12 pieces across the width of the meat, and serve with a minted new potato salad. Alternatively, ratatouille would work well as an accompaniment, or a simple and light salad of tomatoes and olives.

Find it: 40 Abbeville Rd, SW4 9NG; bistrounion.co.uk

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