Sweet Crispy Lamb (muu Grop Warn)

Total Time: 1 hr 30 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 1 kg lamb (belly is best, but use a whole lamb cut)
• vegetable oil (for deep frying)
• 180 g palm sugar (dry, see description)
• 1/2 cup fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 3 tablespoons shallots, deep-fried
• 1 tablespoon coriander leaves
• 1 tablespoon coriander (3 roots scraped and diced)
• 1 g salt (pinch of salt)
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 teaspoon peppercorns
• 1 star anise, roasted and ground

Recipe

• 1 steam lamb until well cooked. this will take 30-60 minutes depending on your steamer and the cut of meat so check for an internal temperature of 70c (155f) with a meat thermometer and remove at that temperature.
• 2 allow to rest 10-15 minutes at room temperature and then place in refrigerator a while to cool.
• 3 while lamb is cooling you can make the paste by adding all the paste ingredients one by one to a mortar and pestle and pounding until smooth. set to one side.
• 4 mix fish sauce and oyster sauce in a small and then mix in the palm sugar until dissolved if using soft palm sugar, or otherwise just break solid palm sugar into a few pieces because it will dissolve later in the wok.
• 5 cut lamb into cubes of around 1cm (1/2").
• 6 deep fry the lamb over moderate heat until nice and golden, remove and drain.
• 7 add a little of the left-over oil from deep frying to a wok over moderate heat and stir fry until golden in colour and fragant.
• 8 add sauce / sugar mix to wok and lightly stir once or twice until it has become sticky.
• 9 reduce heat, add lamb and simmer a few minutes until coated. the meat will become tough if you leave it too long.
• 10 serve sprinkled with deep-fried shallots and coriander leaves.