On the heat. Mild

Ingredients

• 16 thin lamb cutlets
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• Coarse sea salt
• — THE FIRE
• A bundle of dry vine cuttings (sarmientos), or grapevine, olive or fruit wood — not charcoal briquettes
• — TO SERVE
• Roasted piquillo peppers · bread · young Rioja

Method

1. Oil the cutlets lightly. Nothing else — no garlic, no herbs, no marinade. This recipe is a fire, not a seasoning.
2. Burn the vine cuttings down to a bed of glowing embers with visible flame still licking. You want a very hot, very fast, slightly smoky fire.
3. Cutlets on a grid close to the embers. 60 to 90 seconds a side. They should be blistered outside and pink within.
4. Salt heavily the second they come off.
5. Straight onto a warm plate, no rest. Eaten by the bone, with fingers.
6. Cook and serve in batches so nobody eats a cold one.

Cook's note. Wood, not charcoal. The point of this dish is the resinous smoke off burning vine prunings. Over briquettes it is simply a grilled cutlet.

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