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These lamb cutlets are best cooked on a hot barbecue with wood or charcoal, to give you a wonderful smoky flavour.
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Otherwise use a preheated ridged griddle pan.
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Slap the cutlets with the heel of your hand to flatten them slightly.
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Then bash up your thyme in a pestle and mortar and add a little olive oil.
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Mix together, then rub the oil over the cutlets and season both sides of them.
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Put to one side.
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Cook the mushrooms dry on the bars of your hot griddle pan.
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This is quite an unusual way to do it, but it gives you a nutty flavour that you wouldnt get otherwise.
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Just grill them on both sides to mark them and put them into a large bowl.
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Once the mushrooms are done you can put the lamb on the barbecue or griddle pan.
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If the cutlets are about 5cm/ 3/4-inch thick, just give them 3 or 4 minutes on each side until theyre really golden.
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This should cook them medium.
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(To be honest, Im not really into rare lamb cutlets, but if you prefer them like that then cook for a little less time.)
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When cooked, put the lamb cutlets into the bowl with the mushrooms and drizzle with a little olive oil.
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Tear over the parsley, in quite large pieces, and add a good squeeze of lemon juice.
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Season lightly and toss around.
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Place to one side to rest, to allow all the lovely juices to get sucked up by the mushrooms.
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Meanwhile you can make a really quick sauce.
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It looks a bit like pesto, but although it contains basil and pine nuts it has no similarity in flavour.
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In a pestle and mortar pound up the pine nuts until you have a mushy pulp this will give the sauce a creamy flavour and texture.
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Remove the mixture to a bowl, then use the pestle and mortar to bash the basil up into a pulp.
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Add this to the pine nuts and loosen with extra virgin olive oil so that the sauce easily drops off the end of a spoon.
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Now you need to balance it with quite a lot of balsamic vinegar to give it a good zing, almost like a mint sauce, but add it to taste.
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Give the lamb and mushrooms a final toss.
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I like to serve this up on a big platter and let everyone help themselves.
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Have the sauce and a simple watercress salad on the side.
