Summer feast
Lamb on a spit , meal of champions
I love the smell of summer. However, I don’t like the smell of people in summer. The great thing about this time of year is the easy excuse of throwing a bbq. We heard rumours on the information super highway that a few friends of ours were keen on trying out lamb on a spit, too easy. We rocked up at our local butcher and made an order 2 days before our scheduled bbq.
Me : ” How many kg’s do you think we will need for about 22 people ? ”
Butcher : ” 20 kg will do ”
Hmm, that’s about 1 kg of lamb per person ……. I ordered it anyway as we could use the leftovers for something else.
Nem nuong & beef skewers
You can’t have a Vietnamese bbq without a few sticks of nem noung. For those unfamiliar with them, they are vietnamese pork patties made with a generous amount of garlic and fish sauce among other ingredients. The beef skewers key ingredient was lemon grass, unfortunatley I’m not too sure what else was in there.
Chicken salad
A simple summer salad consisting of grated cabbage, chicken, carrots, asian herbs, topped with crushed peanuts and drizzled with vietnamese fish sauce (nước mắm).
Believe it or not, we actually found this bbq on the side of the road. It was still in good condition, so I gave it a bit of a clean and it was as good as new after 20 minutes (minus the rust …. ). It’s the perfect size for a small bbq or if you can’t be bothered cleaning the bigger bbq.
This comes in handy when people have a few too many beers
Sweet and sour pork
For something a bit random, we tried making some sweet and sour pork. They actually turned out pretty well minus the coating which was just a tad too thick.
Lamb on a spit ($7/kg ) 22kg = $154
This is what everyone came for. This 22kg lamb cost $154 from an Asian butcher in Cabramatta and comes with a tub of marinade, or you can make your own like we did. Fortunately, we had a friend who had a spit so we borrowed it off them. We started cooking the lamb slowly at 4pm and we didn’t see first signs of edibleness until about 7pm. The skin was amazingly crispy, thanks to the constant coats of marinade liberally applied to the lamb every 20 minutes or so. The meat was also superb, tender and juicy pieces of lamb cooked to perfection. The fun part was carving this thing, the meat just fell off my knife so easily that I felt like I was a butcher for the evening.
Even after 3 hours of cooking, we still had to cut up some of the harder to reach pieces in the middle and re-cook them on the bbq. Apart from that, $150 is great value for a lamb which can easily feed 15-20 people.
I love summer, I can’t wait for the next excuse to have a bbq.
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By Howard
We started eatshowandtell in 2008, it was meant to be just a journal of where we ate. The first thing I usually do when I'm looking for a restaurant is check out eatability and the restaurant website. But what is usually missing is pictures of the food, how do I know I'm getting what I expect? This blog hopefully plugs that gap.
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This article was written on 07 Jan 2009, and is filed under cookshowandtell, Dessert.
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Wow, that looks amazing! I want some!
Reemski’s last blog post..Cantina
YUM YUM. i want to try to something like nem noung at my next bbq. they look tasty!
Simon
Simon Food Favourites’s last blog post..Simon’s Food Highlights 2008
Good salvage job on the bbq! Sounds like the lamb was worth the wait, it looks beautiful. Your patient marinating really paid off.
Arwen from Hoglet K’s last blog post..Purple King beans
I adore tender spit roasted meat, especially piggy lol, have never tried lamb before though, looks great!!
Miss Honey’s last blog post..Aqua Dining, Milson’s Point
Gosh, that lamb looks wonderful. It must have gone well with the ‘simple summer salad’ – drool, drool!
belle’s last blog post..The picnic that wasn’t
THAT IS AWESOOMMEEE XD MINDBLASTING XD I love it! Please please please please please invite me next time haha
FFichiban’s last blog post..Cafe Mix – The Rocks, Sydney
Ooh bravo doing a whole lamb on a spit. It’s one of those things that we’ve talked about doing but somehow never have!
Lorraine E’s last blog post..Swiss Cottage, Katoomba, The Blue Mountains
omg that looks amazing. I’ve always loved the idea of cooking on the spit. I can only imagine how crispy that skin was. Great find on the bbq too – it’s amazing what people throw out.
Helen’s last blog post..Rhodes Phoenix, Rhodes
Reemski : Thanks! outdoor eating is always fun.
Simon : Yes definately try some nem noung, you can find it at most Vietnamese butchers!
Arwen : Yes, like Helen said it’s amazing what people throw out! The lamb took ages, you need someone with patience to marinade it or it will burn.
Miss Honey : The lamb is a bit more chewy, but I love both! The skin on the pork is better though heh.
Belle : Yep the meat was excellent with the salad, I love a fresh crunchy salad with some tender meat!
FFichiban : lol! Will do … you gotta try a spit roast it’s awesome.
Lorraine : Definately try it! It’s surprisingly easy but I’m not sure how much it costs to hire the spit machine itself, we were lucky a mate had one!
Helen : The skin was surprisingly crispy for a lamb, I should take a video next time of me crunching through it. And yes the bbq, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure
Everything looks incredible! I’ve always wanted to spit roast a whole beast. What a bonus, cooking it on a free bbq! That chicken salad looks like one of my favourite Summer standbys.
Y’s last blog post..And sous it is..
oooh yummmmm! I love vietnamese bbqs, especially if they involve a spit roast. In fact, i just came home from one 20 minutes ago xD (minus the roast – a deboned chicken roast featured instead)
Chris’s last blog post..Merry Christmas to All!
You will do well here in SA as we are a meat loving nation. Spit braais as we call them are a frequent sight around here.I do agree with you that it is great value for money to use the whole lamb rather than just chops and also a lot more flavor.
nina’s last blog post..Hermanus – South Africa – our favorite holiday destination.
Oh, that lamb looks so fantastic. Thanks for posting!
Anne @ Pink Galoshes’s last blog post..La Perla Lingerie
Grr! I am now hungry again after a $200 meal (9 people) at Wagaya… mmm, lamb
Y : Roasting the beast is a great feeling, especially when you carve it all yourself!
Chris : I love deboned chicken, so much more tasty
Nina : Thanks for dropping by! It’s funny you mention SA as a meat loving nation, I recall watching an episode of Anthony Bourdain where he went to a beach in Cape Town and there were outdoor BBQ’s available on the beach for people to cook their meat, I wish they had that here!
Anne : Thanks for visiting ! The lamb tasted as good as it looked.
Bubz : $200 meal ? wow you guys must have ordered ALOT!
Hey, that looks great. I have those tiny bbq’s as well – believe it or not, we buy one of those everytime we have a bbq coz we couldnt be bothered cleaning them. After all, it takes very little time to put them together
Nhu : Perhaps it was your bbq which I picked up off the side of the road ?
Hi, I stumbled on your website and I do have to say that lamb on the spit is something awesome. I come from Greece so we have that treat every year on Easter day. There are some tricks to cook it. Sorry to say that you have it tied up all wrong thats why the uncooked parts. a) Spit has to go through the lamb. b)Front legs and back legs have to be tied crosswise. c) Belly part after seasoned sewn. d)2 hooks upper and lower back fastened with bolts (that is that part is roasted first and you want to keep it together. e)For the first hour the spit has to be spun fast and it has to be low closer to the charcoal. After about an hour the spit goes higher up. Because the back part always gets ready first when you see it getting ready you have to move the charcoal on the right and left of the lamb so you minimize the heat in the middle.
Some people wrap it with baking paper (non stick) while roasting it for the first 1-1 1/2. Then just ripe it off. It cooks much faster. The best tasting lambs are up to 12-14 kilos. Next time try to get a big bunch of oregano and use as a brush to marinate it while roasting.
I do have to give you a BRAVO for the effort and hope that it becomes a habit at least once a year. I surely know that the taste of it is worth it.