Cooking

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This is one of my favorites of all time so I did spend a lot of time testing many different recipes. The one by the NYT is the closest and the revelation to add the spices at the very end really solved one of my biggest issues with this dish which is that the cumin flavor always seemed to be too weak for my liking. I'm guessing cumin suffers a lot from flavor degradation as it's cooked so adding it at the very end alleviates that problem.

Here's my current iteration of this recipe (I make it a lot so I change things often):

Cumin Lamb

Ingredients

• 1 lb (450g) lamb shoulder (leg is ok but less flavorful)(hack: use thinly sliced lamb shoulder [the kind used for hotpot])
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
• 1 tablespoons cumin seeds
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1/2 cup dried Chinese chili peppers
• 1 small white onion, sliced (1 cm strips)
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup cilantro, chopped
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Spice mix

• 1 tablespoon cumin powder
• 1 - 3 teaspoons cayenne pepper (adjust to your heat preference)
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground Sichuan peppercorns (Optional)

Instructions

1. Combine lamb with corn starch, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, salt, 1 tbsp oil. (Do this before preparing the other ingredients to give the lamb some time to marinade). (If you are using hotpot style lamb, skip this step and add the ingredients directly to the pot when cooking the lamb.)
2. Combine the ingredients for the spice mix in a small bowl.
3. Toast the cumin seeds. Heat a skillet over medium-low heat and dry roast the cumin seeds for a few minutes, stirring occasionally until the color of the cumin changes to a dark brown. Turn off the heat and transfer to the spice mix bowl.
4. Add oil. Cook white onions on medium-high until slightly charred. ~2 minutes. Transfer to bowl.
5. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add lamb and chiles. Cook, tossing quickly, until meat begins to brown. Add garlic. Cook until most of the liquid has evaporated and lamb is cooked through.
6. Coat lamb with spice mix. Add back the onions. Turn off the heat. Taste the lamb and adjust salt as necessary (with salt or soy sauce).
7. Add the cilantro. Serve with rice.

Notes: If you want to add msg, you can just dump it in the spice mix. I prefer using thinly slices lamb shoulder blade (the kind for hotpot), I find the increased surface area makes it even more flavorful.