Lamb with fig and olive tapenade

Tamara West

You will make about ½ cup of fig tapenade with this recipe. Any tapenade left over can be spread on toasted bread with your favourite goat’s cheese — grill it if you wish.

Ingredients

¼ cup	Dried figs, chopped
2 Tbsp	Brandy
2 Tbsp	Water
¼ cup	Pitted black olives, I used Salvagno Olive Nere in extra virgin olive oil
3	Anchovy fillets
½ Tbsp	Capers, drained
1 Tbsp	Lemon juice
½ Tbsp	Dijon mustard
¼ cup	Extra virgin olive oil, plus 1 Tbsp for lamb
400 g	Lamb medallions, I used Silver Fern Farms lamb medallions (Main)

Directions

1. Place the figs, brandy and water in a small saucepan and place over a low heat. Simmer very gently until the figs are tender and all the liquid has reduced. Leave to cool.
2. Place the olives, anchovies, capers, lemon juice, mustard and cooked figs in a small food processor and process until you have a thick paste. With the machine running, slowly drizzle in the oil through the feed tube. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Place fig tapenade in a bowl, cover and set aside.
3. Season lamb medallions with plenty of freshly ground black pepper and rub with olive oil.
4. Heat a large heavy-based frying pan over a medium-high heat. Pan-fry the medallions for 3-4 minutes each side (for lamb that is pink in the centre), then transfer to a warm plate, season with salt and cover loosely with foil and a clean tea towel. Leave to rest for 5 minutes.
5. Serve lamb medallions with potato mash, fig tapenade and a salad. Or serve with a parsnip mash or cauliflower puree.

Pantry notes

If you don’t have a small enough food processor for this quantity of tapenade, chop olives, anchovy fillets, capers and cooked figs to form a thick mixture, place in a bowl, then beat in the remaining ingredients.