Beijing Braised Lamb & Noodles

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I cooked this for 2012’s Chinese New Year of the Dragon at my Chinese Banquet and decided to re-make it for the Year of the Snake (even though we didn’t have a huge party this year). I served it this time with egg noodles, replaced the oil with oil spray and the peanut butter with reduced fat peanut butter.

Beijing Braised Lamb
Serves 4 – 8 people

Ingredients

• 450g boned shoulder of lamb, cut into 2 inch cubes
• 2 spring onions
• 2 slices of fresh ginger
• 1 tbsp groundnut (peanut) oil or vegetable oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped

For the braising sauce

• 900ml chicken stock
• 50g Chinese rock sugar or granulated sugar
• 3 tbsps dark soy sauce
• 3 tbsps Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
• 1 piece of Chinese cinnamon bark or 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 whole star anise
• 2 tbsps sesame paste or peanut butter
• 2 tbsps hoisin sauce

To serve

• plain boiled rice or
• egg noodles or
• Chinese pancakes
• batons of cucumber
• thin strips spring onions

Method

1. Make the braising sauce with the chicken stock, sugar, dark soy sauce, rice wine, cinnamon, peanut butter (or sesame paste), hoisin sauce and star anise and set to one side.
2. Blanch the lamb by plunging it in boiling water for 5 minutes. Remove the meat and discard the water.
3. Slice the spring onions at a slight diagonal into 3 inch pieces
4. Heat a wok over a high heat until it is hot, then add the oil and when slightly smoking, add the pieces of lamb and stir fry until they are browned.
5. Add the spring onions, ginger and onion to the wok and continue to stir fry for a further 5 minutes.
6. Transfer this mixture to a large saucepan with a lid, or a flame-proof casserole.
7. Bring to the boil and skim off any fat that rises.
8. Turn down to the lowest setting you can and leave to braise for 1½ hours or until the lamb is very tender, skimming off any fat that rises to the surface.
9. Pour into a serving dish and serve with plain rice, egg noodles or with Chinese pancakes, cucumber and spring onions

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