I’m quite proud I managed to create this dish, making Harissa from scratch and also using a few new ingredients along the way (piquillos, preserved lemons, rose water and broad beans). I originally planned to cut the lamb into strips and make a Moroccan Lamb Salad, similar to a Thai Beef Salad, but then changed my mind and cooked the lamb as steaks. I’d still like to try the strips of lamb method, though.

The Harissa needs to be made first and for this I used a couple of piquillos (roasted, preserved red peppers), two fresh chillies with the seeds left in (I advise deseeding them if you don’t want to take a nasty trip up the scoville scale), two preserved lemons, two cloves of garlic, juice from half a fresh lemon, some olive oil and a few drops of rose water. Blend it all together and you get your harissa.

I put a couple of teaspoons of the Harissa over the lamb and rubbed it all in, then left for about 15 mins.

Whilst the lamb was marinading, I quickly made the broad bean mash (or dip, depending on how you serve it). This was also quick and simple; I mashed the beans (from a tin) with the back of a fork and also mashed in a few leaves of mint, a tbps of olive oil and a crushed garlic clove.

The salad was equally simple, although I experimented with the dressing. I used romaine lettuce, which is quite robust, and just added a few drained chickpeas and a few stuffed olives (stuffed with almonds, in this case). The dressing consisted of olive oil, lemon juice, a finely chopped preserved lemon plus seasoning. It was a little too tart at first, so I added a tsp of sugar to take the edge off, then poured it over the salad.

The lamb was cooked in a griddle pan for 4 mins on each side. Serve with the salad and broad beans, plus a couple of tsp of harissa.

Overall I think the dish worked very well. The preserved lemon in the dressing didn’t overpower the salad and was complimented by the broad bean mash and harissa. The harissa didn’t dominate the lamb either and there was just a hint of the rose water taste and smell, which I thought was very different and quite exotic. Definitely a dish I’d try again, although as I mentioned before, I’d like to see how well it works when the lamb is cut into strips and is mixed into the salad.