Ziran Yangrou

[DylanK]

To follow Ce'nedra's thread about da pan ji, another Sinified Central Asian dish: 孜然羊肉.

I've eaten a dozen versions of it: dry and crispy, onions and no onions, peppers and no peppers, spicy and bland. So, 怎么做, guys? Where have you eaten it?

This is how I made it last night, trying to recreate a version with tomato I ate outside a trainstation in Luoyang:

Lamb sliced up, put in a bowl with a bit of oil, covered in cumin, then thrown into a hot pan, followed by a handful of crushed up dried chili and some sliced in half cloves of garlic, some green onion, and a chopped up tomato. Done.

[liuzhou]

Here is Fuschsia Dunlop's Recipe for Beef with Cumin. Would work just as well with lamb, I think.

[Fat Guy]

Crispy lamb filets with chili cumin, as served at Szechuan Gourmet restaurant in New York City.

[hzrt8w]

Should this dish be dry and crispy, or soft and saucy? Or can it be either style - even with the same name?

[Dejah]

Crispy lamb filets with chili cumin, as served at Szechuan Gourmet restaurant in New York City.

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I can see with the breading and deep frying that crispy would be the ideal way with this dish.

Liuzhou: From which of Fushia Dunlop's books is the recipe for cumin beef?

[liuzhou]

Liuzhou: From which of Fushia Dunlop's books is the recipe for cumin beef?

1000 apologies!

The link above to Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe is wrong. This one is correct.

It is not from any book but from a UK television programme.

[Ce'nedra]

DylanK: Could you offer us the recipe please? Thanks. It looks beautiful.

Should this dish be dry and crispy, or soft and saucy?  Or can it be either style - even with the same name?

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I wonder this too.

[liuzhou]

Should this dish be dry and crispy, or soft and saucy?

Any time I've had it, it has been more soft and saucy. The pictured dish looks very dry. Perhaps a different dish.

[DylanK]

I've eaten it crispy more often than saucy. I took saucy ziran yangrou to be a delicious anomaly.

[Dejah]

I made this last weekend and tried to replicate the crispy one shown in Fat's Guy's post. Unfortunately, my camera is screwed up at the moment so no pictures.

I marinated the lamb slices in salt, and lots of ground cumin for most of the day. To coat the slices, I worked in an egg, a little flour/cornstarch mix. Then the slices were coated with fine crumbs and deep fried in veg oil.

The green onion and sliced fresh chili peppers were sauteed in hot oil, then I tossed in the meat.

The meat was tender and delicious, but I was hoping for a stronger lamb and cumin flavour. Next time, I might add whole cumin to the crumbs. Would that work?

Perhaps I'll make a light vinegry/cumin sauce for a final toss with the meat as I do with ginger beef... I want more cumin flavour!