Slow cooker pulled lamb and mashed sweet potato
I asked a question on Facebook and Twitter about what slow cooker dish I should make this weekend. I was thinking of slowly cooking a ham hock but my friend Danae suggested lamb and sweet potato.
Warning. The recipe card may not be to everyone’s liking. You’ve been warned. Comments are welcome…
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I wondered what cut of lamb I should use, and I figured I would use shoulder because for pulled pork the shoulder muscles are often used. But then, I was in Coles and looked in the meat counter and saw lamb offcuts for $5 for 1 kilogram. This was a lot better than even the smallest shoulder roast which was closer to $15. Sure, the offcuts will be fattier, but, that’s close to $10 still in my pocket. That’s a few coffees.
I bought all the ingredients from Coles. No, Yummy Lummy is not sponsored by anyone.
Recipe
- 1 kilogram Lamb offcuts
- 1 cup Red wine
- 1 cup Beef stock
- 1/2 cup Chinese barbecue sauce
- 1 tablespoon Sichuan seasoning
- 500 grams Gold sweet potato batons
- 1 tablespoon Sesame oil
- 1/2 tablespoon Sesame seeds
- 1/2 tablespoon Poppy seeds
- 1/2 tablespoon Butter
- 1 tablespoon Sour cream
- 1/2 cup Frozen broccoli
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I put the lamb offcuts into the slow cooker cooking vessel and then added the red wine and beef stock.
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I also added into the vessel some Chinese barbecue sauce and Sichuan seasoning.
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Set the slow cooker for eight hours and turn it on.
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At the end of the cook, remove the lamb offcuts and separate the muscle from the bits of bone.
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Pull the lamb with some forks and place the pulled lamb into a roasting tray.
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Add a little barbecue sauce, some mint, and some rosemary to the pulled lamb and put into an oven for 20 minutes at 180 °C/350 °F for 20 minutes.
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Remove the lamb meat from the oven and aliquot some for lunches and put it into Tupperware containers and put immediately into the refrigerator to avoid spoilage.
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Keep the meat you’re going to have for dinner in a warm place to keep it warm and cover it to keep it moist.
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Place the sweet potato batons into a mixing bowl and then add some chilli flakes, a good splash of sesame oil, the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and freshly cracked black pepper.
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Mix everything together and then spread out onto a baking tray and put into an oven preheated to 200 °C/400 °F until the sweet potato is soft enough to mash with a fork.
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Remove the baking tray from the oven and put the sweet potato into a bowl and mash the sweet potato roughly with a fork. If you like it rough, leave it like this, if you’re a refined sophisticated sort of person, then you can puree the sweet potato with a stick blender or in a food processor. Those people who know me, know that I’m fairly crude and unsophisticated so I’ll leave mine rough. I like it rough, because rough colonies of gonococci are anti-complementary. If you know me really well you know how much I like disseminated gonococcal infection and this whole step in the recipe is meant to entertain my microbiology friends who also like to cook.
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I wonder if anyone will read this and mention it on social media?
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I also fold in some butter and sour cream not because the mashed sweet potato needs it, but because butter and sour cream make everything taste better.
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If I wasn’t already having really fatty lamb, I’d suggest adding some bacon bits too, bit I’ll leave that up to you to decide if you need bacon bits or not.
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I like frozen vegetables because frozen vegetables are convenient.
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Follow the instructions on the packaging.
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I’m not going to waste your time telling you how to suck eggs.
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Fingers crossed the pulled lamb is moist and tender and unctuous.
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But before we get to the luscious lamb, take a big spoonful of the roughly (or pureed if you’re all fancy) mashed sweet potato and smear it on your plate.
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Yes, I went wanky and wrote smear it on your plate.
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Note, I didn’t write, smear it like a skid mark on your plate, because that would be disgusting, and I’m not disgusting, I’m just a rough nut and unsophisticated.
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Place some of the lamb onto the streak or smear of mashed sweet potato.
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Carefully and artistically place steamed vegetables around the lamb and sweet potato.
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If you’re really wanky you’ll use tweezers. No, not the tweezers you use to remove ticks and to pluck random hairs from places you don’t want hair, but big long sturdy tweezers.
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Shoot a photograph and a short video because Google now wants video on recipe cards.
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Eat the meal.
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If you can tolerate alcohol (unlike me), you may wish to guzzle a tumbler or two of a full bodied red wine. I really have no idea about red wine but I’ve heard enough wine wankers go on and on and on about full bodied red wines with notes of oak and other fruity bits. Oh, and do you drink wine from a tumbler? I have no idea.
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Wash the dishes (hint, wash as you cook, it makes life easier).
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Write the recipe.
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Write the blog post.
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Hit publish and hope this blog post gets shared on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Recipe Video
Disclaimer
I have no culinary training nor qualifications.
This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner.
The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste.
I deliberately do not calculate energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.
Photographs
I’m currently using the Gutenberg editor and galleries don’t seem to work. I’ve posted individual photographs. If you’d prefer a gallery, please complain to WordPress.
Today was cold and gloomy in Canberra. A perfect day for a slow cooker meal. A perfect day for a slow cooker pulled lamb meal.
Questions and answers
Would this meal have been better with lamb shoulder rather than the lamb offcuts?
Well, it wouldn’t be as fatty. It’s really up to you on what is better. Lean versus cheap meat. I went with cheaper meat rather than leaner muscle bundles.
Could you use normal spuds or pumpkin rather than sweet potato?
Sure, anything starchy would be fine. You could use celeriac or even turnip if you wanted to.
What sort of cuisine is this? You used Sichaun seasoning and Chinese barbecue sauce.
This is Yummy Lummy Fusion Cuisine (YLFC).
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Final thoughts
I feel like a human snot bag at the moment. I have a head cold. I feel a little snarky. If you don’t like the way I’ve written this recipe, let me know in the comments below. I hope you aren’t crook (that’s Australian for being ill). Have a good week. Catch you next week.
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Yummy Lummy slow cooker shin
I’m crazy about lamb 👍😁
It’s one of my favourite meats.
😉
wow. this looks fantastic! I love everything about this meal!!!
Thank you very much 😃
Get better soon Gary! And LOL at Yummy Lummy Fusion Cuisine (YLFC) 😀
Thanks Lorraine. I’m on the mend.
This was even more entertaining than usual. (I’m also tired, so your being ill and snarky and me being tired makes for a great read!)
I loved your comment about washing dishes as you use them. Smart move!
Your pint on number 3 of the sweet taters made me giggle. I completely didn’t get it, but I giggled!
Also, I think this explains the forceps….
Thanks Kris, I’m grateful you enjoyed a laugh. I was in one of those moods 😂
Great use of an inexpensive meat cut. And if you let it go cold you could work out a way to get rid of lots of the fat?
Very true. Thanks Michele.
I’ve never used offcuts but your post has inspired me. Plus it’s such a great price and looks like it turned out great!
Thanks, Rose. While there is a lot of fat on the offcuts, it can be removed after cooking, and the meat itself has good flavour.
A kg of lamb bones for $5 is a great buy! I adore sesame oil, and love the sound of it in the sweet potato mash. I’m like you Gary, I like a rough mash… takes too long to get it silky smooth and all fancy-like!
I hope you get better soon. My hubby has just come down with a head cold, and I had one a couple of weeks back. Booo to being sick.
Thanks, Kirsty. I’m home today. Hopefully, I’ll be feeling a lot better and ready for work tomorrow.
I hope you try the sesame oil with the sweet potato mash. In my mind, it really helps up the status of the mash. While it does dominate the flavour, it’s a great flavour.
The gold sweet potato mash looks great. I eat it quite often and like you, mash it with a fork and prefer it rough. Adding some fried bacon to it is what I like to mix it with. Adding butter can make all the difference. I do like to add a splash of milk.
Get well soon, Gaz. Something seems to be going round at the moment. I’ve been feeling a bit here and there, hopefully I can stave it off but when it goes around, it goes around. Lots of rest of you.
Thanks Mabel. At least it’s not full on manflu, just a head cold 😃
I have some mashed sweet potato leftover. Some bacon may find its way into the leftover mash 😃😃😃
Always good to have sweet potato mash leftover. Go on, add that bacon. I know you want to 😃
Personally I prefer gold sweet potatos over the purple ones.
I also have some purple sweet potato in the refrigerator. I need to eat that too.
There will be bacon.
I heard the gold one taste better in that they are creamier and sweeter…let me know how it goes. Looking forward to the bacon.
I will post to Instagram 😃😃😃
I must sleep. I’m so tired. Catch you later Mabel 😃
Hope you had a good sleep, Gaz. Get well soon 😃😃😃