Herb-roasted cannon of lamb, quinoa tabbouleh & tzatziki

Head Chef, Marcus Verberne, introduces this week a new lamb main in the lounge: a cannon of lamb rolled in rosemary, served with a quinoa tabbouleh, garnished with tzatziki

Know which cuts to choose

“It’s still a little early for new season lamb so I have chosen the tender cannon cut from the best end for this dish.

We should start to see the new season lamb coming through in mid to late May. When it arrives I will be dusting off the BBQ at home and preparing this dish using my favourite cut, neck fillet.

Neck fillet is lovely and tender from early lambs and is well suited to the barbecue due to its fat content”.

Tabbouleh and tzatziki?

“Tabbouleh is the ideal accompaniment as its acidity from the lemon juice cuts through the lamb to perfection”.

To give yourself a health boost, Marcus built his tabbouleh around quinoa. He added parsley, mint, tomato, shallot, preserved lemons, lemon juice. The main is garnished with tzatziki, the delicious sour yogurt sauce with mint and cucumber.

This will give your lamb some delicious Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavours!

Wine Pairing

Emmanuel, Deputy Head Sommelier, recommends:
2016 Soldaat, Die Ouwingerdreeks, The Sadie Family, Swartland, South Africa @ £62.00 per bottle

Eben Sadie is THE star winemaker from South Africa. Made from old vines (Die Ouwingerdreeks actually means Old Vine Series in Africaans), this is one of the finest example of Grenache from South Africa.

This wine is named after the foot soldiers who were located at the top of the mountain to protect the lifestock from theft in this part of the old Cape Colony. This old parcel of unirrigated vines produce an outstanding wine showing brambles, ripe plums, spiced cherry, black olives and Asian spices.

This savoury and full-bodied wine will be a fantastic matching for this Mediterranean dish, the black olives and Asian spices aromas of the wine marrying perfectly the lamb rolled in rosemary, with the Tzatziki only lifting and highlighting the fruit characters of the wine.