While I am in the mood for doing odes and paying homages, this one is for Gareth, the work experience kid we had in the kitchen last week. Gareth is also my nephew. I think he thought he may have got off quite lightly working with his ol’ Uncle Graz, but we worked that little teenage ass of his into the ground. He truly deserved to go to bed each night, and especially on the day he worked a 10hr shift with me. Anyhoo, I told him if he came up with a good concept for a dish we would work it into the specials at the end of the week. He did… and we did… and it went off. So Gareth here is the child I took from you at birth, reared as my own, chiseled to my own image, taught him/her the necessary skills to succeed, so I may bask in the compliments as a proud parent would… And now I return him/her to you. So that you may show your girlfriend that you are cool and now famous.

Nice one Gareth. Nice one.

MUSSAMAN CURRY PASTE aka muss-yer-mum curry
This is enough to marinate some stuff plus freeze down the extra to make a kick-ass mussaman beef or chicken curry next week
2 Tbls ea coriander seed, cumin seed, paprika
2 tspn ea black peppercorns, tumeric, fennel seed, nutmeg
1 stick cinnamon
2 black cardamon pods
5 cloves
8 star anise
10 dried long red chilli, soak and deseed
2 red onion, dice
10 cloves garlic
4 stalks lemongrass
100g galangal
4 coriander root, washed
1 Tbls shrimp paste, dry roast
1 Tbls palm sugar
2 Tbls fish sauce
• Toast coriander and cumin seeds
• Grind all dry spices in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle
• Blitz spices with everything else and a splash of oil to lubricate it a little bit, to form a sort of smooth paste

Make a Mussaman curry paste with all of this shit.
Marinate enough lamb of your choosing (we used chump chops. One of my faves) to feed the amount of people you are feeding. By now you know how to marinate meat yeah?
Cook said lamb with a method best suited to the cut (chump chops – 4 minutes each side on a med-high heat, lamb shanks and neck get braised, shoulder gets roasted, etc).
Serve with steamed rice, Vietnamese slaw dressed with nam Jim (recipe back some posts) and tamarind caramel (recipe follows).

I’m feeling a little tired and more than a little tipsy tonight but I will continue for at least long enough… Nope. Couldn’t do it. Intoxicated Graz thought he’d better retire (bloody good idea actually. I tip my hat to him. He doesn’t pull through with the good ones all that often) and leave it to future Graz to finish this up with the tamarind caramel…

Tamarind caramel
1 jar of tamarind purée
1 cup water
2 cups palm or castor sugar
3 dried long red chilli
• Simmer until thick and syrupy – medium heat, 15-20 minutes