On the heat. Mild · heat is in the dipping sauce

Ingredients

• 1 kg lamb loin eye or rump, whole
• — BROTH
• 2 l light lamb or chicken stock
• 6 slices ginger · 4 spring onions
• 4 jujubes · 1 tbsp goji berries
• A piece of tail fat, for richness
• — DIPPING SAUCE
• 4 tbsp sesame paste · 2 tbsp fermented bean curd
• 2 tbsp chive flower sauce · 2 tbsp soy
• Chilli oil · coriander · garlic
• — ALSO ON THE TABLE
• Napa cabbage · enoki · tofu · sweet potato noodles

Method

1. Wrap the lamb tightly and freeze it for 2 hours until firm but not solid.
2. Slice it as thin as you physically can, across the grain — aim for 1 to 2 mm, almost translucent. Lay the slices in overlapping rows on a cold platter.
3. Simmer the broth ingredients for 30 minutes, then transfer to a hot pot or a portable burner at the table.
4. Everyone mixes their own dipping sauce. This is half the meal and should not be done in the kitchen.
5. Each person swishes a slice in the broth for 15 to 30 seconds — it is done the moment the pink is gone — then into the sauce.
6. Vegetables and noodles go in as the meal proceeds. The broth is drunk at the end, when it has become the best thing on the table.

Cook's note. Freeze, then slice. Two hours in the freezer is the difference between paper-thin slices and thick, chewy ones. There is no other way to do it at home.

← Back to The Lamb Book