Spice-Crusted Xinjiang Lamb with Smacked Cucumber

Name: Spice-Crusted Xinjiang Lamb with Smacked Cucumber
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 1 tbsp fennel seeds; 1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine; 1 tbsp sesame oil; 1 tbsp light soy sauce; 1 tbsp cumin seeds; 2 racks lamb, French trimmed; 2 garlic cloves, crushed; 1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted; 2 tbsp caster sugar; 2 tbsp light soy sauce; 2 tbsp black or rice vinegar; 1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns; 6 baby cucumbers, ends trimmed; 1 tbsp red chilli flakes; 2 garlic cloves, finely crushed; 2 tbsp roasted chilli flakes in oil, drained

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium
Ready in
15 min

Appears in

My Asian Kitchen

By Jennifer Joyce

Published 2018

About

In the outer Chinese border provinces like Xinjiang, near Mongolia, the cuisine starts to mingle with Middle Eastern influences and lamb features prominently. These tasty spice-crusted cutlets originated in this far-flung outpost, but are popular street food all over China. You can also make this as skewers.

Ingredients

2 racks lamb, French trimmed
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp light soy sauce

Asia
China
Main course
Spicy

Method

Remove any outer fat from the lamb racks and slice into individual cutlets. In a shallow baking dish, mix togther the garlic, soy, sesame oil and rice wine and massage into the lamb flesh. Leave to marinate for 30 minutes or up to overnight, covered and refrigerated.

Place all the spices, except for the chilli flakes, in a small saucepan. Toast for 1 minute over medium heat and then pla