Middle eastern inspired Lamb Shoulder with beetroot salad
Ingredients
1 1.4-1.5kg boneless lamb shoulder
2 brown onions, roughly chopped
2 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp olive oil
50ml extra virgin olive oil
60ml lemon juice
4 cloves garlic, chopped
25g parsley stalks
zest of 1 lemon, cut into strips
1 tbsp instant coffee
2 tbsp sea salt
1 orange, quartered
1 onion, quartered
Roasted Beetroot
500g rock salt (optional)
1kg whole medium sized beetroots
olive oil, for drizzling
Toum
1 head garlic cloves, peeled
milk, for blanching
1 tbsp lemon juice
100ml sunflower oil
Instant Flat Bread
1 cup plain yoghurt
1 ½ - 2 cups self-raising flour
light extra virgin olive oil, for frying
Garnish
fresh dates, chopped
150g Bulgarian sheep’s feta, broken into small chunk
pomegranate seeds
1 bunch parsley leaves
1 bunch mint leaves, chopped
80g roasted slivered pistachios
½ cup Greek Yoghurt
zest of ½ an orange
Steps
Preheat oven to 220C.
For the Slow Roasted Lamb Shoulder with Middle eastern Beetroot salad, place onions into a food processor and blitz to a purée. Add the remaining ingredients, except for the quartered orange and onion, and blitz to combine. Coat the top surface of the lamb in the marinade mixture.
Lay the orange and onion quarters into a roasting tray. Place the marinated lamb on top. Place in the oven at 220C to roast for 30 minutes.
Reduce the heat to 130C, and continue to roast until tender for 4-5 hours. The meat is ready when it pulls apart easily.
For the Roasted Beetroot, spread the rock salt into a shallow roasting dish to create an even layer. Drizzle beetroots with olive oil and wrap individually in aluminium foil. Place the wrapped beetroots onto the bed of rock salt. Roast in the oven 130C until tender, about 90 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly, and then peel the beetroots by using the foil to slide the skin off. Cut the beetroots into quarters and set aside.
For the Toum, place the garlic cloves into a small saucepan and add just enough milk to cover. Place over medium heat and bring to the boil. Drain and discard the milk. Place the garlic cloves back into the saucepan, cover with fresh milk and bring to the boil again. Drain and discard the milk. Repeat this blanching process once more then drain the garlic cloves.
Place the garlic cloves and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice into a stick blender canister and use a stick blender to blitz to a smooth paste. Slowly add the sunflower oil and continue to blitz until emulsified and thickened. Blitz until fully incorporated and lightened in colour. Season with salt to taste..If the tomb does not emulsify, add in one egg white and blitz to combine.
For the Instant Flat Bread, place the yoghurt and 1 cup of flour in a mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add more flour, ¼ cup at a time, until the dough is soft and malleable. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes.
Divide the dough into 18 apricot sized balls. Roll each ball out thinly into a disc.
Heat a little oil in a frypan over medium heat. Add the dough discs, a few at a time and fry, turning when the flatbread bubbles and colours on the underside. Wipe out the frypan and repeat with the remaining dough discs.
To serve, pull the lamb into small pieces using 2 forks and scatter onto a serving platter. Scatter the Roasted Beetroot over the lamb. Sprinkle some chopped dates, feta, pomegranate seeds, parsley leaves, mint and pistachios. Finish with a scatter of pomegranate seeds and dates. Dollop some Greek yoghurt over the top then finish with some orange zest. Serve Instant Flat Bread and Toum on the side.
