Moroccan spiced lamb with raspberry-mint sauce

See a woman amble aimlessly around a fashion store for hours on end and nobody bats an eyelid. Try doing the same thing in a supermarket, and security guards get downright twitchy. None of this picking up stuff, checking it out and putting it back. That’s OK for a dress, but apparently not for a bottle of pickles. But here’s the rub, I love aimlessly ambling in supermarkets and markets. Touching, sniffing, reading, seeing what’s new – it’s how I get recipe ideas.

Like the other day, when I spotted a bottle of Ras el Hanout spice in Woolies. A heady Moroccan blend of perfumed spices like coriander, cumin, cloves and cardamom, no two recipes for Ras el Hanout are the same. In Morocco every mama has her own secret blend. Not being a Moroccan mama, nor being inclined to blend my own, in my basket it went. Back home I marinated lamb steaks in a bit of olive oil and a generous sprinkling of the Ras el Hanout, then on the braai they went. I cooked them on the rare side of medium and arranged fat slices on a pretty platter. To complement the lamb, I made a mint sauce, but not mint sauce as you know it. I started with a sweet-sour chilli base, then grabbed a large handful of mint leaves and juicy raspberries. When I made it again, I sadly couldn’t find lamb steaks, but this recipe works just as well with lamb chops, though it’s obviously not as girlie pretty.