Lamb Chops, Wild Garlic Butter & Spring Salad by Julius Roberts

This seasonal dish celebrates the return of spring! After the long cruel nights of winter, what a joy it is to see asparagus on the farm shop shelves once again, with sparkling radishes and golden new potatoes.

In the fields, young lambs call their mothers for milk and the hedges on the way home are carpeted in a rippling sea of wild garlic. As the saying goes… what grows together, goes together!

So here we have a warm seasonal salad of boiled potatoes, peas and asparagus with handfuls of radishes and mint, dressed simply in olive oil and lemon. And on top some beautifully pink lamb chops with wild garlic butter!

Ingredients

4

Grass Fed Lamb chops
250g

Softened butter
200g

Wild garlic
500g

New potatoes
2 bunches

Asparagus
1 bunch

Radishes
200g

Peas
1 bunch

Mint
1

Lemon, unwaxed

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Method

Start by making the wild garlic butter. Bring a large pan of water to a boil, season well and plunge in half the wild garlic. It should only take about 20 seconds to wilt, look for the colour change.
When ready fish out the garlic and run it under a cold tap to stop it from cooking further, but don’t drain the pan. Wring out the wild garlic to remove all the water and place in a food processor with the remaining wild garlic and butter. Blitz together, have a taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary with a touch of salt and lemon.
Take the chops, drizzle them with olive oil and season them generously with salt.
To make the salad, halve the potatoes and boil until tender but not falling apart. While the potatoes are cooking slice the asparagus into rounds, leaving the tips whole, and halving the radishes.
When the potatoes are more or less cooked chuck in the asparagus and after two minutes add the peas. They won’t take long to cook, only a minute or so, but taste to check then strain the pan. Leave to drip, then pour into a bowl with the radishes. Drizzle in a generous glug of olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly. Place a plate on top of the bowl to keep the salad warm while you cook the chops.
Get a frying pan hot and place in the chops, standing up fat side down. Allow to sizzle and render out the fat, when golden, turn and brown each side. They shouldn’t take long, just treat them like a steak, you’re looking for blushing pink within.
When ready take a big old tablespoon of wild garlic butter and add it to the pan. Toss the chops in the butter as it melts, then pour onto a plate and let the meat rest for 5 minutes.
Tear the mint into the salad, finish with a squeeze of lemon and have a taste to perfect the seasoning. Serve the warm salad with a couple of chops and finish with a generous drizzle of the wild garlic butter!