Lamb shawarma platter

Name: Lamb shawarma platter
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 210 min
Total time: 240 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Ingredients: 1800 g Bone-in lamb shoulder; 60 ml Olive oil; 8 Garlic cloves, crushed; 2 tbsp Baharat; 2 tsp Ground cumin; 1 tsp Ground allspice; 1 tsp Ground cinnamon; 2 tsp Sumac; 2 tbsp Fine sea salt; 1 Lemon, juiced; 2 Yellow onions, quartered; 250 ml Water or light stock; 400 g Long grain rice; 60 g Vermicelli noodles, broken; 40 g Butter or ghee; 50 g Toasted pine nuts; 3 Tomatoes, diced; 1 Red onion, thinly sliced; 30 g Flat-leaf parsley, chopped; 300 ml Garlic toum and tahini sauce, to serve

A weekend platter: slow-roasted spiced lamb shoulder, pulled and crisped, served over vermicelli rice with toum, tahini, tomato-onion salad and warm bread. Long on oven time, short on effort, and it feeds a table of six comfortably.

240 min totalhotmedium

Instructions

1
Score the fat cap of the shoulder in a diamond pattern, cutting about 5 mm deep without reaching the meat.
2
Mix the olive oil, crushed garlic, baharat, cumin, allspice, cinnamon, 1 tsp of the sumac, salt and lemon juice into a wet rub, and massage it into every surface and into the scored fat.
3
Cover and refrigerate at least 6 hours, preferably overnight. Bring back to room temperature for an hour before roasting.
4
Heat the oven to 160°C. Scatter the quartered onions in a deep roasting tin, sit the lamb on top, pour the water around (not over) the meat and cover tightly with two layers of foil.
5
Roast covered for 3 hours. The lamb is ready when a fork twists in the shoulder with no resistance and the bone wiggles free.
6
Uncover, raise the oven to 220°C and roast a further 20-25 minutes until the fat cap is blistered and dark. Rest 20 minutes.
7
While the lamb rests, make the rice: melt the butter in a saucepan, fry the broken vermicelli until nut-brown, add the rinsed rice and toss for a minute, then add 700 ml boiling salted water. Cover and cook 12 minutes, then rest off heat 10 minutes and fluff.
8
Toss the diced tomato, red onion, parsley and remaining sumac with a little olive oil, salt and lemon for the salad.
9
Pull the lamb into coarse shreds, discarding the bone. Spread the shreds on a tray and grill under high heat for 3-4 minutes so the edges crisp — this is what gives it the shawarma character.
10
Build the platter: rice as the base, crisped lamb over the top, pine nuts scattered, salad to one side, and the pan juices spooned over. Serve with toum, tahini and warm bread.

Notes

The uncovered blast at the end is not optional — it is where the crisp edges come from. Any leftovers make outstanding wraps the next day; crisp the meat again in a dry pan first. If your shoulder is boneless, cut the covered roasting time to about 2 hours 15 minutes.

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