I like lamb.

I like lamb a lot.

I like lamb enough to write a poem about it.

Mary had a little lamb shoulder which she would cook for hours,
It cooked until it fell from the bone and its aroma was better than flowers.

There’s a brief foray into the world of poetry from me.

I attribute much of my love of lamb to the fact that I grew up in a town called Albany, situated in southwest Western Australia. Albany is a town that is surrounded by lands that are rich in sheepriculture. There were (and are now) sheep everywhere. Coming from this place on the world map, and growing up pretty poor to boot, the obvious choice was to eat what was growing around us and available en mass and possibly quite cheaply. Enter the sheep.

We ate sheep often.

Not whole sheep, sheep cut up into pieces. Chops, cutlets, ribs, belly, shanks, legs and shoulder, and it is shoulder I shall be cooking once more today.

SMOKED LAMB SHOULDER WITH MIDDLE EASTERN SORTA GARNISH

(for 6 – 8 of your closest homies)

1.5 – 2 kg (3.3 – 4.5 lb) bone-in lamb shoulder
¼ cup of your favourite lamb rub (or a teaspoon each salt and pepper)
50 g butter
2 tablespoons BBQ sauce
2 cups hommus (store bought is fine)
½ cup pine nuts, gently toasted in a pan
Pickled red onion (recipe follows)
Zhoug (recipe follows)
A little chopped parsley to garnish (save a bit when you make your zhoug)
Pita to serve (brush with a little of the lamb pan juices and pan fry for 30 seconds each side if you like next level sexy)

Trim lamb of any excess fat.
Coat the lamb shoulder with rub or salt and pepper. Really cover it. Set aside for 15 minutes so rub can adhere.
Get your smoker up to fairly consistant 135°C (275°F). Add a little fruit wood for flavour if that’s how you’d like to roll. Pretty much the same scenario as always around here.
Get the lamb into your smoker.
Give the lamb a spray with water if it looks like it needs a little moisture at any stage – you will work out how you like it to look the more often you cook these things.
After 2 – 3 hours the lamb shoulder should be a nice smoke-kissed colour and then, only once it is looking bronzed as a Brazilian underwear model, it’s time to wrap.
Place lamb on a double piece of foil that will be big enough to wrap it with room to spare and dot with pieces of butter.
Wrap lamb nice and firmly and then return to the smoker for another 2 hours or until the internal temperature is 210°F (100°C). You will need a probe thermometer for this.
Once temperature is at 210°F (100°C), remove from smoker and rest for anywhere from 0 – 1 hour.
Now place whole package in a tray or pan to catch liquid gold juices.
Unwrap and tip lamb into tray.
Slip the bones out of the lamb and pull and/or chop meat.
Pour juices back over lamb, add a splash of BBQ sauce and mix to combine.
Make a little hommus donut on a serving plate, place lamb in the middle with a good portion of zhoug and pickled onions of to the side. Sprinkle lamb with pine nuts and parsley to garnish. Serve with pitas to scoop it all into, kinda like a middle eastern taco.

CHARRED CHILLI ZHOUG

6 fresh jalapeno chillis
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch coriander
3 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground cardamon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup canola oil
A good pinch of salt

Grill chillis over a flame (a cake rack placed over your stove top burner works well for this) for a few minutes, turning regularly until they are getting a little charred and blistered.
Allow to cool a little.
Roughly chop chillis, herbs and garlic.
Place everything into a food processor and pulse until it is a coarse, wet paste. Add a little extra canola oil if it looks like it needs it.
Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
Decant any extra zhoug into a jar and cover the top with an extra 2-3 mm of canola oil. This will last a week or so in the fridge.

PICKLED RED ONION

2 red onion, sliced into thin rings or half rings
1 cup white vinegar
½ cup castor sugar
½ teaspoon salt

In a bowl or large jar, mix vinegar, sugar and salt and stir or shake until sugar is dissolved.
Add onions.
Leave for at least one hour to get sexy before using.
Pickled onion will last for pretty much ever in the fridge.