8 HOUR CHERMOULA LAMB SHOULDER

Our fondness for slow cooked lamb shoulder on the bone is no secret. Put it on at lunch time and forget about it until dinner time. It’s also perfect for cooking the day before and reheating.

This recipe uses a dry spice blend called chermoula (A North African spice blend) which is a mix of cumin, paprika, onion, turmeric, cayenne, garlic, parsley, coriander, salt & pepper.

We use Herbie’s chermoula (see picture) as we sell it at Meat at Billy’s. I sprinkle this stuff on almost everything – especially lamb, chicken or fish. It’s great mixed through mince, butterflied chooks or legs of lamb, lamb cutlets and whole roast chickens too.

I like to marinate the shoulder the day before if I remember. It’s still good if you just rub in right before cooking too though.

Serves 6

Ingredients:
1 x 2kg lamb shoulder bone in, shank attached
1 x 50g Herbie’s Chermoula Spice Mix
3 large brown onions sliced thickly
6 garlic cloves skin on
2 cups water
Salt & pepper

Method

24 hours before cooking - rub half a packet of the chermoula spice all over the lamb, top & bottom. Cover and place back in fridge until ready to cook.

Preheat oven to 150°C.

Place onions and garlic on the bottom of a heavy, deep roasting tin that’s big enough to easily fit the lamb shoulder. Pour in 2 cups of water & sprinkle with salt & pepper.

Place lamb on top of the onions & cover the tin tightly with foil. Place in the oven and roast for 2 hours. Turn the oven temperature down to 110°C and cook for a further 6 hours. Check it every so often and if the water has evaporated, add a little more water. Remove the foil for the last hour of roasting to crisp up the skin.

By this stage you’ll be left with a lovely oniony lamb jus. Pour the jus into a container and skim off the most of the excess fat as there’s usually quite a lot.

The meat will basically fall away from the bone. You should be able to serve with 2 spoons. Place the lamb on a serving platter and pull the meat from the bone at the table and serve with jus. Serve with a few lemon wedges and salt.

Serve with a mix of the following:

a)      couscous with roasted carrots & goat cheese
b)      a mix of roasted pumpkin, capsicum, zucchini & mushrooms.
c)       natural yoghurt mixed with parsley & lime zest.
d)      Chickpea, spinach & avocado salad

INCREDIBLE ROASTED SHOULDER OF LAMB

with loads of garlic and rosemary...

 

 

You've got to love Jamie Oliver's recipes. They're usually quite simple and easily adapted to your own tastes. He has a great deal of respect for good meat too.

I love cooking lamb shoulder slowly on the bone like this. The flavour is like nothing else and the way the soft, rich meat falls from the bone gets me every time. The sauce in this recipe is the perfect accompaniment too. It's got a little zing from the capers and red wine vinegar and then a little freshness from the mint - lamb's best friend.

 I substitute button squash or sometimes broccoli for the swede in the smashed veg and then for the greens, I'll cook up whatever is looking good at the fruit & veg shop. Curly kale is a bit of a favourite of mine at the moment and brussel sprouts are really good right now too. Bon Appetit!


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SLOW COOKED PORK BELLY IN MASTERSTOCK

This Masterstock from the Stock Merchant is a new favourite ingredient of mine. While it's probably simple enough to make yourself at home, in reality I usually just don't have the time.

Master Stock is traditionally used in Chinese cuisine to marinate, braise and poach meats including chicken, duck and pork. Well known chefs including Neil Perry and Kylie Kwong use Master Stock extensively in their cooking.

The Stock Merchant version is made by simmering their Free Range Chicken Stock with soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, a touch of sugar and eight different spices including star anise, mandarin peel, ginger, cassia bark and Sichuan pepper.

The result is an authentic and ready to use Master Stock, perfect for poultry, beef, pork or tofu.


SLOW COOKED PORK BELLY IN MASTERSTOCK
Serves 4

This recipe really is super easy to prepare and cook. 2.5 hours might sound like a long time but you'll be rewarded with a soft as marshmallow, rich flavoured pork dish that your dinner guests will just love! The greens make it healthy too. Obviously.

INGREDIENTS

1kg pork belly
500ml The Stock Merchant Free Range Masterstock
2 cups jasmine rice
2 bunches bok choy
2 finely chopped spring onions
diced fresh red chilli
handful of coriander leaves

METHOD

Preheat oven to 140 degrees

Place pork belly into a heavy based casserole dish. It needs to fit snuggly in the pot. Pour the masterstock in over the pork belly. It needs to cover the pork so add a little extra chicken stock or water so it is just submerged in liquid. Cook for 2.5 hours.

While pork is cooking, prepare the rice and vegetables.

Serve the pork and vegetables on the rice and garnish with spring onions, chilli & coriander.

BEEF CHEEKS - My favourite recipe from Movida

Have you ever cooked beef cheeks before? If you haven't you are missing out. It's another one of those cuts that requires a little bit of pre planning as you have to cook it, slow & low. It'll take a few hours cooked at a very low temperature and you'll be rewarded with a 'melts in your mouth' full flavoured cut of beef. You won't even need a knife!

I've cooked beef cheeks a few different ways over the years but I always come back to this recipe from the first Movida cookbook.

All of the ingredients are very easy to source except for the Pedro Ximenez sherry. For this you'll have to go to a decent bottle shop. The good ones will have a range of them differing in price. For this recipe, a cheaper one is absolutely fine. You're looking at around $27 for a 750ml bottle. Be sure not to use any other type of sherry, especially the dry ones. It has to be Pedro Ximenez to get the right results.

The left over sherry is lovely to sip on after a meal. Its sticky, sweet & raisiny in flavour and goes beautifully with dark chocolate. Or, pour a little over some good vanilla ice cream for an easy dessert.

Here's the link to the recipe.
http://movida.com.au/slowly-braised-beef-cheeks-in-pedro-ximenez-with-cauliflower-puree-carillera-de-buey/

How do you cook your beef cheeks?