Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 6
Recipe From: Persiana Cookbook - Sabrina Ghayour
Persian spices are aromatic and flavoursome, never harsh or abrasive. Spicing is used in a subtle way and this spice-perfumed lamb is made with a special blend of some of the most commonly used spices. This particular spice blend works well with the fatty nature of the shoulder cut of lamb. But it can also be used on a lamb leg.
The ingredients
2.5kg shoulder of lamb
2 heaped tbsp. of sumac
4 tbsp. dried edible rose petals
1 tbsp. ground cumin
½ tbsp. ground cinnamon
½ tbsp. dried lime powder (or 1 extra tbsp. sumac)
Vegetable or olive oil
2 tsp sea salt
The method
1. Preheat the oven to 160C / fan 140C / gas mark 3. Place the lamb shoulder in a roasting tin lined with non-stick baking parchment.
2. Put the sumac, rose petals, cumin, cinnamon and lime powder into a spice grinder or small food processor and process until the rose petals are ground as finely as you can manage.
3. Drizzle a little oil on to the lamb and rub it all over the joint to create a surface for you spice mix to stick to, then generously season with sea salt.
4. Roast in the oven for 4 hours, then remove the lamb, cover with kitchen foil and leave it to rest for 10 minutes before serving.
5. To serve you literally take a fork and gently pull the lamb apart or be all fancy and rather unnecessarily use a knife to slice it.
Serve alongside a green salad, roasted vegetables and potatoes or rice.
