On the heat. Medium

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg lamb neck and marrow bones
• 500 g lamb neck slices
• 3 onions, 8 cloves garlic, 4 cm ginger, blended
• — SPICES, TIED IN MUSLIN
• 2 cinnamon sticks · 6 cardamom · 6 cloves
• 2 star anise · 1 tbsp fennel seed · 1 tbsp coriander seed
• 2 tsp black peppercorn · 2 lemongrass, bruised
• — THE REST
• 2 potatoes · 2 carrots · 2 tomatoes
• Fried shallots · celery leaf · spring onion · lime · chilli-soy dip

Method

1. Blanch the bones and meat for 10 minutes, drain and rinse. This gives you a clear soup rather than a scummy one.
2. Fry the blended onion, garlic and ginger paste in oil for 15 minutes until golden and no longer smelling raw.
3. Bones, meat, 3 litres water and the muslin spice bag in. Simmer 2 hours, skimming.
4. Vegetables in for the last 30 minutes. Season with salt only — the spice bag has done the rest.
5. Spice bag out. The bones stay in the bowls; the marrow is the point.
6. Serve with a heavy scatter of fried shallots, celery leaf, spring onion, lime, and a dish of light soy with sliced chilli for dipping the meat into. Toast on the side.

Cook's note. The muslin bag matters. Whole spices loose in a soup that simmers two hours turn it bitter and you end up eating cloves. Bagged, you can pull them at any point.

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