I have recently become the proud owner of an electric oven, after nine (9!) years of living overseas with just hot pads that take an age to warm up and cool down. I first experimented with a potato, after heating it in the microwave for as long as it it took to look all dishevelled and sad, instead of crisping it up on a frying pan with a bit of butter I placed it in my shiny, new 45 liter oven.
Then I progressed to a fillet of salmon, wrapped up in foil with some nice herbs and a little oil, moved on to short ribs cooked on low for 6 hours, using the fat to roast some potatoes the next day, and can now grill bread instead of dry-frying it for my weekend full English breakfast. I also, for the first time, made cannelloni and got a piping bag, minced up the Ricotta and spinach really small, and shared the outcome with neighbors.
Yesterday, in my baking happiness, I saw a cut of lamb and thought “Yeah, no problem” and scooped it into my hand basket on wheels. I got it home and Googled for ‘Oyster lamb’ and have been a bit confused about the (lack of) answers. It weighs 415 grams and looks like a slab, but has a round bone sticking out of one end. I think it’s shoulder, it might be better cooked on a low heat for…a while. That’s all I got. My parents are on holiday in Tunisia (again) and never reply to my emails until they’re back for a few days. I get a bit angsty when they’re away. Any suggestions?
The oyster cut should be the blade, usually separated from the shoulder blade bone. But it might have the shank still attached and that would be the round bone you see. It can be used with any recipe used for a lamb but it may be somewhat tougher and fattier and will cook well with slow moist heat.
Invite all of us over for dinner?
I’ll bring spices and wine.
I will have to defer to better chefs/cooks here about lamb, but I will watch and offer smart-aleck remarks while re-filling everybody’s glass.
Lol, I keep misreading the title of this thread, thinking it has something to do with Blue Oyster Cult
I liked your description of Baking Salmon, maybe I’ll try that
Lol, hard, I am totally missing out on that cultural reference, should I be listening to The Doors or moving to the south of France and cutting my ear off?
I am completely lost on that one! You might as well be speaking some ancient dialect of a people who are the descendants of Mouri, Inuit, Nubian, Tuareg, Pygmy, Ugric or Hmong! Cows I know, but I have a joint of lamb. Bells go on cows, so that makes some logic, but cows and sheep aren’t blue?! What the what, what what…
Holy fuck, that’s some serious guitar shredding, I’ve heard the song but not ‘really’ listened to it, if you know what I mean. I’ll be looking up some of their other works, although ‘Dont Fear the Reaper’ can only be improved with more cow bell and gold diapers, lol.
Cook your lamb slow and low - take a thin knife, punch holes and push whole cloves of garlic in, then rub with something (I like a paste made of olive oil, rosemary and Ras el hanout, but whatever you like) then it’s 75deg for 7 hours.
Anyway, I wonder if you’ve cooked that lamb yet? You’re in metric so I’m trying to translate what you have into 'murcan. It’s small for a roast, but as long as you have a small baking dish you could still roast it. Low and slow is what I’d do (as mentioned above) and what I usually do with a larger roast is an hour per pound at 225F. Sooo, what you have is a little less than a pound - I’d do an hour at 100C. It should be fork tender.
If you have a small oven safe pan that the shoulder would just fit into with a lid, you don’t even have to add any liquids. I would put a little olive oil in the bottom of the pan, put the lamb in. Season the lamb with a generous sprinkle of kosher salt, cracked black pepper, drop some garlic cloves in there, and sprinkle in a bunch of rosemary, thyme and even a little dill. Cover and put in oven for an hour. When it comes out, there will be a delicious herbed au jus made by the roast.
Ooh, yes I do that with roast chicken. I cut the garlic into thick slices and pepper the breast and legs, and I also cook chicken breast down for the first hour as that keeps them juicy. I turn it over and turn up the heat for crispy skin for the last 20 minutes, after seasoning it well.
Here’s what I do with lamb - grab some plain full-cream yogurt (a cup or two or three, depending on the size of the lamb roast; you don’t have to be careful with measurements) and mix in 1 tablespoon kosher salt (regular salt would be fine) and 1-3 tablespoons of spice, consisting of any combination of any of the following:
high quality curry powder (if you can get vadouvan it’s an excellent choice)
garam masala
Berbere
Penzey’s adobo
Whatever spice mix strikes your fancy
Marinate the lamb overnight in this yogurt-spice mixture, then cook uncovered (don’t remove the marinade) at a low temperature until the lamb is fall-apart tender. This will probably take around 2 hours, maybe even longer depending on the size/cut of the lamb.
When the lamb is melt-in-your-mouth tender, let it cool enough for you to handle it, then cut off all the meat in chunks, put into a serving bowl and voila!
If you do this for company and want to look fancy, make some hummus and arrange it in a ring on your serving dish, then fill the middle with the lamb chunks and sprinkle the hummus with some chopped parsley. It’s beautiful and the lamb-hummus combo is mouthwateringly good.
Never done it with a crock pot. As long as your oven does “low” you’ll be set. 75 is less than boiling water but hotter than your hand can stand for long.