Recipe: Try this perfect traditional Easter lunch

Tina Richardson picks seasonal dishes sourced from Hertfordshire's top producers. Here she highlights Charlotte Parkins, who raises traditional breed sheep and cattle on her family farm. 

As Easter approaches, lamb makes a great celebratory centrepiece to the family dining table. Whether you’re roasting a leg or shoulder, grilling chops or cutlets, British seasonal lamb is a must. 

For the first of my monthly columns highlighting a Hertfordshire food hero – those producers creating exceptional local ingredients - I’ve chosen someone close to home, Charlotte Parkins. Charlotte has the daunting task of providing customers with lamb for a glorious Easter Sunday dinner.

With more than 200 ewes lambing this season, the 25-year-old certainly has her work cut out. Charlotte’s ewes are a mixed bunch of glorious Hampshire Downs, Suffolk and Jacob breeds, all reared to a high-welfare standard on the family farm, Foxholes in Hertford. 

Charlotte was brought up on the farm, so has years of experience and says that farming is in her blood – the family has worked the farm for over 100 years. Along with attending to her flock day and night to make sure all the lambs are born safely, Charlotte also has more than 300 cows providing the best grass fed, local meat, which like the lamb is then sold at Foxholes Farm Shop and Butchery as well as at local farmer’s markets and online.  

In the kitchen garden at Foxholes this month we have the delightful garden mint which is readily available at this time of year. Picked fresh from the garden, this herb not only has health benefits but also provides a sweet taste with a cool sensation to the tastebuds. It’s Ideal for flavouring early spring dishes like lamb. 

Recipe: Mint lamb cutlets with bulgar wheat, lime & mint

Ingredients 
(serves 3-4)
8 lamb cutlets
2 tbsp freshly chopped mint
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
rind of 1 lime
salt and pepper 
100g bulgar wheat
1 roasted red pepper, chopped (or jar peppers)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
juice of 1 lime

Method
(Prep: 15-20mins, cook: 5-10mins)
1. Place the cutlets in a bowl, add the olive oil, a tbsp of chopped mint, chopped garlic, lime rind and a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix, making sure all the ingredients are rubbed into the meat.
2. Put the wheat in a saucepan, cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes. Turn off the heat and leave to rest for five mins until the liquid has absorbed. Drain and place in a bowl.
3. Heat a griddle pan to and cook the cutlets for three-five minutes on both sides until slightly pink in the middle. Once cooked, wrap the cutlets in foil and leave to rest for five minutes.
4. Add the roasted pepper, extra virgin olive oil, shallot, lime juice and pinch of salt and pepper. Gently mix all the ingredients together with the wheat, then place on a serving plate.
5. Place the cutlets on the wheat and add a sprinkling of mint.

Tina Richardson is a chef, author and keeper of the kitchen garden at Hertford’s Foxholes Farm.