This recipes comes from Auckland restaurant Little Jimmy. Chef Russell Billing uses New Zealand lamb ribs, given an Asian sweet and sour treatment and slow-cooked so they are very tender. Ask your butcher for lamb ribs, and head to the Asian grocer for chinkiang vinegar and Korean soy bean paste. The rest of this dish is nice and easy. For more about Little Jimmy, see Ray McVinnie's interview with Russell here.
Lamb ribs
2 kgs | Lamb ribs (Main) |
2 Ltr | Beef stock |
Sweet and sour sauce
500 g | Caster sugar |
100 ml | Water |
150 ml | Chinkiang black vinegar |
170 ml | Fish sauce |
150 g | Doenjang, Korean soybean paste |
3 | Lemongrass stem, white part only, very finely chopped |
2 Tbsp | Chopped ginger, finely chopped |
10 cloves | Garlic, finely chopped |
2 | Long red chillies, small ones, very finely chopped |
2 Tbsp | Ground cumin |
To serve
10 servings | Poppadoms |
1 drizzle | Lime juice |
Directions
- Make a caramel: Put the sugar and 100ml water into a heavy-based saucepan over a high heat. Resist the urge to stir, instead just allow the heat to begin to transform the sugar. Gently swirl to dissolve the sugar in the water and move things around a little bit.
- Once a golden caramel is achieved, remove from the heat and add the remaining ingredients. Be careful, as the mixture may spit. At this point, the sugar will start to solidify. Place back on the heat and bring the mixture to the boil again, stir and simmer until the sugar has re-melted and you have a uniform sauce, cool then transfer to an airtight container
Lamb ribs
- Sear the lamb ribs in a hot frying pan then place in a deep casserole dish and cover with boiling stock. Place in the oven for 90 minutes at 160C.
- To serve, fry the lamb ribs in a frying pan with oil to get them crispy, then add the sweet and sour sauce to the pan, and cook until the ribs are nice and sticky all over. Finish with a squeeze of lime, to help cut through the fats and sugar and serve with poppadom shards.
More recipes from Russell