Black stone flower lamb chops and aloo chaat with burnt onion raita

Serves 4

Preparation time: 1 hour   
Marinating time:
at least 3 hours but ideally overnight
Cooking time:
2½ - 3½ hours

There is quite a lot of elements to this so if you want to break it up, make the chutneys the day before when you marinate the lamb and then the day you want to eat it it is just a case of cooking the lamb and potatoes and bringing it all together.

Ingredients
8 lamb chops
2 tbsps vegetable oil
3 tbsps Ginger & Garlic Paste (see below)
1 tsp ground turmeric
100ml lemon juice
3 green chillies, finely chopped
3 tbsps mint leaves, finely chopped
2 tbsps green papaya paste (optional)
1 small onion, minced to a paste
2 tsp salt
a knob of unsalted butter, melted
a squeeze of lemon juice
a pinch of chaat masala
200g Burnt Onion Raita (see below) to serve
Wild Garlic Chutney (see below), to serve

Ingredients for the tamarind and date chutney (makes 500g)
250g tamarind paste
1 cinnamon sticks
½ tsp black peppercorns
1 Indian bay leaf (or ordinary bay leaf)
150ml water
1 tbsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
5 fresh dates, roughly chopped and covered with 5 tbsps boiling water
100g jaggery or caster sugar
½ tsp salt

Ingredients for the burnt onion riata
500g shallots, skinned, 250g halved and 250g thinly sliced
1 tbsp oil
125g Greek yoghurt
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp, salt

Ingredients for the wild garlic chutney
125g fresh parsley leaves
125g wild garlic leaves
1 green chillies
1 tsp fresh ginger root, roughly chopped
1 garlic cloves, peeled  and roughly chopped
50ml vegetable oil
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
½ tsp sea salt, to taste

Ingredients for the garlic and ginger paste (makes 400g)
200g garlic cloves, peeled
200g fresh ginger root, peeled and roughly chopped
20 - 40 ml vegetable oil

Ingredients for the spice mix
¼ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp black peppercorns

Ingredients for the aloo chaat
400g salad vivaldi potatoes, washed and cut in half
4 tbsps flavourless oil
4 generous pinches of chaat masala, plus extra for seasoning
200g jarred chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 tbsps wild garlic chutney (see below)
1 large red onion, finely chopped
5 tbsps Tamarind & Date Chutney (see below)
5 tbsps sweetened Greek yoghurt
salt, to taste
a handful of sev
1 small pomegranate, halved and seeds scooped out
Wild garlic flowers

Method
Turn to the spice mix for the lamb chops.   Put all of the spice ingredients into a bowl and mix.

Place the lamb chops in a bowl, with the spices, oil, ginger and garlic paste, turmeric, lemon juice, green chilli, mint, onion paste, papaya and salt. Coat the meat in the marinade then cover and leave in the fridge for at least 3 hours but preferably overnight.

Start with the dates, chop them fairly small and cover them with 5 tbsps of boiling water.  Leave for 20 minutes, roughly mushing with a fork every 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200c. Place the halved shallots, cut-side down, on a baking tray and cook in the oven for 2-3 hours, or at least until all the moisture has cooked out. You need to essentially burn the onions to a fine ash so don't be worried when they come out black. Leave to cool.

Put all of the tamarind and date chutney ingredients in a heavy-based saucepan over a low heat for about 1 hour until well blended and thick.  Put into sterilised jars and keep in the fridge.

Meanwhile turn to the sliced shallots, put 1 tbsp of oil into a heavy based pan on a medium heat and when hot add the shallots, ¾ tsp of salt and ¾ tsp sugar, stir and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring to prevent it burning.  Reduce the heat and cook for 15 minutes until soft cooked and sticky.

Once the onions are cold, blitz to a fine powder in a food processor. Combine the burnt onion powder with the yoghurt and fold through the onions, season to taste with sugar and salt.

For your garlic and ginger paste, put both in your blender and blitz.  Once it has been cut small, gradually add enough oil to make a smooth paste.  Transfer either into a sterilised jar and keep in the fridge or, if you don't think you will use it all, freeze it by putting into an ice cube tray, you should fit 1 tbsp into each hole. I would line each hole with a small amount of cling film otherwise when you nest make ice cubes they will have that pungent garlic smell to them which is not perfect in a drink.

Put the parsley, wild garlic, green chillies, ginger and garlic in a blender, then, gradually pour in the oil until you reach a smooth consistency. Add the lemon juice and season to taste with sugar and salt.

Preheat the oven to 180c.  Pour the oil into a large baking dish and put into the oven.

In a large pan of salted water, bring the potatoes up to the boil on a medium heat and cook for around 12 minutes until just tender. Drain through a colander, put the colander over the original saucepan, cover with a tea towel leave to cool for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, crush the potatoes gently with a fork to break the skins.

Put the potatoes into the oven for 15 minutes then turn and cook for a further 10 minutes.  They should be nicely golden. 

Meanwhile you need to cook your chops, either in a frying pan or on a hot braai or bbq.

If cooking in a frying pan, put the heat to high and cook them, turning them occasionally, for about 8 minutes until the outside is charred but the meat is slightly pink inside.

If cooking on the braai or bbq, heat the coals until white, cook over direct heat, turning occasionally, for about 8 minutes until the outside is charred and the meat slightly pink inside.

Brush the chops with butter, squeeze a little lemon and a pinch of chaat masala.  Lightly cover with foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Remove the potatoes from the pan, drain on kitchen paper, then season with chaat masala.

Put the chickpeas in a bowl along with the mint chutney, red onion, one-third of the tamarind chutney and one-third of the sweetened yogurt. Season well to taste with salt and chaat masala.

To one side of the plate, lay down a couple of spoonful's of the chickpeas.  Top with the potatoes, cut in half if large. Dot through the remaining tamarind chutney, yoghurt, the sev, pomegranate seeds and garlic flowers.

Put 2 lamb chops to the side of the potatoes. Serve with the burnt onion raita and wild garlic chutney. Drizzle over any of the leftover juices from the pan over lamb.