Category: Lamb

Xinjiang Lamb with Cumin and Sichuan Pepper

It’s been a while good friends. My excuse is that I have had the Chinese branch of the family staying with me for the past three weeks and it hasn’t left much time for blogging or other social media.
My little grandson Dermot is 20 months old now and a bundle of energy and fun. Arriving home from work to his face peering out the window, his jumping up and down with delight to see his nai nai or ye ye at the door as he ventures outside to add his own “ding dong” to the bell while nattering away in his unique combination of Chinese and English, has me nearly undone with joy. He has me interspersing my few words of Chinese with his words of English as he mixes the two up with ease, learning a new phrase each day. Today it was xia yu le – “it’s raining” which he repeated with delight over and over again, rain being a rare occurrence in Beijing. Somehow this made the onset of winter more bearable. Rain or shine, every day is a pleasure when you’re not even two. Now that he’s a little boy I’ve stopped posting photos of him – he deserves his privacy after all – but I couldn’t resist this rear view of him enjoying one of his first visits to the seaside.

An October Sunday in Bray
An October Sunday in Bray, Co. Wicklow

Meanwhile Shan and I have been cooking most days, taking turns in the kitchen, working out a rota for when she, Shane and Dermot come to live with us for a time next year. On Monday evening we took a night off to visit China Sichuan in Sandyford where we let Kevin Hui take over and treat us to the flavours of his kitchen. As usual the food stunning, the flavours engaging the palate on so many levels.
One of the dishes he served us was a stir-fried lamb with cumin and Sichuan pepper which was very evocative of the flavours of Shan’s native Xinjiang province in the far north-west of China. Shan is rightly fussy about her lamb dishes. It’s hard to beat the earthy flavours of the lamb reared in the mountains of Xinjiang province but she gave the version at China Sichuan the thumbs up.
Between the two of us we deconstructed the dish, identified the key ingredients and set out to recreate it at home. I’ve tried variations of Xinjiang Lamb on the blog before but I’ve never been entirely satisfied with the result. Tonight, with the memory of the China Sichuan version still fresh in my mind, I produced something that hit the spot.
The trick was to use a lean cut of lamb – canon of lamb – which needed only a very short time marinating in a mix of Shaoxing rice wine, soy sauce and a little cornflour, and t0 “pass it through the oil”, a technique which involves deep-frying the marinaded lamb for just 15 seconds at a relatively low temperature of 140 degrees c to lock in the flavour and tenderness before stir-frying it with the other ingredients. Add freshly ground cumin, ground, dry roasted Sichuan peppercorns, chunks of white and red onions, pieces of dried and fresh chillies and some spring onion greens and it was easy to feel transported back to the mountains of Shan’s home province.
This technique will work equally well with beef. Don’t be tempted to overcrowd the wok with meat – the smaller the quantities, the more intense the flavour experience.
Shananigans Xinjiang Lamb with Cumin & Sichuan Pepper
Lamb with Cumin and Sichuan Pepper
Lamb with Cumin and Sichuan Pepper

Serves 2 -3 as a main dish or 4 as part of a multi-course meal
Ingredients

  • 400g canon of lamb or any lean lamb
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 4 dried chillies (or more to taste)
  • 2 fresh red chillies
  • 1 white onion
  • 1 red onion
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground Sichuan pepper
  • Pinch of sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • ½ tsp Chinese white rice vinegar
  • 2 spring onions (green part only)
  • Groundnut oil

For the marinade

  • 1 tbs Shaoxing rice wine
  • 1 tbs light soy sauce
  • 1 tsp dark soy sauce
  • 1 tbs shallot oil or groundnut oil
  • 1 tbs cornflour

Preparation and cooking

  1. Cut the lamb across the grain into paper thin slices. Canon of lamb, the equivalent of fillet steak, is the perfect cut for this. It needs very little marinating and works better than leg or shoulder of lamb.
  2. Mix the marinade ingredients, add to the lamb and set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.
  3. Finely chop the garlic and slice the onions into chunks.
  4. Chop the fresh red chillies at steep angles discarding the seeds; break the dried chillies into pieces.
  5. Slice the spring onion greens at steep angles in 3 cm lengths.
  6. Heat the oil in a seasoned wok to about 140 degrees C. Add the lamb and stir-fry gently for about 15 seconds. As soon as the pieces separate, remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon, drain well and set aside. This is called jau yau or “passing through the oil” which makes the meat very moist and tender.
  7. Pour off all but 2 tbs of the oil. Heat the wok to medium, add the garlic, dried chilli and, after about 20 seconds when the flavours have been released add the onion and stir-fry for a few minutes to soften.
  8. Increase the heat to high and add the fresh chillies, cumin and ground Sichuan pepper. Stir-fry briefly until the fragrance is released.
  9. Return the lamb to the wok and stir well over high heat, seasoning with salt and a pinch of sugar to taste.
  10. When all the ingredients are sizzling and well mixed, add the spring onion greens and toss briefly. Then remove from the heat, add a half teaspoon of Chinese white rice vinegar to bring out the flavour, stir briefly and serve.

Tips

  1. If you pop the lamb in the freezer for about half an hour you will find it much easier to slice it very thinly. Allow it to return to room temperature before cooking,
  2. You can substitute beef in this recipe, sirloin, fillet or bavette of beef work well.
  3. To grind your Sichuan pepper, dry roast Sichuan peppercorns in a solid based frying pan for long enough to release the aromas but being careful not to burn and the grind them coarsely in a pestle and mortar or a coffee grinder. I have a small coffee grinder I only use for Chinese spices.
  4. You may also find ground Sichuan pepper in your local Asia market. It is sometimes called “Prickly Ash Powder”.
  5. You can use ground cumin or grind your own from dry roasted whole cumin.

 
 
 

Last of the Summer Barbecues – Xinjiang Street Food


We are getting along better my Big Green Egg and me. I’m beginning to get to know his moods and temperament. He’s hot stuff, he can turn out a large number of perfectly seared steaks in jig time. But last weekend in Duncannon, on a glorious late summer Sunday, I wanted to get a sense of just how versatile he is and how many different cooking techniques I could use, in the course of an afternoon, and still serve the results at one meal.
The lovely people at A Room Outside in Limerick had received a new consignment of Eggs and accessories so I took delivery of a ceramic pizza stone, a half moon cast iron griddle and some cedar planks to experiment with plank cooking. With these new tools, I had a go at re-creating the kind of street food I had in China last summer, particularly the street food of Xinjiang province. I also added Pork Char Siu to the menu which would not, of course, be served with lamb by the Muslim Uighur people of Xinjiang.
On the menu

Xinjiang Chilli Lamb with Spicy Tzatziki Sauce

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Planked Pork Char Siu

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Spiced Griddled  Courgettes and Potatoes

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Naan Bread

The recipes I used are below. I cooked the Naan bread first and kept it warm in a low oven, then the Pork Char Siu and finally I ramped up the heat to cook the lamb chops and vegetables quickly while the pork was resting.

Xinjiang Chilli Lamb

I found the recipe for this addictive, mouth-numbing marinade on line here and it could be substituted for the marinade used to make kebabs in my lamb chuan’r recipe. The marinade was developed by Christina Soong-Kroeger who writes a blog called The Hungry Australian. She lived in Shanghai for three years and this was one of her favourite takeaway meals from her local Xinjiang restaurant. You wont always find Sichuan pepper used in Xinjiang lamb but Shan’s Mum, who comes from that province, adds it to her lamb dishes all the time.

Ingredients

  • 6 – 8 lamb cutlets

 Marinade

  • 2 tbs groundnut oil (or sufficient to loosen the marinade)
  • 2 tbs ground cumin
  • 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
  • A thumb of fresh ginger finely chopped or 2 tsps ground ginger
  • 1 tbs chilli flakes or a large chilli finely chopped
  • 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
  • 1 ½ to 2 tsps salt
  • Ground black pepper

Method

  1. Smash all the dry marinade ingredients in a pestle and mortar or grind in a food processor and add enough oil to create a loose paste.
  2. Mix thoroughly with the lamb and marinade over night in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before cooking.
  3. Prepare the BGE for direct heat using the cast iron griddle and heat to about 220C.
  4. Grill the lamb chops, covered,  for 3 to 5 minutes each side depending on their thickness and whether you like them pink or well done (about 4 minutes each side for skewers).

Note
These lamb chops can also be cooked on any grill or conventional barbecue.
Planked Pork Char Siu
Pork Char Siu is something you come across as street food in Beijing and other parts of China. It is not normally cooked at home as Chinese households don’t usually have access to barbecues. This special way of rapidly roasting or barbecuing meat that has been marinated is typical of the southern Cantonese and can be applied to all good cuts of meat. Every Chinese cook has their own variation of a Char Siu marinade so feel free to use your personal favourite.  This time I used Rozanne Steven’s Barbecue Sauce from her Relish BBQ book. You could also use a jar of Pat Whelan’s great new BBQ sauce available from James Whelan Butchers in Avoca, Monkstown and Clonmel.
Cedar planks are available from A Room Outside. They can also be picked up from The Butlers Pantry for €3.95 each. These planks create a subtle smoky flavour when used with fish and meats that reminds me of the aromas and flavours of a Beijing street market. For me the big discovery was that cooking on a plank also has the effect of making the meat melt in the mouth tender. The outer skin of the pork doesn’t get crispy when cooked in this way but the meat is moist and delicious. When sliced across the grain, the rapidly cooked pork has a darker rim of well cooked pork with a dark crust of marinade surrounding a more lightly cooked and tender centre.
Ingredients:

  • 2 large pork steaks
  • 1 cedar plank

For Rozanne’s Chinese Sticky Marinade and Basting Sauce



  • 8 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely chopped
  • 2 thumb sized pieces of ginger, grated or finely chopped
  • 250 g dark brown sugar
  • 200 g honey
  • 250 ml hoisin sauce (a good shop bought version such as Lee Kum Kee)
  • 250 ml Shaoxing rice wine
  • 200 ml light soy sauce
  • 200 ml sweet chilli sauce
  • 50 ml groundnut oil (or sunflower oil)
  • 2 tbs Chinese five spice powder

 Preparation

  1. Soak the cedar plank for at least an hour or preferably over night.
  2. Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a pot and simmer, covered, on gentle heat for 10 minutes.
  3. Once cool use sufficient to cover the pork steaks and marinade in a ziplock bag or dish at room temperature for at least an hour or preferably overnight in the fridge. [You can use the remainder as a marinade for pork or chicken or to baste chicken wings, sausages and vegetables on the barbecue. It keeps well in an airtight jar in the fridge.]

Cooking

  1. Preheat the BGE for direct heat and heat to about 180C.
  2. Place the soaked plank on hot grill and heat for 3 minutes.
  3. Remove pork from the marinade and discard remaining marinade.
  4. Flip the plank and place the pork on the heated side of the plank.
  5. Grill with the lid closed for about 20 minutes or until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 65C. You do not need to turn the pork during cooking.
  6. Allow to rest on a shallow dish for 5 minutes, tented in foil. Serve, sliced across the grain, with its own juices. It should be pink near the edges and gloriously moist and tender within.

Note – to cook in a conventional oven:

  1. Heat the oven to 220º.
  2. Place the pork steak on a wire rack over a roasting tin filled with 4 cm of water to catch the drips and roast for 20 minutes.
  3. Reduce the heat to 180°C to avoid burning and roast for another 12 to 13 minutes.

Naan Bread
Naan bread is Asian in origin and resembles pitta bread but is much softer in texture. I loved watching it being made by the Uighur women in Xinjiang Province where they slapped rounds of dough against the walls of  big clay ovens and took it out minutes later golden and steaming. The Big Green Egg’s ability to reach high temperature makes it the prefect environment in which to make this bread and it is great served with lamb and dipped in the spicy Tzatziki sauce.
Ingredients

  • 375g strong white flour
  • 1 tsp active dry yeast
  • 1 tsp table salt
  • 2 tbs sunflower oil
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 190 ml warm water (about 40 to 45C )
  • 4 tbs plain Greek yoghurt

Method

  1. Sieve the flour into a large bowl, add the yeast and salt and mix well.
  2. Make a well in the centre, add the sunflower oil, honey, water and yoghurt and stir well until a dough forms.
  3. Turn on to a lightly floured surface and knead lightly until smooth. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and turn to coat. Cover with a damp cloth or clingfilm and leave to rise for around 2 hours until doubled in size.
  4. Meanwhile set the BGE for indirect cooking with the Plate Setter, legs down and the Baking Stone on top and preheat to 220C. This takes at least 30 minutes.
  5. When risen, turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, cut into 8 equal pieces. Using your hands, roll each piece of dough into a ball and, with a lightly floured rolling pin, roll each ball into a disc about 1.5 cms thick.
  6. Place the discs on the preheated Baking Stone and close the lid. Bake for 4 to 5 minutes on each side until golden brown.
  7. Serve immediately or keep warm in a conventional oven until the rest of the meal is ready to be served.

Xinjiang Vegetables
I cooked the vegetables on a half moon griddle pan while the lamb chops were cooked on the cast iron grid beside them.
Cut courgettes into 1 cm slices at an angle, dip in egg white and  then a little cornflour or potato flour. Dust with a mix of ground cumin, salt and dry roasted Sichuan pepper to taste and grill them on a high heat on an oiled griddle tray on the BGE for few minutes, turning once.
Par-boil potatoes slice them thickly and grill them on an oiled griddle,  plain or scattered with the cumin mix.
Spicy Tzatziki Sauce
This recipe came from the lamb pops recipe on the BigGreenEgg.com website. I didn’t have any saffron last weekend so I stirred in a little smoked paprika for colour and flavour.
Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons hot water
  • 1 teaspoon saffron threads
  • 125 ml plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh mint
  • 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1⁄4 teaspoon sea salt
 Method
  1. Pour the water into a small cup, add the saffron, and let sit for 10 minutes, then strain, reserving the water.
  2. Put the yogurt in a small bowl, add the saffron water, mint, lemon juice and salt and stir well.
  3. Transfer to a small serving bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Lamb Chuan'r (Kebabs)

I haven’t been writing much for the last while. Various minor and major illnesses among family and close friends have conspired to interfere with my concentration. But today is my birthday (and my Mum’s, yes we share the same date – happy birthday Mum!) so it’s time to to put the traumas of the first half of the year behind and turn to happier thoughts.
Claire and Mike have arrived home from Australia for a brief visit for his brother’s wedding in England and, with the glorious weather, I’ve been plotting what to have for a barbecue that would evoke memories of our visit to my daughter-in-law Shan’s home town of Urumqi last summer. Those of you who have been following the blog will know that Urumqi is the capital of Xinjiang Autonomous Region in the remote northwest of China – a vast, dry, mainly desert region that occupies a sixth of China’s territory and is bounded on its borders by Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikstan.
What struck me forcibly on that first visit was that, despite the superficial similarities with other Chinese cities, this is a place apart. Streets signs in an Arabaic-based script and the facial features and dress of many of the inhabitants, are constant reminders that the city has a large Uihgur population – a Turkic-speaking people of Turkish origin who are Sunni Muslims. Men dressed in conservative garb of long coats and knee-high boots and women swathed in shawls or wearing traditional dress evoke the mysteries of the old Silk Road.

Uighur’s in traditional dress

The influence of the Uighur culture is strong. Lamb dominates the local diet and the nomadic history of many of the Turkic minorities – the Kazakhs and the Kirgiz – is evident in the food which has echoes of east and west. Their wide flat or pici like noodles, with their resonance of Italian pasta,  link them with the wheat flour – mian – eaters of northern China.
Their spice stalls sell all my Chinese favourites like Sichuan pepper and star anise but also cumin, cardamon, saffron and other aromatic seasonings more commonly associated with Central Asia and the middle east. There are raisins, dates and other dried fruits in abundance. Their fresh fruits, nourished by the short, hot summers include the fattest grapes, cherries, apricots and pistachios I have ever seen.
Fresh fruit in Urumqi

The locals love their tea but their nomadic heritage is evident in their fondness for yoghurt and other dairy foods. Their golden naan bread makes you feel you have stumbled into a Persia of another era. This is a melting pot of cuisines with its own unique characteristics.
On our first day we had lunch in a Uighur restaurant beside the “This and That Satisfactory Chain Supermarket” – lamb kebabs with sesame seeds (chuan’r) a biryani style rice dish with lamb similar to MaMa’sLamb Rice and lamb with pasta like Shan’s Xinjiang Spaghetti with Lamb. We washed it down with a yoghurt drink and tea.
Shane tucks into the chuan’r in Urumqi

I will forever associate the scent of lamb and cumin lingering in the air on hot dry evenings with Urumqi and I posted a stir-fried Lamb with Cumin recipe recently. Then last weekend Shane and Shan and attended a barbecue in a hutong on the outskirts of Beijing where they had traditional chuan’r kebabs so I set about trawling my recipe books to try and recreate them here. To my astonishment I found the perfect recipe in the Greekish section of Rozanne Steven’s marvellous Relish BBQ book which is my go-to cookbook this summer.
I can only conclude that once upon a time a lonely Greek goatherd came up with this way of cooking fresh goat meat over his campfire as he wandered the hills of his native islands and served it with fresh yoghurt from his herd.  Over the years the traditional recipe travelled, with minor variations, across the world, carried by nomadic shepherds and goatherds through Turkey, Persia and along the old Silk Road to end up as a staple dish in North Western China.
Rozanne’s recipe was too perfect to mess with so I’ve only made one or two minor changes – for instance the Chinese use groundut rather than olive oil and sugar rather than honey. The addition of a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds is also typical of Urumqi. Rozanne serves her kebabs with delicious clumps of grilled grapes bursting their juices whereas in Xinjinag the grapes would usually be served at the end of the meal. I tried this out last weekend in Duncannon. Definitely a winner.
Rozanne’s book is available from her website and all good bookstores and is surely the most inspired cookbook for the summer we are having. If you haven’t got it already go out there and find it before the weekend. It’s packed with hundreds of great barbecue ideas and I mentioned some of them, including my favourite – Norman’s Butterflied Leg of Lamb – in this post.
Now as it’s my birthday I’m going to indulge myself by posting two recent photos of my lovely grandson Dermot now aged 5 1/2 months, one taken before and the other just after his first haircut. His other nai nai adhered to the Chinese tradition of cutting off the straggly baby hair in the hot summer months so that his new hair will grow stronger. Hmmm, I find this idea takes getting used to and I think Dermot might agree…. 🙂
Before….

And after…

What I wouldn’t give for a birthday hug from that little man today.
But it’s fantastic to have Claire, Mike and her friend Diane around to share the occasion for the first time in many years. Time to count blessings.
Celebrating homecomings at China Sichuan Dublin last night

Lamb Chuan’r Urumqi Style 
(with ever so slight variations from Rozanne Steven’s Greekish recipe for Marinated Goat Kebabs and Grilled Grapes)
Preparing the Lamb Chuan’r

Ingredients:

  • 1 kg diced lamb
  • 2tbs ground nut oil
  • Toasted sesame seeds to serve

Marinade:

  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 50 ml groundnut oil
  • Juice and zest of a lemon
  • 3 tbs of finely chopped fresh oregano
  • 1 ½ tbs finely chopped fresh mint
  • 1 tbs finely chopped flat leaf parsley or coriander
  • 1 ½ tbs ground cumin
  • ½  tbs ground cinnamon
  • 1 ½ tbs honey or soft brown sugar
  • Salt and pepper

Greekish Minty Tzatziki:

  • 250 g thick Greek yoghurt
  • ½  large cucumber, peeled, seeded and shredded
  • 1 glove garlic finely chopped
  • Juice of ¼ lemon
  • 1 tbs finely chopped fresh mint
  • Salt and pepper

Lamb Chuan’r by candlelight in Duncannon

Method:

  1. Mix all the marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Add the lamb. Mix well and marinade for between 3 and 24 hours.
  2. To make the tzatziki, sprinkle the cucumber with salt and leave in colander to drain off excess moisture then pat dry with kitchen paper. Mix in a bowl with the other ingredients and chill for a few hours before serving.
  3. Skewer the lamb onto metal skewers, pushing together tightly.
  4. Spread out the skewers on a hot barbecue. Grill for about 5 minutes each side to seal well, then continue to grill the chuan’r until just cooked and tender (this will depend on the size of the cubes).
  5. Serve sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and with the tzatziki. Be careful handling the skewers as they can get very hot.

Xinjiang Lamb with Cumin and Red Onion and Memories of Urumqi

  • Car seat… Check
  • Travel cot… Check
  • Buggy… Check
  • Random impulse buy of two outfits for 3 – 6 month baby boy from Next… Check
  • Purchase of four books of Adam’s Amazing Adventures by Benji Bennett to read Dermot to sleep… Check
  • Shan’s Irish entry visa… Check
  • Shane’s Beijing resident’s permit and visa to return to China… Check
  • Lively 3 month old grandson… now in possession of Chinese exit visa and Irish passport and watching his bags being packed to travel to Ireland for the first time this day week… CHECK!!

Dungarees on impulse

A big “thank you” to my Twitter friends who helped me borrow the equipment needed. We will be poised and ready to welcome the three of them home next Saturday. We can hardly contain our excitement. 🙂
Meanwhile it’s strange the way food can evoke memories and cumin combined with lamb is a case in point.
Cumin is grown in Xinjiang province, the vast north western province of China where Shan comes from, and where the Muslim Uighur street vendors use it whenever they cook their trade-mark lamb kebabs on portable barbecues. For me the distinctive aroma of cumin and lamb combined will be forever associated with our first trip to visit Shan’s family.
The other night I was playing around with a lamb version of Fuchsia Dunlop’s recipe in her Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook for beef with cumin when the scent of the cumin, mingled with sizzling red onion and lamb and flecked with ginger, garlic and chilli, plunged me back into a backstreet in Shan’s home town in Urumqi, Xinjiang province one hot, dry night early last July.
That day we had visited Tianchi – Heaven’s Lake which is perched at an elevation of 2,000 metres above the gobi desert plains below and lies 112 km east of Urumqi. A place apart, Tianchi deserves its Chinese AAAAA– level scenic spot status and its brochure description “like a shy girl deeply encircled by mountains you can even not find another one like it in the heavens and the world.” It also deserves, and will get, a blog post all of its own.  Tianchi freezes over in the winter so it is only accessible in the summer months and is fed by the snows as the ice melts.
Tianchi – Heaven’s Lake

We had trekked for more than 2 hours up 2,500 steps and over a distance of about 7 kilometres to finally come over the crest of the mountain to the vista of the beautiful lake with its backdrop of snow-capped mountains. I had marvelled at the stamina of Shan, who was in the early stages of her pregnancy at that stage, and her little 5 year old niece Xuen Xuen who had matched us step for step.
It was 9.30 pm by the time we arrived back to the outskirts of Urumqi. Our driver asked, through Shan, what we felt like eating for dinner and having worked up an appetite on mountain air we said anything served with a cold beer (Shane and I had the simultaneous thought that we supposed a burger and chips would be out of the question!).
Our driver took us at our word and whisked us into Urumqi city centre through the rush hour traffic. On a bustling summer evening, this city of 4 million people was growing on me, revealing its own haphazard charm. Suddenly we were on a back street, just metres from the heart of the city, with run down apartment blocks on one side and a ramshackle building on the other which housed a pop-up restaurant on the ground floor spilling over on to the street and serving only kebabs (“chuan’r”) and beer.
Pop-up dining in Urumqi

This was one of those places you would never find without insider knowledge, or if you stumbled upon it it’s most likely that you wouldn’t risk eating there. It doesn’t have a name but it was our driver’s local and, during the summer, the eating and drinking goes on there until the early hours on plastic tables strung along the side of the street. The young couple who run it come down from further north near the Mongolian border for the summer months and build up their reserves from the takings to survive the harsh, bitterly cold winters.
Waiting to get fed!

Our driver brought us inside to pick our chuan’r and they were dusted with a spice mix of cumin and chilli, cooked on barbecues outside and brought on platters to our table with large bottles of beer – water and tea were not available.
Choices, choices

Decisions made

Outdoor cooking

Grill action!

The selection of chuan’r for our table of 10 included: duck pieces, whole small lake fish, squid, crab sticks, chicken wings, chicken stomach, chicken pieces with soft bone, blood (a kind of black pudding), courgettes, green beans, leeks, aubergines, potatoes bread and of course lamb, all dusted with spices. The vegetables and bread were sliced thin like crisps and cooked over the barbecue.
Xuen Xuen and her Mum and Dad enjoying the food

This was delicious food, zingy fresh, all char-grilled without oil and an experience of street food we would never have had without local insight. As the sun finally set and the scent of cumin and chilli wafted across to us on the night air, the Chinese chattered on around us and the cold, weak beer lulled us into that particular sense of peaceful wellbeing that only healthy exercise followed by a good meal can produce.
Eating out Urumqi style

Night-life in Urumqi

At the end the owner simply counted up the sticks – long ones for meat, medium ones for fish and short ones for vegetable and calculate the total bill at 2 or 3 RMB per stick. The bill for the lot, for 10 people including beer came to around €35.
Before we left, the owners insisted on having their photos taken with us as the first westerners ever to eat there while the other locals wanted to know all about us. Ireland is now very popular in that part of the city of Urumqi and in a small village near the Mongolian border.
Posing with the owner

So in memory of that magical evening in Urumqi and with thanks to Fuchsia Dunlop for the inspiration, here’s my recipe for lamb with cumin.

Lamb with Cumin – zi ran yang rou

Sizzling lamb with cumin

Ingredients:
Continue reading Xinjiang Lamb with Cumin and Red Onion and Memories of Urumqi

MaMa's Lamb rice

Here at Shananigans base camp my head and my heart are teeming with memories of last Christmas which was very special. In Christmas week Shane arrived with Shan on her first visit to Ireland and it was also our first time to meet her. Claire and Mike came from Australia spending part of the holiday here and part with Mike’s parents in Wales. Christmas resembled a Six Nations convention as we were also joined by my young Italian teacher Solange and her Argentinian husband Agustin. With a bit of talent we could almost have fielded a rugby team between us.

Shane with Claire & Shan last Christmas

What  a difference a year makes. Last year around this time I was nervous about meeting Shan and wondering what it would be like to have a Chinese person staying in our home. Now she is my much-loved daughter-in-law and soon to be mother of my first grandchild.
It will be a quieter Christmas here this year. Claire and Mike are spending the holiday with friends in Melbourne, Solange and Agustin are visiting her family in Italy with their 4 month old twin boys. Meanwhile we are waiting with baited breath for Shane to arrive on Saturday from Beijing. He will be on his own this time and it will be a short visit as Shan is now over 30 weeks pregnant and can’t risk the long-haul journey. Still it will be fantastic to have this time with him as he takes a rare break from life in Beijng and gets ready to become a father.
Shan’s MaMa will be with her in his absence and Shan can be sure of a constant supply of regular and nourishing home-cooked meals. Like us the Chinese have all sorts of strictures on diets for pregnant women. They avoid overly spicy food for instance. As a result many of the meals Shane and Shan are eating these days are easy to replicate here in Ireland from readily available ingredients.
I know most of you are probably up to your eyes with last minute preparations for Christmas and cooking Chinese food is the last thing on your your minds but this recipe of MaMa’s for Lamb Rice is so straightforward that I was able to put it together in just a few minutes yesterday evening. What I like about it is that it is winter comfort food, similar in its appeal to Irish stew, but it can be on the table in about 45 minutes. So if you’re stuck for a quick meal to prepare during this busy week, give it a go.
Lamb Rice served with yoghurt in Urumqi

Lamb is always on the menu in the Uighur restaurants in Xinjiang province and a similar rice dish was served at the first meal we ate out with Shan’s Mum in Urumqi at the restaurant attached to the This and That Satisfactory Chain Supermarket. In her simple and authentic version, MaMa makes this with lamb ribs, carrots, onion, tomato, rice and cumin. I’ve jazzed it up a bit below, adding in some of the ingredients I associate with the middle eastern influences of that region – dried apricots, dates which I brought back from Urumqi and a stick of cinnamon. I also took a notion and added in a half bottle of stout which is entirely optional. You could use a light chicken stock or, as MaMa does, simply water.
MaMa’s Lamb Rice
MaMa’s Lamb Rice Shananigan’s Style

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Red Braised Lamb Stew

The arrival of Shan’s Mum in Beijing from her home in Urumqi in Xinjiang Autonomous Region has brought back memories of our visit last Summer to that intriguing area. I will be writing of some of our experiences there over coming days.

This and That Satisfactory Supermarket

In Urumqi and throughout the region the influence of the Uighur people, who are Turkic speaking Sunni Muslims, is very evident. Lamb dominates the local diet and the nomadic history of other Turkic minorities who live in the area – the Kazakhs and the Kirgiz for instance – is also evident in the food which has echoes of east and west. Their noodles and dumpling link them with the wheat flour – mian – eaters of northern China, with its resonances of Italian pasta. Their spice stalls sell all my Chinese favourites like Sichuan pepper and star anise but also cardamon, cinnamon, cumin, saffron and other aromatic flavours more commonly associated with Central Asia and the middle east and there are raisins and other dried fruits in abundance
They love their tea but their nomadic heritage is evident in their fondness for yoghurt and other dairy foods. These dietary preferences have influenced the Han Chinese too. Shan’s Mum’s breakfast tipple is milky, salted tea. Their vegetables include carrots, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, cabbage, peppers. Their golden naan bread makes you feel you have stumbled into a Persia of another era. This is a melting pot of cuisines with its own unique characteristics.
Lamb biriyani served with yoghurt

That first day we spent there we had lunch in a Uighur restaurant beside the “This and That Satisfactory Chain Supermarket” – lamb kebabs with sesame seeds – chuan’r – a biryani rice dish with lamb and a dish of lamb with pasta like Shan’s Xinjiang spaghetti with lamb. We washed it down with a yoghurt drink and, of course, tea.
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Lamb and Vegetable Stir-fry

A couple of my posts recently have been about special occasion food that requires a bit of extra effort, long, slow cooking or (sometimes) expensive ingredients, such as the last post Shananigans’ Wagyu Stew.
But the joy of Chinese cooking is the ease with which you can use cheap and readily available ingredients to whip together, in minutes, a tasty stir-fry that tickles your taste buds on a miserable autumn evening. So I’m posting this recipe as an example of how you can use up left-over vegetables to produce a nourishing weekday meal requiring little or no meat.
Yesterday I had friends to dinner and, as one of my guests can’t digest spicy food at the moment, I made Shan’s Xinjiang Spaghetti with Lamb, using peppers instead of chilli and mange touts instead of green beans, as I couldn’t find any Irish green beans over the weekend. So tonight I had a small amount un-cooked lamb left over and odds and ends of vegetables. The recipe that follows is something of a cross between Shan’s Xinjiang Spaghetti and Irish Vegetable Chow Mein. Play around with it, using whatever you have to hand, but remember what Shan has taught me – the importance of having a variety of colour and textures on the plate to get a range of nutrients and to excite the palate.

Shananigans’ Lamb and Vegetable Stir-fry – yang rou chao shu cai – 羊肉炒蔬菜

Shananigans’ Lamb and Vegetable Stir-fry

Serves 2 – 3
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Variations of Shan's Xinjiang Lamb Spaghetti on three continents and Winter Vegetable Stir-fry

Hmm… I detect a touch of competition arising in my family across three continents…
I prepared Shan’s Xinjiang Spaghetti with lamb last week and it turned out like this:

Xinjiang Spaghetti with Lamb

Shane made his vegetarian version in Beijing yesterday using aubergines (without spaghetti or lamb!) with the results shown in the picture below and he accompanied it with an egg dish Xi Hong Shi Chao Ji Dan

Shane’s Xinjiang Aubergines

Not to be outdone, Claire also cooked the lamb dish and accompanied it with a vegetable stir-fry.
“To ensure I’m keeping up with the family in the kitchen I cooked Xinjiang spaghetti this evening, yummy!” she says.
Claire’s dish looked like this in preparation:
Preparing Xinjiang Lamb

And this is her finished product:
Claire’s Xinjiang Lamb

Claire says “I also cooked a Chinese winter veg stir-fry with five spice which was also yummy but I couldn’t get a pretty photo!”

Bear in mind that it’s winter where Claire is in Sydney, Australia. Claire’s recipe for winter vegetable stir fry came from her newest, favourite cookbook-  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall – River Cottage Veg Everyday Cookbook. She made it without the Brussels sprouts because she couldn’t get them in Australia!

Winter Veg Stir-fry with Chinese five-spice
Continue reading Variations of Shan's Xinjiang Lamb Spaghetti on three continents and Winter Vegetable Stir-fry

Shan's Xinjiang Spaghetti with Lamb

When we visited Shan’s family in Urumqi, Xinjiang Region every meal included a lamb dish, whether we were eating at home, in a restaurant or having street food. Indeed Shan’s mother believed that a meal was incomplete without lamb. Typically it was served with noodles rather than rice and with lots of vegetables. The noodles were always freshly made by hand, even at home.

A Uighur woman makes noodles in Turpan, Xinjiang

The prevalence of lamb reflects the easy availability of good quality lamb in that mountainous region and the middle-eastern influences on the cooking carried on by the Muslim Uighur community. Though we ate lamb every day for the 8 days we were in Xinjiang, no two meals tasted the same. Every home and restaurant had its own variation of this ubiquitous dish.
Shan’s recipe below is another of those very easy and quick recipes where you can use whatever vegetables you have to hand and adjust the balance of meat to vegetables and the spiciness of the seasonings to suit your personal taste. This version uses packet noodles or spaghetti and is ideal for a speedy family supper after a long day at work or for easy weekend entertaining.
Shan says: “This is a compromise recipe as I couldn’t make handmade noodles the size of spaghetti, so I just used spaghetti. Chinese pre-made noodles usually get soggy easily but it may be possible to get good quality noodles in an Asian supermarket in Ireland.”
Shan’s Xinjiang Spaghetti with Lamb – Xinjiang Ban Mian
A typical Xinjiang spaghetti

Serves 4 – 6 people
Ingredients:

  • 300 – 800 g of lean lamb (depending on how meaty you want the dish to be)
  • A good handful of string beans
  • 1 fresh green and 1 fresh red chilli (or substitute a red and yellow or green pepper, or a mix of pepper and chillies if you don’t like it too spicy)
  • One medium onion
  • One small head of celery (thin and dark Chinese celery, available in Asian supermarkets is better if you can find it – it has a stronger flavour and a bit more bitterness, if not available use about 4 sticks of ordinary celery)
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 2 large tomatoes
  • Salt
  • White pepper powder (Hu Jiao Fen, 胡椒粉)
  • Soy sauce
  • Sugar
  • Tomato paste/ puree
  • Cooking oil – groundnut, sunflower or rapeseed oil
  • Spaghetti to serve

Preparation:

  1. Cut the lamb into thin square slices.
  2. Cut the string beans into 2cm long strips.
  3. Cut the chilli/pepper into diamond shapes and the onion into thin slices or square shapes.
  4. If you find thin celery, cut the stalks to the same size as string beans; if it is normal thick celery, then cut to small cubes so its flavour is easier to get out.
  5. Cut the garlic into thin slices.
  6. Cut the tomatoes into wedges.

Cooking Steps:
Noodle/spaghetti: Start by cooking the spaghetti as the main dish only takes few minutes to cook.
Lamb dish:

  1. Note that the entire cooking process for this dish uses high heat.
  2. Start by heating a wok and putting a generous amount (about 3 tbs) of oil in it. Wait until the oil is really hot.
  3. Add the lamb and stir-fry briskly to brown. Add a small amount of soy sauce, salt to taste and about 2/3 tea spoon of pepper powder. Stir-fry to mix and remove the lamb with a strainer or slotted spoon when it is cooked and set aside. This stage should only take a minute or two in all as the oil is very hot. 
  4. Wipe out the wok, reheat it and add about 3 tbs of oil. When it is really hot, add your vegetables and garlic. Stir fry briskly until the tomato juice is cooked out. Add a dash of soy sauce, salt and sugar to taste and a good squeeze of tomato puree (or about half a small can of tomato paste). Taste the sauce to see if the flavour is ok and adjust seasoning if necessary,
  5. Return the lamb to the pan and stir fry for 30 seconds or so, then serve on a dish of spaghetti.

Variations to the dish:
You can replace lamb with beef.
You can use aubergine instead of, or in addition to, the green beans. Aubergine also helps to prevent high blood pressure and protect the cardiovascular system. When preparing the aubergine, wash it but do not peel it as most of the nutrients are in its dark purple skin (especially vitamin E, C and P (bioflavanoid)); Cut the aubergine into thin slices and place into a bowl of clean water to prevent it from becoming oxidised (otherwise it turns to black). Squeeze the water out before cooking it.*
You can also cook it as a vegetarian dish and double the amount of aubergine as it is rich in protein and calcium compared to other vegetables.
If you want it to taste a bit more middle-eastern, add some cumin seeds when cooking the lamb or aubergine..
*Note: The approach suggested by Shan works with Chinese aubergines which can be found in Asian supermarkets. With European aubergines, it is better to sprinkle the slices with salt and leave in a colander to allow excess moisture to drain out and pat therm dry before use.
Verdict:
I love the versatility of this dish which means it can be a handy way of using up left over vegetables and creating a riot of colour on the plate.
See my first attempt to try out this recipe in Exploring China – from Dublin, Ireland. I made it for a second time in late October, substituting mange touts for green beans and using green, red and yellow pepper and a small chilli to create lots of flavour but not too much spice.