Last week John and I had an excellent dinner at The Corner Kitchen & Bar in Clevedon while up in Auckland. John had a slow-roasted lamb shoulder with cumin and lemon, served with "freekah." Neither of us had had freekah before, which is an unripened or green durum wheat that is roasted and rubbed. It's one of those ancient grains often used in Middle Eastern cuisine.
So of course I had to try to recreate the dish upon returning home. Here at Struan Farm we call lamb "shoulder" the "forequarter," which is what most farmers and butchers call it too. I was able to buy freekeh at Bin Inn. After doing a bit of research, it seems the lamb recipe was a variation on an Ottolenghi recipe from his book "Simple," which can be found here. I used just cumin and lemon zest with the juice and olive oil in the marinade, along with salt and pepper and a clove or two of crushed garlic, also adjusted the cooking temperature to 120C and time (6+ hours) based on a similar Chelsea Winter recipe.
I also danced around the kitchen a few times singing "Freak Out!" Do you remember it? John had never heard it before, so perhaps it wasn't a big thing in NZ.
Getting back to the kitchen, while the dish turned out well, it wasn't all that similar to the Corner Kitchen version. John informed me there was salad beneath the lamb in addition to herbs and cucumber in the freekeh, so another trip to the restaurant may be required. Either way we'll eat freekeh again. It's cooked like rice, so very easy to make.
Recent Comments