While I was reheating it for dinner the next evening, watching fat pooling in the roasting dish and feeling too tired to make hummus, I remembered the ultimate in traditional accompaniments. Five minutes later...
Asian Mint Sauce
Let's be clear, this is a mint sauce with vaguely Asian ingredients, not a sauce of Asian mint (though I'm sure that would be nice, and if you have some growing, adding it would be a good experiment).
2 Tbsp grated palm sugar, or brown sugar
1/2 cup rice vinegar
a good pinch of flaky sea salt
about 40 fresh mint leaves, shredded
Put the sugar, vinegar and salt in a small pot. Bring it to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt. Remove from the heat and add the mint. Stir and leave to cool, then transfer to a lidded glass jar. Store in the fridge and use liberally on appropriated roast lamb, among other things.
Given the weirdness of our weather - nearly May and it's still t-shirt weather in most parts of New Zealand, while it's sleeting in the northern hemisphere - it seems this fits the bill for Lavender and Lovage's Cooking With Herbs blogging challenge for April, which focuses on herbs for spring and Easter.
my mum always used to make mint sauce for roast lamb but I don't remember eating it - and now I don't eat lamb but have mint in the garden I sometimes wonder if it goes with anything except lamb - perhaps peas?
ReplyDeleteSee Phil's comment below re roasted courgettes!
DeleteI don't seem to eat mint sauce with lamb much these days and right now I can't understand why. This sounds like a fine variation to me. Mint sauce in some form or another does work well with grilled or roasted courgettes too - or at least I think so. But what really impresses me is that it's possible to bring home bits of lamb as a souvenir from a night out. I've known people to bring home traffic cones, inedible kebabs and people they've never met before but bits of lamb are SO much better. I think life in your distant part of the world is sounding much more civilised and exciting.
ReplyDeleteBelieve me, I was surprised too - it would be a great story if he'd wrestled a lamb to the ground, wrenched off a shoulder and roasted it over a nearby fire, but the real version is a bit more prosaic. Sigh. It did make a good dinner though.
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