Serves 4
"I made this dish up the other day on a kind of Moroccan vibe, when I was mucking about with ways of marinating and tenderizing a neck fillet of lamb, which is a really tasty and cheap cut of meat. I trimmed the meat of all sinews, bashed it flat using a rolling pin, and made 2 incisions down the length of each fillet, but not quite to the end, so it looked almost like a tripod. I then marinated it with lots of spices and herbs and plaited it, to give a contrast between crispy and soft meat which I thought would be interesting. You dont have to plait the meat but it does increase the surface area, meaning the marinade can get right in there. Needless to say, Jools thought I was mucking around with it too much and being very camp you decide!"
Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
3-4 small dried chillies
a small bunch of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
2 thumb-sized pieces of fresh ginger, peeled
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
4 smallish neck fillets of lamb
4 sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into 2.5 cm/1 inch dice
2 red onions, peeled and roughly chopped
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
12 ripe plum tomatoes, each cut into 8 pieces
1 stick of cinnamon
2 bay leaves
a handful of dried apricots
285ml (½ pint) boiling water
350g/12oz couscous
a little wine vinegar
1 large bunch of fresh coriander
4 tablespoons natural yoghurt
Brown your 4 marinaded pieces of meat on both sides in a pan with a little olive oil. Add the sweet potato mixture to the pan and remove the lamb to the empty bowl while you fry your veg for about 4 minutes until the onions are slightly soft. Add your tomatoes, give the pan a shake and place the meat on top. Add 3 wineglasses of water, the cinnamon stick, bay leaves and dried apricots, and braise in the preheated oven (I suggest you do this with the lid off to give it a little colour) for 1 hour 15 minutes. Now pour the boiling water over the couscous and allow it to be absorbed. Then fork the couscous through, season with salt, pepper, a lug of olive oil and a swig of wine vinegar, cover with tinfoil and place in the oven for 5 minutes to steam.
Roughly chop the fresh coriander and stir it through the stew just before serving. Divide between 4 plates with the couscous and spoon over a good dollop of natural yoghurt.
Steve is vegetarian so he has homemade nutroast 
but I'm not sure I could talk the rest of the family into that one 
that would be me !
