Jono & Jules do food & wine

We love barbecuing our food and when a bunch of plums came our way just had to give this a go. We made too much plum sauce and it was lovely at breakfast with our granola, and then with some sausages another night as well. You can make both sauces in advance.

Wine suggestion: we think this worked really well with Domaine Ventenac’s “les Dissidents” Paria, which is a charming Grenache from the south of France near Carcassonne. Bright and minerally, this is perfectly ripe, but steps lightly with a mineral freshness and effortless weight.

Tahini lamb chops with plum sauce – serves 4 to 6

• 2 racks of lamb, divided into 12-14 single chops
• 100g lamb’s lettuce or baby chard or similar
• 4 plums, halved and stones removed

FOR THE TAHINI BBQ SAUCE:

• 150g tahini paste
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 2 salted anchovies, chopped
• 1 tsp pul biber
• 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
• 100ml water, plus more if needed
• 1 tsp flaky sea salt

FOR THE PLUM SAUCE:

• 6 plums, cut into eighths and stones removed
• 50g sugar
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 whole dried chilli, cracked in half and seed discarded
• 1 tsp Szechuan pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 tbsp pomegranate molasses
• ½  tsp flaky sea salt
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Put all of the tahini bbq sauce ingredients into a small food processor and blitz to a smooth thick paste, you might need a little water.

Put the plum wedges, sugar, garlic, spices, bay leaf and pomegranate molasses into a small frying pan, place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Cook for 5 minutes until the plums soften and start to fall apart, then remove from the heat and stir in the salt and vinegar.

When the barbecue is ready to cook on. Brush both sides of the chops with about half of the bbq sauce. Grill the chops for a couple of minutes, then turn them and brush with more sauce. Grill for another 2 minutes then turn and baste again. Repeat this until the chops have been cooking for 6 minutes on each side, then remove and set aside.

Put the plum halves on the barbecue, cut-side down. Grill for about a minute to just warm a little, then remove.

Scatter the lettuce over a large platter and top with the chops and plums. Serve with the plum sauce on the side.

(Original recipe from Chasing Smoke by Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich, Pavilion, 2021.)