Lamb: not just for nursery rhymes, they make great entrees too!

By Train, The Steak Whisperer

I love chance encounters that lead to conversations about food, social settings and inevitably, dismembered, seasoned, cooked and beautifully presented beasts on platters at feasts. It’s a whole thing for me. Now, what feels like a couple of years ago at a corporate Christmas party, I found myself enjoying a chat with a gentleman with a tale to tell. A known and unabashed lover of BBQ, I also knew this person to be a lively raconteur and quite knowledgeable being the son a of a butcher.

Imagine my delight when leaning over an entrée plate of… something (tragic when a platter barely makes a dent in one’s recollections… or was it that this story was just so immersive?), the gent in question said in hushed, conspiratorial tones coloured in hues of nostalgia (Ed. What in the world is going on?], “I have a breathtaking recipe for lamb… and it’s simple and foolproof.”

Now I’ve always been a fool for foolproof recipes and so a few months later I gave it a go by subjecting it to the time-honoured tradition of the FoB A-B Test at one of our fabled “tastings”. So, are you intrigued? Would you like to know the how’s behind what admittedly was an incredible, durable and delicious tip? Okay then…

…here’s what the butcher’s son told me about lamb. Yumb!

Alright so as many of you know, I like to keep my lamb appetisers and entrees simple, simple, simple. Oil, salt, pepper (garlic and or rosemary if you must) and then a cleansing flame licking at the soon-to-be-rendered fat cap (modest though it may be).

Oyster sauce! Now, I’m a stickler for creating sauces from scratch. While not as talented in the sauce department as my esteemed colleagues, I flatter myself that my own Freight Train’s burnt butter sauce, has contributed heavily to the advancement of humanity – at my house. So I went ahead and created an approximation of the store-bought version to go with some lamb rump portions and lamb lolli-chops. Still, to me oyster sauce, that staple of many Asian and Asian fusion dishes that I’ve devoured over the years, would need help.

It didn’t. I’ll spare you the details but the results of extensive kitchen testing by me (and for me) [Ed. SELFISH!!!] were conclusive.

• Lamb with salt, pepper and oil – classic flavours, delicious and comforting
• Lamb with oyster sauce only – surprisingly good. Sweet, smoky, sticky with a decent salt punch!
• Lamb with an oyster sauce, burnt butter sauce (including a touch of brown sugar) and a pinch of finishing salt and pepper. Wow. Try it NOW!

As always, cook your lamb rump as you would a rump steak (don’t worry, it’ll never know the difference, but you will) and do allow to rest. This will give you a chance to mentally prepare for what will truly be a revelatory dish that you’ll be dying to tell people about at corporate Christmas parties everywhere.

Feast on!