Honeymoon Salad
AKA Lamb, Corn & Cous Cous Salad
My husband and I celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary later this year (feels like yesterday… but also can’t believe it’s been 10 years…!) and this salad was inspired by a delicious meal we shared with friends on our Honeymoon!
Before we went to our tropical island honeymoon, we had a mini-moon with friends at Bannisters in Mollymook. My brother had travelled from London for our wedding, plus we had friends come from Germany and from Brisbane. These friends make up a group that basically defined my 20’s - two of them were my brother’s best friends and kind of ended up being like second and third big brothers to me. Very special. Lucky me! So, seeing as they’d come so far and we knew we wouldn’t have the chance for a proper catch up at the wedding, we decided to have a friend-moon!
It was a Monday night in Mollymook and the Bannisters staff suggested we go to a restaurant called Tallwood just down the road. The seven of us were the only people in the restaurant and on a Monday night, the menu is essentially an ad-hoc curation of dishes using any leftover ingredients from the previous weekend’s service. It was one of the best meals of my life (could have had something to do with the post-wedding high and the excellent company!). And this salad was the highlight. I talked about it constantly for days (could have had something to do with the post-wedding high and the delicious cocktails...!). Even possibly the following weeks… Until my freshly minted husband suggested I try and recreate it while it was still fresh in my mind. So I did! And so it became known as “Honeymoon Salad”.
Honestly, recreating dishes I’ve eaten in restaurants is one of my favourite things to do! There’s always a happy memory attached to them and it feels fun to eat restaurant food at home!
With the Autumn weather now firmly settled and the Easter weekend on our doorstep, this is a great salad to feed friends and family. Enjoy!
Serves 4-6
Marinated Butterflied Leg of Lamb (see below for marinade)
Pearl Cous Cous x 1 cup
2-3 cobs of corn
Coriander & Mint leaves; a large handful of each (plus a few extra to serve)
Marinated Goats Cheese, crumbled
A delicious tangy salad dressing*
To make the Marinade for the Lamb, combine five crushed cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons of honey, the zest and juice of a lemon, 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, the leaves from 2 sprigs of rosemary (finely chopped), ¼ cup of olive oil and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper.
Rub this mixture all over the lamb and leave in the fridge to marinate overnight.
To cook the lamb, preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and roast for 25-30 minutes. I like a crunchy crust, but still a pale pink centre. Remove from the oven and rest.
Cook the pearl cous cous according to the packet instructions (I cook my cous cous in chicken stock for a bit of extra flavour). Leave to cool and then fluff it up and pop into your salad bowl.
Cook your corn! I tend to cut the kernals from the cob and then sauté them in a hot pan with a little bit of oil. You still get a bit of char this way (beware of a bit of popping!). But equally, cook the cobs whole on the BBQ and then cut the kernels off. You do you.
Toss together the cous cous, corn, herbs and goats cheese and a liberal amount of dressing.
Slice the lamb thinly and add to the salad just before serving. Toss, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with a few mint and coriander leaves.
For extra oomph and deliciousness, pop a jar of Spicy Green Sauce on the table for people to help themselves.
* I make a dressing using olive oil, red wine vinegar, a squeeze of lemon, salt, pepper, raw sugar and a teaspoon of pomegranate molasses. Adjust the sweetness/tanginess to your liking, but with the sweetness of the corn and the richness of the lamb, I like a bit of zing in this dressing!
When food and memories are wrapped up beautifully in a bright tasty salad!