Recipe: Lamb skewers with barbecue-enhancing tomato butter

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Alex Jackson was head chef of Noble Rot and is now cooking simpler but equally delicious food at Leila’s Shop in east London. This recipe is his favourite thing to cook for friends on days off in the summer and contains two ideas you can apply elsewhere. Firstly, the tomato butter — which will work as an accompaniment to other meats, or with pasta or bread. Secondly, Alex’s method for boiling rice. It is extremely involved (rice is second only to boiling an egg in the list of common tasks that chefs obsess over) but the end-product is so much better than what I normally manage that I am now a believer.

Alex Jackson’s Lamb Brochettes, Tomato Butter and Saffron Rice

To serve four

For the brochettes

For the tomato butter

For the saffron rice

1. Cut the lamb into 3cm cubes. Toss with all the other ingredients and leave to marinate for at least one hour, then thread on to metal skewers ready for the grill.

2. Halve the tomatoes and grate them using the coarse side of a box grater. Discard the skins.

3. Fry the garlic slowly for a minute in a tablespoon of the butter, then add the pul biber and the grated tomato pulp. Cook the tomatoes on a medium heat for about five minutes until they have thickened into a sauce. Season with salt and set aside to cool (you can start on the rice while you’re waiting), then mix the cooled tomato sauce with the remaining softened butter. Sprinkle over the herb flowers if you have any. Keep somewhere cool, but not in the fridge.

4. Working carefully so as not to break up the grains of rice, wash the rice in cold water three times, until the water runs almost clear. Soak the rice in fresh cold water for 30 minutes.

5. Warm the vermouth slightly in a pot and add the saffron, then remove from the heat and allow to steep.

6. Cook the sliced onion slowly in the butter, with a good pinch of salt, until very soft. Drain the rice and add to the pot, along with another pinch of salt. Stir carefully with a wooden spoon.

7. Pour over boiling water to cover the rice by 1cm, and pour in the saffron vermouth. Bring back to the boil, cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook on full whack for three minutes. Turn down the heat to the lowest setting possible, cook for a further seven minutes, then turn off the heat.

8. Keep the lid on for at least 10 more minutes, then fluff gently with a fork. The rice will keep hot in the covered pot for at least an hour. Just before serving, gently mix in the chopped parsley.

9. To grill the lamb, heat some charcoal on the barbecue until it is quite hot (or use a top-down oven grill). Season the lamb skewers with salt and black pepper. Grill the lamb, turning the skewers over a few times, until they are golden brown and blackened in places, but pink within.

10. Rest the lamb for a few minutes on a plate or serving dish, smothering on the tomato butter while the skewers are still hot, so that the butter starts to melt. A little squeeze of lemon is never a bad thing either.

11. Serve with the saffron rice in the pot, making sure to spoon over the buttery resting juices.

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